Tag: Dessert

Recipe: Raspberry tart with apple chip

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Makes: 12 mini tarts  (~6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Most of the time my baking ideas come while walking through the supermarket to see which fruits are available. One of the (many) great things about Hong Kong is that we get fruit imported from all around the world which means that fruits like raspberries are available throughout the year and usually at a reasonable price. Given raspberries are super cheap at the moment, I decided to make a dessert bursting with raspberries. The elements of this tart are:

  • Sable base (my first time making a sable and it was super buttery and delicious that I was hoping some of the bases would crack so I could eat them straight from the oven)
  • raspberry cream
  • fresh raspberries
  • chocolate disc
  • apple chip

Ingredients:

Sable base:

  • 150g butter
  • 70g icing sugar
  • 70g almond meal
  • 100g plain flour
  • 10g salt

Raspberry cream:

  • 300g butter
  • 200g raspberries
  • 150g icing sugar

Chocolate disc:

  • 200g dark chocolate

Apple chip:

  • 1 green apple
  • 20ml lemon juice
  • 40+100g caster sugar
  • 1 gelatin leaf
  • 10g butter

Instructions:

Sable base:

  1. whisk together butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy
  2. sift in the flour, almond and salt and mix until well combined
  3. flatten into a disc on a baking sheet and refrigerate for 1 hours
  4. roll out to ~1cm thick and return to the fridge for another 20 minutes
  5. cut out 12 circles around 6cm in diameter and bake  the circles inside the rings at 160C for 15 minutes, removing the rings after around 10mins in the oven

Raspberry cream:

  1. puree raspberries in a food processor and simmer over medium heat until slightly reduced
  2. whisk together butter and sugar then slowly add in the raspberry and whisk until well combined

Chocolate disc:

  1. temper chocolate over a double boiler
  2. spread onto a sheet of acetate
  3. when slightly set, cut out 12 circles, around 5cm in diameter

apple chip:

  1. place apple and lemon in a food processor
  2. bloom gelatin, then drain and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water to melt the gelatin
  3. add the gelatin and 40g of sugar into the apple/lemon then process until well combined
  4. add the apple puree, remaining sugar and butter to a pan over medium-high heat and simmer until slightly reduced
  5. spread the puree over a baking sheet (in different shapes) and baking at 150C for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden

Assemble:

  1. for each sable base: place raspberries around the edges and fill the hole in the middle with some of the raspberry cream
  2. place the chocolate disc on top of each tart then pipe another dallop of raspberry cream
  3. top with an apple chip (or any other decorations) … i also tried decorating it with a chocolate leaf
raspberry tart - apple chips
shaping the apple chips before placing into the oven
raspberry tart 1
Assembling the raspberry tarts
The finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf
The finished raspberries tart, decorated with a chocolate leaf

Recipe: Lemon Meringue Tarts with blueberry gelee

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Finished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee

Makes: 16 small round cakes (~5cm in diameter)

Time required: 2 hours over 2 sessions (~2 hour at a time)

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

One of the things I love about entremets is that you can take different desserts, flavours and textures and layer them into a small delicate cake. For this cake, I wanted to “recreate” a lemon meringue pie – have all the elements of a normal lemon meringue pie (buttery crust, lemon curd, meringue) but create it in a different form. To add a twist … I included a bluberry gelee which oozes out when you cut into the cake – the sweetness (but also subtle flavour) of the blueberry is a great contrast to the sour lemon curd.

Elements of this cake:

  • buttery biscuit base
  • lemon curd mousse
  • blueberry gelee
  • meringue
  • blueberries and chocolate leaf to decorate

Ingredients:

Tart base:

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 2 tsp vanilla
  • 150g plain flour
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 70g pure icing sugar
  • 120g butter, cold

blueberry gelee:

  • 125g blueberries
  • 30ml water
  • 70g caster sugar

Lemon curd:

  • 200g caster sugar
  • juice from 3 lemons
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 2 whole eggs
  • pinch of salt
  • 50g butter

Lemon mousse:

  • lemon curd made above
  • 2 gelatin sheets
  • 450ml whipping cream
  • juice from 1 lemon

