Tag: hk baking

Recipe: Lime Coconut Mousse

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Nutting to see here - loving my squirrel bookend

Makes: 1 dome/half-sphere (~8inch in diameter)

Time required: 3 hours in total over 4 sessions

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

Reading through Olivier Dupon’s book “The New Patissiers” (my current favourite book) I came across one page which had a really interesting flavour combination – it was a recipe for a chocolate mousse entremet with a lime panna cotta, coconut dacqouise … coated in milk chocolate mousse. I wanted to give the elements of this recipe a try, liking the idea of the tangy-ness of the lime mixed with creaminess of the coconut and the sweetness of the chocolate.

Elements of this cake from centre to outside:

  • lime panna cotta
  • coconut cream
  • dark chocolate mousse
  • coconut dacquoise base
  • coated in dark chocolate velvet spray

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

Ingredients:

Lime panna cotta:

  • juice of 2 limes
  • 90ml milk
  • 90ml cream
  • 45g caster sugar
  • 2 gelatin sheets

Coconut mousse:

  • 100ml coconut milk
  • 150ml milk
  • 150ml cream, whipped
  • 1 sheet gelatin

Coconut Dacqouise:

  • 3 egg whites
  • 60g caster sugar
  • 30g coconut flakes
  • 30g almond meal
  • 60g pure icing sugar

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

  • 94g caster sugar
  • 94ml water
  • 1 egg
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 150ml cream
  • 3 gelatin sheets
  • 250g dark chocolate
  • 300ml cream, whipped

Chocolate Velvet spray (I used a pre-made can)

Lime coconut mousse cake 4
Plastic moulds I used to create the dome shape

Instructions:

Lime Panna Cotta:

  1. bring lime, cream and sugar to simmer for 10 minutes
  2. remove from heat and mix in gelatin
  3. pour into dome mould (~3inch in diameter) and freeze for several hours or overnight

Coconut Mousse:

  1. bring coconut milk and milk to simmer
  2. remove from heat and stir in the gelatin
  3. once cool, gently fold in the whipped cream
  4.  pour into a dome mould (~3.5inch in diameter) and then push the lime panna cotta dome into the centre
  5. place into the freezer for several hours or overnight

Coconut Dacquoise:

  1. preheat oven to 180C and line a 8inch baking tin with baking paper
  2. sift together coconut flakes, almond meal and icing sugar
  3. in a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites and caster sugar to firm peaks
  4. gently fold the dry ingredients into the meringue
  5. spread onto baking tin and bake for 15-20mins

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

  1. whisk water, sugar, eggs and egg yolks together in a bain-marie
  2. remove form heat and continue to whisk until airy
  3. in a separate pot, bring cream (150ml portion) to boil and stir in the gelatin
  4. pour hot cream over chocolate and stir to combine
  5. gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture
  6. whisk the 300ml portion of cream, then gently fold into the chocolate/egg mixture
  7. pour the mousse into the 8inch dome to around two-thirds full and drop the panna cotta/coconut mousse into the centre
  8. fill the rest of the dome to almost to top, leaving a little space to place the coconut dacquoise on top
  9. place in freezer for several hours or overnight until the dome is frozen

Chocolate velvet coating:

  1. once the dome is frozen, unmould and coat the cake in a chocolate velvet spray
chocolate mousse dome
chocolate mousse dome
Lime coconut mousse cake 2
pre-made chocolate velvet spray
All finished and ready to eat
All finished and ready to eat
Lime coconut mousse cake
Nutting to see here – loving my squirrel bookend

 

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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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