Journey to the sweet side: julij 2016

This was one of the my first posts on my original blog, but given that it took so long to set up the English blog, bear with me and the bad photos (old camera :/ ) and homemade marshmallow fondant, where the seams just wouldn't blend in and I was only using it 'cause I thought it was cheaper (really wasn't).

I made this Winnie the Pooh as a tribute to my first ever fondant figurine and also fondant cake, now more than 4 years ago. The cake was frosted with melted chocolate (almost impossible to cut through later), uneven, badly covered with marshmallow fondant, the cracks were covered with circle cutouts, but the fondant Pooh turned out really good. And if I could make it on my first attempt, I am sure anybody can..

Start with some yellow fondant, shaping it into ball. Press the bottom part into the surface just a bit to get the ball a little wider at the bottom, but not too much, because the fondant will naturally settle into the surface on it own, before it starts drying and keeping its shape. The wider part will be Pooh's tummy sticking out underneath his shirt. Stick a toothpick in for support.

Roll out an even strip of red fondant the same width as the top half of the body.

Cut out an opening in the middle of the strip for his collar. Remove the cutout and roll down top part of the strip.

Roll the fondant strip around Pooh's body with the collar in front. Press together where both ends of the strips meet and cut away the leftover part. Blend in the seam.

Continue with the legs, rolling out two balls of yellow fondant into two rolls. Use a knife and cut halfway into the end of the roll and bend the end upwards so that a foot forms.

Attach both legs to the body with a drop of water.

Take another two balls of yellow fondant and also shape them into rolls, this time a bit shorter than for the legs. Shape a wrist by pressing down lightly with you finger at about a third of the length of the roll and rolling gently back and forth.

Dress around a third of the arm into red fondant the same way we dressed the body to make the sleeve.

Use small scissors or a knife to cut into the hand to form a thumb.

Attach both arms to the body the same way as the legs with a drop of water.

Lastly form the head. Shape most of the leftover yellow fondant (leave two small balls for later) into a egg like shape like below.

Lay the head on a surface and press on the narrower part to flatten it a bit.

Use your fingers to squeeze the wider part into a tip.

Take the two saved yellow fondant balls and flatten them using a round fondant tool to form two ears and stick them to the head using a small amount of water. Take some black fondant and shape a round-ish triangle for the nose. Add the eyes and the brows. Use a knife and make an incision for the mouth.

Place the head on the body and stick it on with a bit of water.

If you want, treat Pooh to some hunny :)

julij 29, 2016

If a friend asks me to make a cake for their kid's birthday I would always go out of my way to make that wish come true. Partly it's just because of my nature and the impulse to please others and partly because of the fact that I just don't get around to making as much cakes as I would wish, at least not such that are more intricate and with figurines. In a 4 people household there are still only 4 birthdays a year and only two of those require a kid cake. Unless I succumb to the temptation and make myself one as well.

So when I learned that this cake was needed just two days after we get back from our 2 week Boston trip, I wasn't exactly thrilled, but I just didn't have it in me to say no. I just hoped that the jet lag won't be too bad and I compromised a little. The cake can be made in advance and frozen, the dinosaur was also finished before we left, so this left me with a day and a half to defrost the cake, make the filling and frosting, finish the cake and cover it in fondant. I would have wanted some more time, but hey not all orders are perfect.

The extra request on this one? It had to be dairy free. My usual vanilla sponge recipe is dairy free anyway, because it uses oil instead of butter (same as here, just triple the amounts for a standard size cake). For the filling I usually use coconut whipping cream (same as in my Tropicana cake), adding dairy free melted chocolate or chocolate chips to get a chocolate or Stracciatella variation.

The dinosaur was just a matter of current inspiration, but it seems that I was sneaking peeks at my boys' latest cartoons, because this dinosaur turned out a bit like Arlo from the Good Dinosaur, don't you think?

birthday cake dairy free dinosaur kids

julij 29, 2016

Recently I had a request to make the triple mousse cake again. Actually some time has passed from my first attempt and these blog posts are consecutive only because I had finally gotten around to editing this blog as well. My original Slovene blog was and still is my priority. Given that both my blogs are still small and kind of new, I was surprised and beyond happy to get a very specified request saying to please make the triple mousse cake with some flowers like on my Mother's day cake. Yeeeay I am always excited to know that someone actually took time to look at my blog and that I actually have readers.