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 120g caster sugar
  • 40ml water

To decorate:

  • blueberries
  • tempered chocolate leaves

Instructions:

Tart base:

  1. whisk together the egg yolks and vanilla and set aside
  2. in a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and icing sugar
  3. cut the cold butter into 1cm cubes and beat into the flour mixture until it resembles a coarse sand. Careful not to overmix
  4. mix the egg into the flour/butter mixture until just combined
  5. roll into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least an hour
  6. once all the other elements of the cake have been prepared roll the dough to 0.5cm thickness and cut out 16 circles just slightly larger than the round moulds
  7. bake at 170C for 12 minutes until the edges of the biscuit base is golden

Blueberry gelee:

  1. bring all ingredients to a boil and then simmer for ~5 minutes until the mixture thickens
  2. place into a piping bag and then set aside in the fridge to cool as you prepare the lemon mousse

Lemon curd:

  1. whisk together all ingredients except for the butter
  2. place all ingredients (including the butter) into a saucepan over medium heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens into a curd
  3. place three quarters of the curd into the fridge to cool while leaving the remaining quarter at room temperature

Lemon mousse:

  1. bloom gelatin sheets in iced water for 10 minutes
  2. bring the lemon juice to boil then melt in the bloomed gelatin sheets
  3. mix in the room temperature lemon curd and set aside while preparing the rest of the mousse
  4. in a separate bowl, whisk the cream to medium peaks
  5. whisk together the room temperature lemon curd with the cold lemon curd until light and airy
  6. gently fold into the whipped cream to form the mousse

Meringue:

  1. place sugar and water over low-medium heat to create a sugar syrup
  2. meanwhile, begin whisking the egg whites in a large bowl
  3. when the sugar syrup is ready, pour the sugar syrup in a slow steady stream while constantly whisking the egg whites at maximum speed
  4. continue whisking until stiff peaks

To assemble:

  1. pipe the lemon mousse into the round moulds 3/4 full
  2. pipe in a blob of the blueberry gelee then top the remaining of the mould with more lemon mousse
  3. Freeze the moulds for at least 3 hours, until they can be smoothly removed from the moulds
  4. remove the mousse from the moulds then place each lemon mousse piece over a biscuit base
  5. pipe on the meringue, torch the meringue then decorate with blueberries and chocolate
Tart dough - mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmix
Tart dough – mixing the butter into the flour. Be careful not to overmix
tart dough - pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
tart dough – pressed into a flat disc and refrigerate for at least 1 hour
tart dough - rolled out and cut into round discs
tart dough – rolled out and cut into round discs
circle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry gelee
circle moulds with lemon mousse and blueberry gelee
lemon meringue tart - decorated with blueberry and chocolate
lemon meringue tart – decorated with blueberry and chocolate
lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee
Finished: lemon meringue tart with blueberry gelee

 

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Recipe: Raspberry Coconut Opera Cake

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Alternate plating idea for the opera cake

Makes: 20 slices, halve recipe to make less

Time required: 3 hours + extra time to decorate

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Having recently watched the Zumbo Just Desserts tv show, I was inspired by some of the challenges the contestants faced … in particular the Franken-dessert and the Aussie Classics challenges. This is where the “Operington” cake comes in – the elements of an Opera Cake meet the flavours of a Lamington. I always enjoy making opera cakes because there’s so many layers and elements – which also allows for more creativity with flavours and textures

Elements for this cake:

  • almond coconut sponge
  • raspberry buttercream
  • raspberry jam
  • chocolate ganache
  • raspberry soju jelly, for plating
  • chocolate sauce, coconut and fresh raspberries, for plating

Ingredients:

Almond coconut sponge:

  • 9 egg whites
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 300g almond meal
  • 100g desiccated coconut
  • 400g icing sugar
  • 2tsp vanilla extract
  • 100g plain flour
  • 9 eggs
  • 100g melted butter

raspberry buttercream:

  • 200g raspberries
  • 400g butter
  • 200ml thickened cream
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 9 egg yolks

raspberry jam:

  • 200g raspberries
  • 150g sugar
  • 2 gelatin leaf

chocolate ganache:

