Tag: meringue

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: Passionfruit & Meringue Eclairs

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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! 🙂

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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
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Piped choux pastry ready to go into the oven
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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.

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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
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Carefully piping the meringue onto the eclairs
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nom nom … all that delicious meringue
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torching the meringue

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

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

 

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Recipe: Passionfruit & Chocolate Tart

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passionfruit chocolate meringue tart cake recipe

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

Time required: 3 hours in total, over 2-3 nights

Difficulty: ★★★☆☆

Inspiration:

The flavours for this cake were inspired by Koko Black’s ‘Passion’ chocolate – bitter, sour and sweet all in one small chocolate. I first tried this passionfruit & chocolate blend four years ago in Melbourne and it is still my favourite flavour combination.

The inspiration for the meringue coating is from my favourite cocktail – the Lavendar Meringue pie from Hong Kong’s Quinary Bar. Although the cocktail itself is very lemon-y, the richness of the meringue with each sip of your cocktail provides a great balance of sweet & sour.

Ingredients:

Chocolate ganache:

  • 150g dark chocolate
  • 100ml cream
  • 10g butter

Passionfruit dome:

  • 200g passionfruit, seeds removed
  • 100g sugar
  • 1 gelatin leaf
  • 175ml cream, whipped

Shortbread crust:

  • 225g butter
  • 100g sugar
  • 350g flour

Meringue:

  • 2 egg whites
  • 180g caster sugar
  • 60ml water

Instructions:

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 while making the passionfruit dome

Passionfruit dome:

  1. Place sugar and passionfruit over low-medium heat until all the sugar has dissolved and the passionfruit slightly thickens
  2. stir in the bloomed gelatin sheet and set aside to cool
  3. once the mixture is at room temperature, gently fold in whipped cream
  4. pour the passionfruit mousse into dome moulds (around 6cm in diameter), leaving a little space for a the chocolate ganache
  5. pipe in around 2tsbp of chocolate ganache. Alternatively, if you have more time to make these cakes you could freeze the chocolate ganache the night before and cut out circles to place into the passionfruit mousse
  6. place the domes into a freezer for at least 3 hours (preferably overnight) to harden

Shortbread crust:

  1. Preheat oven to 160ºC fan forced
  2. cream the butter and sugar in a bowl
  3. add in the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon until a dough has formed
  4. roll out the dough and slice it into 8cm discs. We want the shortbread crust to be at least 1cm wider than the passionfruit dome to be able to hold the meringue
  5. bake for 8 minutes until golden

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

Assembling the cake:

  1. remove the passionfruit mousse dome from the freezer and un-mould the domes
  2. place one dome over each disc of shortbread crust
  3. cover the dome in meringue using a spatula (you could also pipe the meringue in flowers or spikes) and torch until golden brown

I also topped off my cakes with mini candy flowers chocolate decorations

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the finished cake – showing the passionfruit and chocolate encased in meringue
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another photo of the finished passionfruit & chocolate tart

 

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