Cappuccino mousse cake

 

 I am 100% sure that mousse cakes will ruin my waist line one day. I just can't stop making/eating them. At the moment they are my absolute favourite. 

This little treat consist of four different layers - almond joconde, chocolate cremeux, mascarpone mousse and coffee mousse. 

ALMOND JOCONDE 40x30cm

3 egg whites

15g sugar

100g ground almonds

100g icing sugar

3 eggs

30g plain flour

45g clarified butter 

Preheat the oven to 180C. Whisk the egg whites gradually adding sugar. Set aside. In a separate bowl mix ground almond, icing sugar and eggs until increase in volume (about 3 minutes). Fold in flour. Combine almond flour mixture with egg whites and then fold in melted butter. Spread it on lined witch parchment paper or Silpat sheet pan and bake it for 8min or until set. 

CHOCOLATE CREMEUX

1 leaf gelatine, bloomed

200g whole milk

200g whipping cream

4 egg yolks

65g caster sugar

110g dark chocolate, chopped

50g milk chocolate, chopped

Boil milk and cream together. Beat egg yolks and sugar. Gradually pour the milk over the yolks. Put it back in a pan and cook till 85C. Stir in gelatine. Pour over the chocolate in 3 batches. Refrigerate for about 2h. 

MASCARPONE MOUSSE

3 leaves gelatine, bloomed

103g sugar

35g water

250g whipping cream

5 egg yolks

250g mascarpone

Combine water and sugar in a pan and boil until it reaches 121C. Meanwhile beat the egg yolks and when the syrup is ready pour it over the yolks and continue beating at full speed. It will take about 10min to get the frothy sabayon.

Soften the mascarpone a little, melt gelatine in a microwave. Mix gelatine with sabayon and the gently fold into mascarpone.

Whip the cream and incorporate into rest of the mixture.

It will all depend on the mould you will be using to assemble the cake. I used a 20cm square mould plus 4 little round rings. First 3 layers will have the same size, slightly smaller than finished product (18cm). Lining with acetate will help with removing mould. Put joconde sponge in first, then pipe some chocolate cremeux and then mascarpone mousse. Reserve some for decoration. Leave it in the fridge. Now off to the last step.

COFFEE MOUSSE

4 gelatine leaves bloomed

170g whipping cream

10g coffee beans

180g milk chocolate

180g white chocolate

12g coffee extract

420g whipping cream

Boil 170g cream. Crush coffee beans and put them in boiling cream. Turn off the heat, cover and leave for 1h. Drain. Boil it again, ad gelatine and pour it over chocolate. Stir. Then add coffee extract. Now whip the cream until soft peaks and gently fold it into the rest. 

  

ASSEMBLY

Take the mould out of the fridge and carefully remove it. Place the bigger mould around it and line it with acetate. Now pipe the coffee mousse up to the top. Even it with spatula. 

Leave the whole thing in the freezer to set.    

Decorate it with your leftovers and you are ready to treat yourself!                                                                       

All the flavours of Jaffa Cake

 

I always hated Jaffa Cakes. And without a good reason! Actually when you think about it, what is there not to like? Sponge - good, jelly - good, chocolate - oh so good! 

However, I've decided to give it a slight twist. It's got all the flavours of Jaffa Cake but looks completely different .

SPONGE (22cm round pan but you can use any shape you like)

5eggs

115g plain flour, sifted

150g caster sugar

40g cornflour, sifted

Separate the eggs. In a mixer bowl put egg whites and whisk until they hold shape. Start adding sugar, little bit at a time. Add egg yolks one by one continuously mixing. Gently fold the flours using spatula. Pour it over prepared baking pan and bake in 175C-180C for 35-45min. It will depend on the oven.

 ORANGE JELLY
2 oranges, juiced
sugar syrup (boil same amount of sugar and water until sugar dissolves)
gelatin, bloomed

I combined orange juice with sugar syrup (this step relays on your taste buds). The mixture was still quite hot so I added gelatine to dissolve (1 leaf for about 180ml). I poured it to the biggest baking pan (lined with cling film) I had to achieve very thin layer of jelly. Refrigerate.

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
90g granulated sugar
45g water60g egg yolks
225g bittersweet chocolate
400ml whipping cream
7g gelatin
25g orange liquor
In a saucepan cook sugar and water to 115C. In a meanwhile, begin whipping egg yolks on a medium speed. When the sugar reach 115C add it to the egg yolks and whip on high speed until cool. You just made pate a bombe. Now melt the chocolate and whip the cream to soft peaks. Over low heat melt the gelatine with orange liquor. Do not boil. Fold a quarter of whipped cream into the pate a bombe. Fold in melted chocolate. Fold in gelatine mixture and at the end remaining cream.

ASSEMBLY
All you need to do is layer all the components in order : sponge, mousse, jelly, mousse, sponge.
I topped the whole thing with a milk chocolate ganache  just to make the whole experience even more sinful :) Enjoy!