It was meant as a birthday surprise for my husband's colleague's mother. I didn't want this nice older lady to struggle with the firmer brownie base, so instead I chose a softer option, baking a vanilla sponge I most often use for my cakes. I baked only one disc to serve as the base. If you remember I also regretted the raspberry mousse from the original recipe not being raspberry tasting enough. I substituted the raspberry layer with the one from my Entremet recipe, which proved to be the winning combination. The amounts are also adapted for the bigger sized cake as before. Just note that after making it I noticed that the dark mousse layer is a bit taller than the other two, so the amounts below are already reduced and should give you even layers.

For a 26 - 28 cm size cake:

Sponge

100 flour

100 g brown sugar

2 eggs

40 ml water

40 ml oil

1 vanilla bean

6 g baking powder

Separate egg yolks and egg whites and whisk the egg whites to make a stiff meringue. Whisk the yolks together with sugar and vanilla so that it lightens in colour and doubles in size. Add oil and water and mix. Add flour and baking powder and mix well. Lastly fold in the meringue. Bake at 175° C, until golden brown. It is best to check to see if the sponge is done with a toothpick and if it comes out with no crumbs, remove from oven and let cool.

Dark chocolate mousse:

170 g dark chocolate

280 ml cream

pinch of salt

4 g gelatin (1 and 1/4 tsp)

20 ml water (1 and 1/4 tbsp)

Chop the chocolate into pieces and heat it together with 120 ml of cream and salt in the microwave. Heat until almost boiling, leave it for a few minutes, then stir to melt the chocolate. Leave to cool to room temperature. Soak the gelatin in water and let it bloom. Whip up the remaining 160 ml of cream. Once the chocolate has cooled, melt the gelatin in the microwave and add it to the chocolate. Mix well and add the whipped cream. Put the brownie base on a serving plate and line it with baking paper or acetate and a cake ring. Pour the mousse on the brownie and let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. It needs to set at least that much that we can pour the next layer on without them mixing.

Raspberry mousse

250 g raspberries

100 g sugar

6 g gelatin (2 tsp)

60 ml water (4 tbsp)

30 ml lemon juice (2 tbsp)

1 egg white

270 g cream

Mix the egg whites with 30 g sugar, heat over steam until the mixture is warm to touch, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and whisk for 5 minutes or until the mix has cooled down to room temperature to get a firm Swiss Meringue. Blend the gelatin with 1 tbsp water and 1 tbsp lemon juice and let it bloom. Mix the raspberries with 3 tbsp of water and 1 tbsp of lemon juice and puree with a hand blender. Heat the puree just a bit, since this will make it a bit less thick and strain everything through a fine mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Add the remaining sugar and cook on medium heat for 5 minutes. The sugar will make it somewhat thicker, then add gelatin and stir until it has dissolved. Cool the puree to room temperature and in the meantime whisk the cream to just a bit more than soft peaks. Add the raspberries to the Swiss meringue and fold it in until well mixed. Add the whipped cream and again fold it in. Pour over the at least partially set dark chocolate mousse.

Mousse bele čokolade

260 g white chocolate

360 ml cream

4 tbsp honey (60 g)
1 vanilla bean

pinch of salt
6 g gelatin (2 tsp)
30 ml water (2 tbsp)

Prepare the final mousse layer by chopping up white chocolate and mixing it with 120 ml cream, honey, vanilla and salt and melting it in the microwave. Repeat the step with gelatin and the remaining 240 ml of whipped cream as before with the dark chocolate mousse. Pour on top of the raspberry mousse. Leave in the fridge overnight.

brownie cake chocolate ganache mousse raspberries white chocolate

julij 28, 2016

If the oven is your addiction of choice, you bake for any occasion. Any excuse is good enough. Birthday, anniversary, holiday, moving party, your kid goes to school, your kid finishes school, it's the weekend, basically anything. You must really fight the urge to bake for any menial occasion like it it is the biggest event of the year. A while ago I changed my job and before I left, I treated my soon to be former colleagues to some homemade deliciousness. That's a good enough reason right? To lessen the blow? Suuuuure. I've baked for way less important occasions, so a life milestone must qualify!