  • 500g dark chocolate
  • 400ml thickened cream
  • 40g butter

raspberry soju jelly (optional for decorating):

  • 125g raspberries
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup soju (or other alcohol)
  • 8 sheet gelatin

Instructions:

Almond coconut sponge:

  1. preheat oven to 200C
  2. whisk egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks and set aside
  3. in a separate bowl, whisk together the almond meal, icing sugar and desiccated coconut
  4. add the eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined
  5. sift in the flour and mix
  6. carefully fold in the egg whites
  7. gently fold in the butter, careful not to remove all the air in the batter
  8. spread evenly over four trays (roughly 15x30cm) lined with baking paper
  9. bake for 8 minutes until just cooked
  10. remove from baking sheet and set aside to cool

raspberry buttercream:

  1. puree raspberries and place in a pot over low heat until the sugar melts
  2. whisk the egg yolks with sugar until light and fluffy
  3. slowly pour in the hot raspberry while whisking the egg yolks to gently heat up the eggs without scrambling them
  4. return the entire raspberry/egg mixture to low head and continue to mix until it thickens
  5. in a separate bowl, beat the butter. Gradually add the raspberry/egg mixture and cream alternating while whisking until well combined

raspberry jam:

  1. puree the raspberries
  2. place the raspberries and sugar over low-med heat until just boiling
  3. add in the bloomed gelatin and set aside to cool

chocolate ganache:

  1. heat cream over med heat until just boiling
  2. pour over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes
  3. stir the cream/chocolate until well combined then mix i the butter

raspberry soju jelly:

  1. puree the raspberries
  2. place the raspberries, water and soju over medium heat until boiling
  3. add in the bloomed gelatin
  4. pour into a container (depending what shape you’d like the jelly) and leave in the fridge to set (at least 3 hours)

To assemble:

  1. place one slice/tray of the cake on a cake board or plate
  2. spread over 1/3 of the raspberry jam
  3. spread 1/3 of the raspberry buttercream then place in the fridge/freezer for 10mins to slightly harden
  4. spread over 1/4 of the chocolate ganache
  5. cover with the next slide of cake then repeat steps 2-4 another two times
  6. when all the cake/buttercream/jam layers have been used up, pour the remaining chocolate ganache over the top layer of cake
  7. leave in freezer overnight to harden before slicing the cake with a hot knife … freezing the cake results in cleaner edges when slicing the cake
  8. defrost the slices in the fridge for at least 2 hours before serving
Finished putting together all the layers of the opera cake
Finished putting together all the layers of the opera cake
Plating the opera cake for a dinner party
Plating the opera cake for a dinner party
another plating option for the raspberry opera cake
another plating option for the raspberry opera cake
plating the raspberry opera cake (2)
close up of the Opera Cake for Instagram
Alternate plating idea for the opera cake
Alternate plating idea for the opera cake

 

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Recipe: Black Forest Cake for Easter

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Makes: 6-inch cake

Time required: 2 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Easter has always been one of my favourite holidays growing up – treating yourself to a few Cadbury creme eggs and Lindt Easter bunnies approaching Easter and then buying so many more chocolates at half-price come Easter Monday!! However since moving to Hong Kong it has been much more difficult to find Easter chocolates … my local supermarkets sell a few Easter teddies or headbands but Easter eggs are much harder to find. So I was very excited last week when I checked Marks & Spencer and found they have a whole section of different sized chocolate bunnies and eggs.

With the past weekend being my last chance to bake before Easter (as I will be travelling the next few weeks) I wanted to make a fun/playful cake using the Easter eggs as decorations. I decided to make a black forest cake as I’m still dreaming about the amazing one I had at L’Eto during my London visit several months back.

