One rainy day in Malmö I invited some friends to show off some of my baking skill. As a reward my cake pictures have been taken to a next level by a renowned photographer, Anya. Thanks for your effort!
This intricate cake was, to be honest, my first work of art. It transformed my look into the pastry world. I is no longer something to eat, but to study, improve, experiment and show-off.
I combined a couple of recipes from a must-read book, if you are seriously interested in French pastry called The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts by Judith Choate, French Culinary Institute. I think this book is the best guide in the market for self-taught chefs.
Pâte á cornet
45 g cake flour
8 g cocoa powder
70 g confectioner (powder) sugar
35 g unsalted butter – melted and cooled
50 g egg whites at room temperature
First of, ix flour and cocoa, sift them. Separately, mix sugar and butter. Add egg whites alternatively with egg white mixture. Put your paste into a piping bag and draw on a baking sheet covered with a baking paper. If the dough is to runny to draw, put it in the freezer until it is firm enough (5-10 mins). When done, set the sheet into the freezer until you are done with your biscuit.
Vanilla biscuit
OBS: Use only a half of the biscuit is for the cake
110 g cake flour (or all purpose flour sifted)
1 tsp baking powder
60 ml whole milk
30 g unsalted butter
3 whole eggs
3 egg yolks
175 g caster sugar
Cook milk with butter until melted and well combined. Mix eggs with egg yolks and sugar over bain-marie (in a bowl over boling water, without touching it). Adding heat while whisking will give strength to the mixture and simultaneously helps to cook the eggs. Whisk the mixture vigorously so that it doesn’t scramble until you reach a ribbon stage. Mixture should reach 43C.
After that fold in carefully the flour, when done add the milk-butter. Pour a half of the batter over the frozen pâte á cornet and bake in 180C for about 10 minutes.
Forest fruit mousse
4 gelatin leaves or 12 g (4 tsp) of granulated gelatin
335 g fruit puree (mix your wild strawberries and blackberries and strain through a sieve to remove any kernels)
350 ml of chilled heavy cream
135 g caster sugar
65 g glucose or light corn syrup
125 g eggs at room temperature
Bloom your gelatin in a cold water, when done squeeze out the excess water. Heat up your fruit puree (don’t cook), just enough to melt the gelatin in it. Reserve in a cold place. Bear in mind that the puree should start to set before we add the remaining ingredients to it.
Whisk the heavy cream until stiff and fluffy and return to the fridge.
Melt the caster sugar with glucose until it reaches 116C. Do not try to mix the sugar, because the less you touch it the lower is the probability that it crystallizes. If you have some sugar on the sides of the saucepan during cooking, brush it down with a wet brush.
Beat your eggs until you reach soft peaks and gradually pour the sugar syrup in it. Continue whisking until the egg mixture is at its foamiest.
Now the most fun part: mix a 1/3 of the meringue with the puree and 1/3 cream. Then add the rest of the meringue and cream. Your mousse should be uniform in color, smooth and homogeneous.
Assemble
Cut out 2 circles of the biscuit and put one on a bottom of a cake pan the the other one leave for the top. Cut a strip from the biscuit to line the sides of the cake pan. Fill with the fruit mousse and let sit in the fridge or freezer for 2 resp. 1 hour.
On my cake session I also presented other pastries, which recipes you can read in the following posts: Mango cheesecake, layered cake with home made fondant, french baguettes and graham full-corn kaiser buns.