This dessert caught my eye as soon as I saw its photo on Pinterest. And let me tell you it turns out it is not just love at first sight, but also love at first taste. Like so good that when you take it out of the fridge, you know that you will not be putting any of the leftovers back again. Or if you bring it to work and you have to disappoint your dear husband that there is no more pieces left for his taste test. Better luck next time. Because with this one, there is sure to be a next time.

For a 16 cm sized cake (double for 26 cm sized cake):

Brownie base:

50 g flour

40 g bitter cocoa

2 g salt

2 g baking powder

60 g butter

100 g brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp of vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean

Chocolate mousse:

130 g dark chocolate

210 ml cream

pinch of salt

3 g gelatin (1 tsp)

15 ml water (1 tbsp)

Raspberry mousse:

130 g white chocolate

180 ml cream

pinch of salt

3 g gelatin (1 tsp)

15 ml water (1 tbsp)

red food colour

100 g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

Vanilla mousse:

130 g white chocolate

180 ml cream

2 tbsp honey (30 g)
1 vanilla bean

pinch of salt

3 g gelatin (1 tsp)

15 ml water (1 tbsp)

To decorate:

60 g dark chocolate

60 ml cream

60 g fresh raspberries

Brownie base

Mix flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder together in a bowl and set aside.

Cut the butter into smaller pieces, melt them on low heat and add sugar. Let the sugar dissolve, but don't let it boil. The sugar might not entirely dissolve, but that is ok, as long as at least most of it dissolves. Remove from heat and wait until it cools to room temperature, then add eggs and vanilla.

Lastly add the dry ingredients. The batter will be very thick.

Pour it in a greased and floured cake pan and bake at 180° C for approx. 25 minut or until the toothpick comes out dry or with only a few crumbs attached.

This sponge will be really dense, actually it is not really a sponge, but really more like a mix between fudge and brownie. If you want a softer base, you should use another recipe.

Chocolate mousse

Chop the chocolate into pieces and heat it together with 90 ml of cream and salt in the microwave. Heat until almost boiling, leave it for a few minutes, then stir to melt the chocolate. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Soak the gelatin in water and let it bloom. Whip up the remaining 120 ml of cream. sladke smetane. Once the chocolate has cooled, melt the gelatin in the microwave and add it to the chocolate. Mix well and add the whipped cream.

Put the brownie base on a serving plate and line it with baking paper or acetate and a cake ring.

Pour the mousse on the brownie and let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes. It needs to set at least that much that we can pour the next layer on without them mixing.

Raspberry mousse

For the next layer puree 40 g of raspberries and use a fine mesh sieve to strain it to remove the seeds. Add 60 ml of cream together with a pinch of salt and heat it in a microwave the same as the dark chocolate mousse.

For visual effect you can add some red food colour because truthfully this will come out way more white than pink otherwise. I recommend gel food colours, which are highly concentrated, so use them just in small amounts. Repeat the step with gelatin and whipped cream as before with the previous mousse and pour it on the set chocolate mousse. Place whole raspberries into the raspberry mixture. If you want this to be more fruity, don't skimp on the raspberries, because I was hardly able to taste them in the mousse. The white chocolate is way to strong unfortunately (scroll to the bottom of the page for the solution).

Again let it cool in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Vanilla mousse

Prepare the final mousse layer by chopping up white chocolate and mixing it with 60 ml cream, honey, vanilla and salt and melting it in the microwave.

Repeat the step with gelatin and whipped cream as before with the previous mousses and pour it on the set chocolate mousse. Don't be alarmed by the colour of the mix, it will be kind of brown-ish and unlike the one you see in the finished photos, but once the mousse sets, it will lighten up and be more of a off white colour. Leave in the fridge overnight.

Final decorating

Chop up the dark chocolate and melt it together with the cream and let it cool a bit. Take the mousse from the fridge, remove the baking paper/acetate and the ring and pour the ganache over the top. The ganache should really cool to be a bit thicker. You can see that I was a little too impatient and my ganache was more on the runny side, hence the rim of the mousse shows through. Some fresh raspberries on top, but that is just my preference. Decorate as you wish and enjoy!