The components for this cake are:

  • rich, moist chocolate cake
  • cherry sauce
  • Chantilly cream
  • Easter eggs and chocolate flakes for decoration
Black Forest cake decorated with Easter Eggs
Black Forest cake decorated with Easter Eggs

Ingredients

Chocolate cake:

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 cup caster sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp espresso powder
  • 60g butter, melted
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste
  • 1/2 cup boiling water

Cherry topping:

  • 300g cherries, pitted
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 1 sheet gelatin
  • 60ml brandy

Chantilly cream:

  • 300ml cream
  • 1 cup pure icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla paste

Decorations:

  • 3 medium sized chocolate Easter eggs
  • Easter quail egg chocolates
  • Chocolate flakes

Instructions

Chocolate cake:

  1. preheat oven to 160C and grease cake tins
  2. sift together the dry ingredients into a bowl
  3. add the butter, milk, egg, vanilla and mix on medium speed until well combined
  4. slowly add the boiling water while mixing on low speed
  5. distribute the batter into two 6inch cake tins
  6. bake for 20-25mins

Cherry sauce:

  1. puree cherries in a food processor or with a stick blender
  2. place cherries and sugar in a pot over medium heat until simmering. Allow to simmer for 10mins until the liquid has thickened
  3. remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin sheet
  4. stir in the brandy and set aside to cool

Chantilly cream:

  1. whisk together the cream, sugar and vanilla until stiff peaks form

To assemble:

  1. cut the chocolate cakes in half so we now have four discs
  2. place the first disc onto a cake board and brush with a light coat of brandy
  3. pipe a circle of Chantilly cream around the edges of the cake
  4. now fill the insides of that circle with cherry sauce
  5. coat with a thin layer of Chantilly cream
  6. repeat with the remaining layers of the cake then coat the entire cake with the remaining Chantilly cream
  7. decorate with the chocolate flakes and Easter eggs
pipe a circle of Chantilly cream around the edge of the cake
pipe a circle of Chantilly cream around the edge of the cake
fill with cherry sauce
fill with cherry sauce
Coat the black forest cake with the remaining Chantilly cream
Coat the black forest cake with the remaining Chantilly cream

IMG_2282

Balck Forest Easter cake
Decorate the Black Forest cake with Easter Eggs

 

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Christmas Baking: Gingerbread city

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Gingerbread city

Makes: A2 sized gingerbread model

Time required: 15-20 hours in total

Difficulty: ★★★★☆

Inspiration:

Having made my first gingerbread house last year (recipe in this post) I wanted to make something bigger and more complex this year. That’s where my Civil Engineering degree comes in handy – it was my childhood dream to build skyscrapers. I decided to take inspiration from some of the cities I’ve travelled to this year – Hong Kong (now home … I made this my centerpiece), Melbourne (old/second home), Tokyo, Shanghai, Macau, London and Singapore. I also wanted to include Boracay, Seoul and Kunming but didn’t want to over complicate the gingerbread model.

Components of the gingerbread city:

  • Hong Kong: Bank of China Tower, The Centre
  • Melbourne: Eureka Tower, Melbourne Central Office Tower, Melbourne Cricket Ground
  • London: Tower Bridge, London Eye (or it could have been a Ferris wheel from any city …)
  • Tokyo: Pagoda of Sensoji – it was meant to be five stories but I kept it to three so it didn’t outshine the Bank of China Tower
  • Singapore: Marina Bay Sands … although several people mistook this for the Stonehenge 😦
  • Shanghai: Oriental Pearl Tower
  • Macau: The Ruins of St Paul’s

Recipe:

I used the same recipe as last year, although required two batches of gingerbread and two batches of icing to make all the components for the gingercity

Finished Gingercity:

Gingerbread city - all the gingerbread pieces
Gingerbread city – all the gingerbread pieces
Gingerbread city - starting to put together the landmarks
Gingerbread city – starting to put together the landmarks
Gingerbread city - Deciding how to arrange the city
Gingerbread city – Deciding how to arrange the city
Gingerbread city
Completed Gingerbread city

 

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Cake decorating: Boat-shaped cake

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Completed boat cake

Makes: 3 x 8inch squares which are constructed into 1 boat

Time required: 3 hours

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Recipe:

Using orange cake recipe, but this can be made from any type of cake

Constructing the boat:

  1. Layer one square on top of another and cut two opposite edges at a slight angle
  2. with the remaining square, cut out two triangles for the front of the boat to form the boat shape below
Cutting the square cakes into boat shape
Cutting the square cakes into boat shape

3. use the leftovers of that third square to build the top of the boat

boat cake construction
Icing the boat cake
boat cake 2
Almost finished …
Completed boat cake
Completed boat cake

