Tag: chocolate ganache

Recipe: Crepe Cake

Posted in CakesTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
My instragrammed crepe cake

Makes: 8 inch cake (24 layers)

Time required: 3 hours

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Having never made crepes or pancakes before (well … not cooking much in a pan at all), I was keen to try making a crepe cake. I’ve always loved the crepe cakes from the famous Lady M – stopping by the Lady M boutique on 40th street each time I’ve visited New York and I still remember how excited I was to stumble across a Lady M on a trip to Singapore where I got to introduce my sister (who is a huge fan of matcha) to the matcha crepe cake.

Initially, given it was my first time making crepes I wanted to keep the cake simple – like the Lady M ones – by just making it layers of crepe and cream. However, after exploring the nearby wet market in Hong Kong for fresh fruits I came home with a bunch of passionfruit and decided to incorporate those into the cake. I ended up with a crepe cake layered with passionfruit custard and chocolate ganache – as you could probably guess from my previous posts (passionfruit & chocolate eclairs, passionfruit & chocolate tart …) it is one of my favourite flavour combinations!

Elements of this cake:

  • 24 crepes (~8 inch in diameter)
  •  passionfruit custard
  • chocolate ganache
The Famous Lady M crepe cakes in New York
The Famous Lady M crepe cakes in New York

Ingredients:

Crepes (makes ~24 depending on the size of your pan)

  • 600ml whole milk
  • 1tsbp vanilla paste
  • 2tsbp brandy
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 90g butter
  • 300g all purpose flour

Passionfruit Custard:

  • 700ml whole milk
  • 3 eggs
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 65g cornstarch
  • 1tsbp vanilla
  • 85g butter
  • 4 passionfruits, seeds removed

Chocolate Ganache:

  • 100g dark chocolate
  • 100ml cream

 

Instructions:

I’d recommend making the custard first, so it has time to cool in the fridge while you’re frying the crepes

Crepes:

  1. place all the ingredients except flour into a blender and blend on med speed
  2. add in the flour and blend again until well combined
  3. refrigerate for 2 hours (or overnight)
  4. lightly spray or grease a small pan (~8inch in diameter) and fry the crepe batter on medium heat. I used around 1/4 cup of batter for each crepe
  5. allow the crepes to cool by spreading on parchment paper while making the rest of the crepes
My first time frying crepes
My first time frying crepes

Passionfruit custard:

  1. place the whole eggs, egg yolks and cornstarch with 20g of the sugar in a bowl and whisk until smooth
  2. in a large saucepan, combine milk, remaining sugar and vanilla and bring to a boil
  3. remove from the heat and slowly pour in half the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking to avoid cooking the eggs
  4. pour the milk and egg mixture back into the pot and heat until the mixture lightly bubbles
  5. remove from heat and stir in the passionfruit and butter
  6. pour the custard through a fine mesh and plastic wrap with the plastic touching the surface of the custard and store in the fridge to cool

Chocolate Ganache:

  1. bring cream to boil
  2. poor over chocolate and set aside for 2 mins. Stir together the melted chocolate and cream

Assembling the crepe cake:

  1. take one crepe and place it on a 8 inch cake board
  2. spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache over the crepe
  3. follow with a thin layer of passionfruit custard
  4. place the next crepe over the top and repeat until all the crepes are used up

You could also trim the edges of the crepes to a 8inch cake tin if you want cleaner edges, however I preferred the natural rough edges on my cake. I also coated the top of the cake in sugar and torched it for a bruleed finish

Thin layer of chocolate ganache
Thin layer of chocolate ganache
thin layer of passionfruit custard
thin layer of passionfruit custard
repeat until all layers of crepes have been assembled
repeat until all layers of crepes have been assembled
IMG_8184
torching the crepe cake
IMG_8202
experimenting with decorating the crepe cake
IMG_8278
My instragrammed crepe cake

 

Instagram: Whatever_It_Bakes

Recipe: Chocolate Banana drip cake

Posted in CakesTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Makes: 8 inch cake (4 layers)

Time required: 5 hours in total

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

After brainstorming ideas for an upcoming birthday cake, I decided to draw inspiration from one of my favourite snacks at work – banana & chocolate croissants from the amazing Joel Robuchon. The croissants are a great afternoon snack – deliciously flaky pastry, filled with light banana custard … lightly sweetened with chocolate.