Anna Polyviou's inspired Carrot Cake - well, sort of

 Can you fall in love with the dessert? I definitely can! When I saw Anna Polyviou 'commiting' this beauty on Australian Master Chef I thought "my God, this is dessert to die for, it must be". It is very complex (13components!) but as she says you must give it a go at least once. So I did.

This is original recipe. Mine is not as complicated. I dropped a few things on the way but it turned out fantastic anyway. My mum said that it is the best thing she ever tasted! (WOW)

 CARROT CAKE

50g plain flour

40g light brown sugar

2g bicarbonate soda

1.5g baking powder

pinch of salt

2g cinnamon

1 egg

30g vegetable oil

40g grated carrot

20g grated green apple

12g chopped walnut

25g sultanas

 Mix first six ingredients together in a bowl. Gradually add an egg and oil. Beat until smooth. Add remaining components and mix until they come together. Pour it onto prepared baking pan. I used a 37x25cm and spread it very thinly. You can use a smaller pan, when baked it will have to be sliced to about 5mm thick. Bake in 160C for about 15 min. 

APRICOT INSERT

70ml apricot puree

40ml carrot juice

10g caster sugar

5g gelatine

Bloom the gelatine. Put the puree and sugar in the pan and heat until sugar dissolves. Add gelatine and carrot juice. Pass through the sieve and pour it into a mould, not too thick. It will be the same size as carrot cake. Put in the freezer. 

RICE CRISPIES DISC (or square)

20g dark chocolate 72%

100g hazelnut paste

5g rice crispies

16g feuilletine

Melt chocolate and stir in the hazelnut paste. Mix until smooth. Fold in the rice crispies and feulletine. Roll the mixture gently between two sheets of baking paper. Try not too brake rice crispies. Roll it till about 3mm thick and place in the freezer.

First 3 components can be prepared in advance and kept in the freezer. When you are ready to assemble, start with Praline Cremeux.

PRALINE CREMEUX 

100ml whole milk

150g hazelnut praline paste

270ml whipping cream

60g sugar

1/3 vanilla bean

60g egg yolks

15g cornflour

4.5 g gelatine

Bring to boil milk, 90ml cream and vanilla bean in a saucepan. Meanwhile, whisk together the sugar with egg yolks until creamy. Add the cornflour. When milk is ready pour it a little into eggs, mix together and pour it back into pan and continue to whisk. Cook for 4 min. Take off the heat and whisk in hazelnut paste and gelatine. Cool it to 40C. Whip the remaining cream to soft peaks and then fold it in the hazelnut mixture. Put it in the piping bag.

CARAMEL GLAZE

150ml cream

1/4 vanilla bean

190g caster sugar

160ml water

15g cornflour

35g white chocolate, melted

12.5g gelatine

Bloom gelatine. Bring cream and vanilla to boil. Meanwhile, place 175g sugar 140ml water and set over a medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. Heat it until golden caramel in colour. When whisking, pour boiled cream over caramel. Make a paste out of remaining sugar and water and add it to the caramel. Bring it back to boil. Take off the heat, add chocolate and mix until smooth. Stir in gelatine.Strain into a jug and cover with cling film. 

ASSEMBLY

To assemble the cake, line the inside of your mould with acetate strip. Place on the baking sheet lined with the baking paper. Pipe a layer of praline cremeux until just half way up the mould. I used 18x18m square one plus 6cm round one.

Apricot insert, rice crispies layer and carrot cake need to be the same size so I cut out 16x16cm squares. Place apricot insert into the middle of the praline and push it gently. Place rice crispies square on top of the insert, followed by the carrot cake, pressing down gently between each layer.

Put it in the freezer until completely firm.

when caramel glaze is at about 40C, unmould your cake onto a wire rack.  Pour over the glaze to cover completely. 

To decorate it, you can follow Anna Polyviou's recipe and add some more components. I used leftovers from carrot cake. Baked them until crispy, whizz in the blender. Also leftover apricots, sauteed. And a dollop of cream cheese and mascarpone mousse.     

It was an adventure. Not everything was performed perfectly (never is in my case :)) but when it came down to taste....I have no words!

Blueberry Tart with a Hint of Lemon

It is one of those desserts that will amaze your guests but you will not need a half a day to prepare it. Nice and quick, yet unbelievably delicious. Even quicker, if you have shortcrust pastry leftovers in your freezer.

You will need a pastry shell ( you can use this recipe) of your chosen size. It will depend on how many people you invited :).

For the filling: (20cm tart)

200g mascarpone cheese
150g whipping cream
120g melted white chocolate
2tbs lemon liqueur
zest from 1 lemon (more if needed)
Whip mascarpone cheese and cream together in a bowl. Add a liqueur and keep mixing gently, do not overwork it. At the end add melted chocolate. It must be room temperature, otherwise it will not incorporate correctly. This is it, assembly time! Spread the filling onto a tart shell, top it up with fresh blueberries. Into the fridge for at least 2h. When serving you can dust it with a little bit of icing sugar.