 

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Recipe: Giant Ferrero Rocher Cakes

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Giant ferrero rocher dessert

Makes: 6 spheres (~8cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours over 3 sessions (~1 hour at a time)

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Inspired by one of my favourite chocolates when I was young – the iconic Ferrero Rocher. It was something that would feature in almost every birthday party or Kris Kringle … a nicely packaged gift under $20. Since moving to Hong Kong, I’ve slowly been adjusting to the Hong Kong supermarkets, but I still get excited every time I see a product in the same packaging that we get back home in Australia – Ferrero Rocher chocolates being one of them!

Elements for the cake from centre to outside of the ball:

  • Inner dome: hazelnut vanilla mousse
  • Inner coating: Nutella and crushed wafer
  • Outer dome: chocolate mousse
  • coated in chocolate and hazelnuts

Although every element of this cake is very easy to make, it does require preparation to make and freeze each of the layers

Ingredients:

Hazelnut Vanilla centre:

  • 150m cream, whipped
  • 100ml milk
  • 1tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 100g hazelnuts, crushed
  • 1 gelating leaf
  • 2 egg yolks

Nutella and wafer coating:

  • 100g nutella
  • 100g wafers, crushed

Chocolate mousse:

  • 400ml cream, whipped
  • 100g dark chocolate, melted
  • 100ml milk
  • 2 gelatin leaves

Chocolate hazelnut shell:

  • 400g milk chocolate
  • 150g hazelnuts, roughly chopped

Instructions:

Hazelnut Vanilla centre:

  1. whisk together egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale
  2. bring milk and vanilla to a boil
  3. pour half the milk into the egg mixture while whisking then return the egg and milk to the pot and bring to a simmer, while still whisking
  4. remove from heat and stir in the gelatin
  5. once cool, gently fold in the whipped cream and hazelnuts
  6. pour mousse into 12 small dome moulds (~2.5cm in diameter) and set aside in freezer

Nutella and wafer coating:

  1. once the hazelnut and vanilla mousse is frozen, unmould the domes
  2. heat the nutella in the microwave for 10 seconds to soften it
  3. working quickly while the mousse is still frozen, spoon the nutella over each dome and dip it into the crushed wafers
  4. immediately return the domes to the freezer
coating the inner domes with nutella and crushed wafer
coating the inner domes with nutella and crushed wafer

Chocolate mousse:

  1. bring milk to a boil and pour over dark chocolate to melt
  2. stir in bloomed gelatin
  3. when slightly cool, fold in the whipped cream
  4. pour the chocolate mousse into large dome moulds (~8cm in diameter) around 3/4 full then place one of the smaller mousse domes in the centre of the larger dome
  5. place the domes in the freezer to set for 5-10mins and when the mousse as slightly set, join the moulds together to create a sphere/ball. Use some leftover mousse to help stick the domes together if needed
fill the outer domes 3/4 full with chocolate mousse
fill the outer domes 3/4 full with chocolate mousse
place the frozen hazelnut vanilla domes in the centre
place the frozen hazelnut vanilla domes in the centre

Chocolate hazelnut shell:

  1. melt the chocolate over a double boiler and stir in the chopped hazelnuts
  2. unmould the mousse balls and roll this in the melted chocolate, covering the whole sphere and return to the freezer immediately to harden the chocolate shell. After several minutes, take the balls out of the freezer and spoon more chocolate over any gaps in the shell
  3. set aside in the fridge for the mousse to thaw before serving
Giant ferrero rocher dessert
Giant ferrero rocher dessert

 

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Recipe: Unicorn cupcakes

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Makes: 20 cupcakes

Time required: 2 hours + 2 hours for unicorn decorations

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Very excited to have baked my first cupcakes in Hong Kong, which was an order of 20 unicorn themed cupcakes for a 4th birthday party. As someone who has barely worked with fondant in the past … and especially not during the Hong Kong summer where the humidity impacts the texture of fondant, one of the challenges for these cupcakes was figuring out how to make the unicorn horns.