The elements making up this cake are:

  • four layers of banana cake
  • Almond and hazelnut dacquoise to add some texture
  • chocolate ganache to sweeten the cake
  • meringue buttercream
  • Decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate shards

Ingredients:

Banana Cake:

  • 6 bananas
  • 250g plain flour
  • 100g almond meal
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 200g butter, softened
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 2tsp vanilla
  • 300ml sour cream

Almond dacquoise:

  • 90g almond meal
  • 90g pure icing sugar
  • 4 egg whites
  • 90g caster sugar
  • 20g cocoa powder
  • crushed hazelnuts. to sprinkle

Chocolate gananche:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 150ml cream

Meringue butterncream

  • 4 egg whites
  • 360g caster sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 450g butter
  • 1tsp vanilla
  • 20g cocoa powder

Chocolate drip:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 200g butter

Decorations:

  • dried pineapple slices
  • chocolate shards
  • merginue

Instructions:

Banana Cake:

  1. preheat oven to 180C. Butter two 8 inch round baking pans
  2. mash ripe banana with a fork and set aside
  3. whisk together the flour, almond meal and baking powder
  4. in a separate bowl, beat butter until smooth. add sugar and beat until pale and fluffy
  5. add eggs one at a time into the bowl and whisk to combine
  6. add in vanilla and combine
  7. mix in half the dry ingredients
  8. mix in sour cream
  9. fold in the remaining flour mixture
  10. fold in the banana until just combined
  11. divide the cake batter evenly into the two tins and bake for 25 minutes
  12. place the baked cake on a wire rack to cook and then turn out after 10 minutes to cool completely
Banana cake ready to go into the oven
Banana cake ready to go into the oven

Almond Dacqouise:

  1. preheat oven to 200C
  2. sift almond meal with icing sugar and cocoa powder
  3. in a separate bowl, whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks form
  4. gently fold in the almond mixture
  5. sprinkle with crushed hazelnuts
  6. pipe the mixture onto a baking sheet (make 3 x 8 inch discs to layer between the banana cakes) and bake for 24 minutes or until the dacquoise doesn’t sink when touched
Almond dacquoise with banana cake
Almond dacquoise with banana cake

Chocolate ganache:

  1. bring the cream to boil over low-med heat
  2. pour boiling cream over the chocolate and set aside for 2 minutes
  3. mix together the chocolate and cream

Meringue buttercream:

  1. bring the sugar to boil with 1/2 cup water
  2. while whisking the egg whites on maximum speed, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream
  3. continue to mix on high until the meringue cools and forms stiff peaks
  4. whisk in the butter until well combined
  5. add vanilla and cocoa powder and whisk to combine

Chocolate drip:

  1. melt chocolate over double boiler
  2. stir in butter to melt

Assembling the cake:

layer the cake in the following order from bottom to top:

  • banana cake (cut each of the 8 inch cakes in half to create 4 layers of banana cake)
  • chocolate ganache
  • almond dacquoise
  • meringue buttercream
  • repeat until all layers of banana cake are used
  • coat the entire cake in the meringue buttercream – to create an ombre/rustic effect, split the buttercream into 3 batches and colour each batch a different shade of brown
  • pipe on the chocolate drip
  • top with decorations: dried pineapple flowers, torched meringue, chocolate triangles
Assembling the layers of the drip cake
Assembling the layers of the drip cake
different shades of brown buttercream to create a rustic effect
different shades of brown buttercream to create a rustic effect
Applying the chocolate drip
Applying the chocolate drip
Chocolate drip
Chocolate drip
torching the meringue
torching the meringue

 

slicing the chocolate banana drip cake
slicing the chocolate banana drip cake. Photo credit: IG lilaughs

 

Instagram: Whatever_It_Bakes

Recipe: Chocolate Orange Drip Cake

Posted in CakesTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Makes: 8 inch cake (4 layers)

Time required: 5 hours in total, over 2 nights

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Scrolling through my Instragram feed, I’m constantly drooling over posts of drip cakes so I was very keen to try making one for a birthday party I attended last weekend. Flavour-wise: I decided on a chocolate-orange combination – most people either love or hate the chocolate & orange flavours together. However, having previously baked a chocolate & orange entremet which friends raved about and providing choc-orange macarons as wedding favours (which none of the 150 guests complained about) … I’ve concluded that most people love it.