Elements I settled on for the cupcakes:

  • vanilla cupcakes with raspberries and white chocolate chips
  • cream cheese frosting – I chose light pink, bright pink, turquoise and purple as my unicorn colours … later also realising that the turquoise and purple I used are the same colours as Sully from Monsters Inc.
  • Marzipan and  pocky sticks for the horns and ears. I chose marzipan over fondant for the horns and ears as it seems to hold up better in the Hong Kong humidity. I also used pocky sticks over toothpicks to hold together the horns – baking for a kids party I wanted to make sure everything within the cupcake was edible

Ingredients:

Cupcakes:

  • 200g butter
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 300g all purpose flour
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 300 ml milk
  • 30g white chocolate chips
  • 50g raspberries

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  • 500g cream cheese
  • 200g butter
  • 300g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla bean paste
  • 1 tsp lemon

Unicorn decorations:

  • 200g marzipan
  • edible gold spray paint
  • 1 pack pocky sticks
  • pink/pearl sprinkles

Instructions:

Cupcakes:

  1. preheat oven to 190C (170C fan forced)
  2. beat butter until smooth
  3. add sugar and beat until light and fluffy
  4. mix in the eggs one at a time and vanilla
  5. add in the sifted flour mix (flour, baking powder, salt) and milk alternatively (around a third at a time) and mix until just combined
  6. spoon the mixture into lined muffin tins with the cups around 2/3 full
  7. top with raspberry pieces and white chocolate chips
  8. bake for 20 minutes until golden and let cool before frosting
Cupcake ingredients
Cupcake ingredients
Cupcake batter with raspberry and white chocolate chips
Cupcake batter with raspberry and white chocolate chips

Cream Cheese Frosting:

  1. beat cream cheese and butter until smooth
  2. slowly beat in the sugar until light and fluffy
  3. mix in the vanilla and lemon
  4. divide the frosting into several batches (uneven in volume) and colour each batch a different colour. I chose light pink, bright pink, turquoise and purple

Unicorn horns and ears:

  1. cut the pocky sticks ~3cm in length (depending how tall you want the unicorn horns)
  2. take a small amount of fondant and roll it into a cone shape over the pocky, leaving ~1cm of the pocky stick hanging out the bottom which you will later use to poke into the cupcake. To create the ‘horn’ look, gently run a toothpick spiral around the marzipan cone
  3. spray over the horns with edible gold dust
  4. for the ears: roll out the fondant and roughly cut small triangles
  5. take two corners of the triangle and press them together to create the ears

Edible gold spray for the unicorn horns

Decorating:

  1. place each colour of the cream cheese frosting into a separate piping bag fitted with different sized star tips
  2. pipe one colour of frosting at a time onto the cupcakes. I started with the light pink frosting as I wanted light pink to be the dominant colour
  3. finish the cupcakes by placing on the horns and ears. I also added pink and pearl sprinkles to add more texture and sparkle
piping the unicorn one colour at a time
piping the unicorn one colour at a time
finished piping the unicorn hair
finished piping the unicorn hair
Topped with the unicorn horn and ears
Topped with the unicorn horn and ears
Unicorn cupcakes
Unicorn cupcakes
Unicorn cupcakes ready for instragram
Unicorn cupcakes ready for instragram
Unicorn cupcakes packed and ready to go for the birthday party
Unicorn cupcakes packed and ready to go for the birthday party

 

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Recipe: Mango Mousse Cheesecake Entremet

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Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

Makes: 12 mini dome cakes (6cm in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2 nights

Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆

Inspiration:

Inspired by another one of my favourite chocolates – the Mango & Vanilla chocolate from Koko Black back home in Melbourne. Every time I used to visit Koko Black I would buy at least five of these Mango & Vanilla chocolates in addition to several of the Passion flavour (I have also baked a cake inspired by this chocolate with recipe here!) and then try a range of other truffles and chocolates.

img_3460
Trying all the chocolates from Koko Black and Xocolatl in Melbourne

The elements of this cake include:

  • Vanilla cheesecake centre
  • Runny mango jam
  • Mango mousse dome
  • Mango mirror glaze
  • caramel biscuit base

Ingredients:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  • 225g cream cheese
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 100ml thickened cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/2 lemon