The components of this cake:

  • four layers of orange flourless cake (gluten free and relatively healthy?),
  • held together with cream cheese frosting, orange jam, chocolate ganache,
  • coated in a thicker layer of the cream cheese frosting,
  • covered in dripping chocolate
  • topped with candied orange decorations and chocolate shards
Orange mousse & chocolate fudge entremet
Orange mousse & chocolate fudge entremet – cake I’d previously made which was inspired by Messina’s fudging delicious flavour

Ingredients:

Orange Flourless Cake:

  • 10g melted butter to grease
  • 5 oranges
  • 7 eggs
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 600g almond meal
  • 2 tsp baking powder

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 750g cream cheese
  • 200g butter
  • 300g cups icing sugar
  • 1tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 3 drops orange food colouring (optional)
  • 60ml Cointreau (optional)

Orange Jam:

  • 3 oranges
  • 200g caster sugar

Chocolate Ganache:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 150ml cream

Candied Orange:

  • 1 orange
  • 1.5 cup water
  • 200g caster sugar

Chocolate Drip:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 200g butter

Chocolate Shards:

  • 200g dark chocolate

Instructions:

Orange Flourless Cake:

  1. preheat oven to 170 degrees celcius, grease 2x 8 inch pans with melted butter
  2. in a large pot, bring oranges to boil
  3. continue to cook for 15 minutes, drain and repeat. Drain again and place the oranges in cold water
  4. place oranges in a food processor until smooth
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk eggs and sugar until thick and pale
  6. fold in the orange, almond meal and baking powder until just combined
  7. evenly distribute the cake mixture into the two 8 inch pans
  8. bake for 50mins, then set aside for 15mins to cool before removing from the pan

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  1. beat cream cheese with butter until soft
  2. whisk in icing sugar, 50g at a time and whisk until light and fluffy
  3. add in vanilla, cointreau and orange food colouring and whisk once more to combine. if you would like to make an ombre effect with the orange frosting, split the frosting into several batches and add different amounts of orange colouring to each

Orange Jam:

  1. Juice the oranges and place in small pot with sugar over low-med heat
  2. continue stirring for 10-15mins until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens
  3. set aside to cool

Chocolate Ganache:

  1. bring cream to boil then pour over chocolate
  2. set aside for 2 mins for the chocolate to soften, and then stir to combine

Candied Orange:

  1. thoroughly wash oranges to get rid of any waxy residue
  2. cut the orange into 1/4 inch slices
  3. heat water and sugar in a pot until the sugar dissolves
  4. bring to a gentle boil and add the orange slices
  5. after 15min, flip the slices and continue to cook on low-med heat for another 15mins until the peel becomes translucent and the syrup has thickend
  6. place the oranges on a wire rack on top of a lined baking sheet to cool

Chocolate drip:

  1. melt chocolate over a double boiler
  2. remove from heat and stir in butter to melt
  3. set aside for 10mins before the chocolate drip is the right consistency to use on the cake

Chocolate shards:

  1. temper chocolate over a double boiler
  2. spread thin layer of the melted chocolate over acetate sheet and set aside to cool and harden
  3. once the chocolate has set, break into rough triangular shards for decorations

Assembling the cake:

  1. cut the two 8inch cakes into two discs to make four cake layers
  2. place the first cake layer on a 9inch cake board
  3. spread a thin layer of chocolate ganache over the cake
  4. gently cover the ganache in a layer of cream cheese frosting
  5. drizzle a small amount of the orange jam over the cream cheese layer
  6. top with next cake layer
  7. repeat steps 3-6 for each of the cake layers
  8. once the cake has formed its shape, spread a thin layer of cream cheese frosting over the cake as a crumb coat
  9. then apply a thicker layer of cream cheese frosting and smooth over the cake
  10. set aside in the fridge (preferably overnight) to cool
  11. remove the cake from the fridge. Using a spoon, top the cake with the chocolate drip by carefully drizzling a small spoonful of ganache at a time to the edge of the cake. Slightly rotate the cake and repeat until all the top edges of the cake are covered in the chocolate drip
  12. pour the rest of the chocolate drip onto the top of the cake

The most exciting part is of course decorating the cake. I opted for chocolate shards, candied orange and bay leaves, using the leftover cream cheese frosting to hold the decorations together.

Chocolate Orange Flourless drip cake with chocolate shards
Chocolate Orange drip cake decoration with chocolate shards

I got a little carried away with the chocolate shards and had to remove a few shelves from the fridge to fit the cake

Finished chocolate orange flourless drip cake with a number 40 to celebrate a birthday
Finished cake with a number 40 to celebrate a birthday


Instagram: Whatever_It_Bakes

Recipe: Passionfruit & Meringue Eclairs

Posted in pastryTagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment
passionfruit chocolate meringue eclair recipe

Makes: 15 eclairs

Time required: 2 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Since moving to Hong Kong in February this year, I have been baking using a portable oven (besides my trips back to Melbourne). For those of you who haven’t lived in Hong Kong before … the apartments are small and most apartments have tiny kitchens without ovens. Although this portable oven (around the size of an Australian microwave) is great for cooking and basic cakes, the temperature isn’t very even or reliable so I haven’t been brave enough to try baking macarons in Hong Kong. But I am dying to bake some sort of pastry … so I decided to try a choux pastry!

My favourite eclairs are the salted caramel ones from Chez Dre in Melbourne and the world-famous eclairs from Sadaharu Aoki in Tokyo. Having no prior concept of what makes choux pastry puff, I’ve always marvelled at how patisseries manage to fill the eclair with custard without cutting the eclair open. Turns out it’s quite simple! 🙂

img_0848
My portable oven in Hong Kong – great for basic baking but I haven’t been brave enough to test macarons in this

Ingredients:

Passionfruit custard:

  • 200g passionfruit, seeds removed
  • 350ml milk
  • 2tsp vanilla been paste
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 50g cornstarch
  • 20g unsalted butter

Choux pastry:

  • 125g bread flour, sifted
  • 100ml milk
  • 100ml water
  • 10g sugar
  • 1tsp salt
  • 100g unsalted butter
  • 4 eggs

Chocolate ganache:

  • 200g chocolate
  • 150ml cream

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 65ml water

Instructions:

Passionfruit custard:

  1. whisk sugar and egg yolks until pale.
  2. whisk in the cornstarch
  3. heat milk and passionfruit over low-med heat until simmering
  4. pour 1/3 of the milk/passionfruit into the egg yolk mixture whilst whisking, then pour the entire mixture back into the rest of the milk/passionfruit
  5. place back on low heat, stirring constantly until the custard thickens
  6. remove from heat and stir in the vanilla paste and butter
  7. cover in glad wrap with the glad wrap touching the surface and set aside to chill in the fridge while making the eclair shells

Choux pastry

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C
  2. Place the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a saucepan over low heat
  3. Once the mixture just comes to a boil, take off the heat, pour in all the flour and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon (it should now look like mashed potato)
  4. Place the mixture back on low heat and continue to mix for another 2-3mins until the dough forms a ball and comes away from the sides of the pan
  5. Pour the dough into a bowl and mix with wooden spoon to cool slightly before adding the eggs
  6. Add the eggs one at a time and ensure each egg is well incorporated before adding the next egg. This allows greater control over the amount of egg to ensure the mixture doesn’t become too runny from too much egg
  7. The mixture is ready when you lift the wooden spoon and the dough slowly falls off the spoon
  8. Place dough into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm star nozzle lines around 10-12cm long. Be sure to leave enough space between for the eclairs to expand in the oven
  9. Bake for 10mins at 200°C and then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 20mins
  10. once removed from the oven, use a toothpick to poke a whole through each meringue to let the steam out. This prevents the eclair shell from becoming soggy or sinking
  11. set aside to completely cool before adding in the custard
img_2834
Piped choux pastry ready to go into the oven
img_2835
Choux pastry puffing up in the oven

Chocolate ganache:

  1. Bring cream to boil and pour over dark chocolate. Set aside for 2 minutes
  2. Mix in the melted chocolate with the cream
  3. stir in the butter, and set aside to cool slightly

Assembling the eclairs:

  1. once the shells have completely cooled, poked three holes evenly spaced along the top of the eclair
  2. place the custard into a piping bag fitted with a long narrow tip and fill each eclair with custard through the three holes
  3. coat the top of the eclair in chocolate ganache using a spatula

Many blogs tell you to poke the holes and fill the eclairs from the botton of the eclair shell however I prefer to pipe it through the top so I can cover up the holes with ganache.

img_2844
Eclairs coated in chocolate ganache

Meringue:

  1. whisk egg whites until foamy
  2. heat sugar and water over low-med heat until the syrup reaches 120ºC
  3. while whisking the eggs, pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream down the side of the whisking bowl
  4. continue to whisk the eggs until it form stiff peaks
  5. place the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a petal tip and pipe the meringue onto the eclairs. you could also use other piping tips to create other patterns
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Carefully piping the meringue onto the eclairs
img_2843
nom nom … all that delicious meringue
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
torching the meringue

To finish … torch the meringue and decorate the eclairs with raspberries and mint leaves 🙂

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Finished eclairs!! Photo: IG __Salpal__
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
ready to be eaten … so delicious :p … Photo: IG __Salpal__

 

Instagram: Whatever_It_Bakes