Caramel Biscuit base:

  • 1 pack caramel flavoured biscuits (can use other flavours, e.g. Arnott’s Nice biscuits are a good alternative)
  • 150g melted butter

Mango jam:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g caster sugar
  • 2 gelatin leaves

Mango Mousse:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 250ml cream, whipped
  • 200g sugar
  • 3 gelatin leaves

Mango glaze:

  • 200g mango puree
  • 200g sugar
  • 4 gelatin leaves
  • 200ml condensed milk
  • 150g white chocolate

Instructions:

Vanilla Cheesecake centre:

  1. Preheat over at 150C
  2. beat the cream cheese with sugar until smooth
  3. whisk in the egg until well combined
  4. fold in cream, vanilla and lemon until just combined
  5. pour into a 8 x 8 inch square tin (or any other baking tin of similar size)
  6. bake for 20 minutes
  7. once cool, cut out 12 circles, around 2-3cm in diameter

Caramel Biscuit base:

  1. blend the biscuits in a food processor until there are not big lumps
  2. stir in melted butter
  3. spread over a large flat tin (ensure this is spread evenly enough to be able to cut out 12 x 6cm circles for the cake base) and bake at 150C for 10mins
  4. while still warm, cut out the 12 circles and set aside to cool. The 12 circles will be used as the base of the mousse dome, however do not discard the rest of the cookie base as this can be used to decorate the dome

Mango jam:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. while the mixture is still hot, stir in bloomed gelatin and set aside
  3. once cool, place the mixture into a piping bag

Mango Mousse:

  1. heat mango puree and sugar over low heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture thickens
  2. stir in gelatin and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, fold in the whipped cream to form the mousse

To Assemble:

  1. gather 12 circle dome moulds, each around 6cm in diameter
  2. fill half of each dome with the mango mousse mixture
  3. carefully pipe around 2 teaspoons of the mango jam on top of the mango mousse (be gentle as we don’t want to jam to sink to the bottom of the mould)
  4. push a piece of vanilla cheesecake into each of the domes on top of the mango jam. We want to push the cheesecake in just far enough that the edges of the cheesecake are surrounded by mango mousse. Add a bit more mousse into the dome if needed
  5. lastly, place a disc of the caramel biscuit onto each of the domes, sitting the biscuit base on top of the mousse
  6. set aside in the freeze for at least 3 hours, preferably overnight to harden

Glazing the cake:

Mango glaze: (make this the following day once the mousse domes are frozen)

  1. un-mould each of the mousse domes and place back in the freezer
  2. place mango and sugar over medium heat until the mixture thickens
  3. remove from heat and add the bloomed gelatin
  4. stir in the condensed milk
  5. while still hot, pour over white chocolate and stir to melt and incorporate the chocolate
  6. when the glaze cools to 35 degrees, pour over the mango mousse domes
  7. crumble the off-cuts from the caramel cookie base and coat around the base of each of the cakes
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie
Mango mousse & vanilla cheesecake entremet on a crunchy caramel cookie

 

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Recipe: Chocolate Banana drip cake

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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

 

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Recipe: Chocolate Orange Drip Cake

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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


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Christmas Baking: Croquembouche

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Christmas Croquembouche

Having completed my practice croquembouche in Hong Kong several weeks ago, it was time to bake another croquembouche for family Christmas dinner. See earlier post for the full recipe and croquembouche made in Hong Kong.

For this croquembouche for Christmas day, I made several adjustments to the decorations – instead of randomly scattered profiteroles coated in coconut and crushed peanuts, this one contains layers of coconut and plain profiteroles.

My practice croquembouche also didn’t have any spun caramel as I wanted to keep the tower relatively neat. However, after several complaints about it not being a ‘real’ croquembouche without the spun caramel, I did manage to drape some caramel neatly around the profiterole tower. This caramel later melted due to the 35degree heat in Melbourne on Christmas day 😦

Overall, the family was very happy with Christmas dessert – from admiring the tower during dinner to eating the 80 leftover profiteroles several days after Christmas. The only bad feedback was from my sister-in-law who wasn’t too happy that I took the tower apart.

Now, to decide what to bake for Christmas next year …

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