Its only 16 days till Christmas. Although our family doesn't celebrate Xmas in the artificial way that is promoted on TV. We have a family dinner, and share the good times. I have learnt to love this and really couldn't ask for anything more at Xmas time. Family!
This cake is my most impressive cake yet! The technique in this cake is incredible. I actually shocked myself with how it turned out! But it is another one I can add to the portfolio.
Those lace balls, did take a lot of trial and error. But am happy to say I perfected them after a kitchen covered in chocolate and about 10 blocks of chocolate later. These lace balls had to be tempered so they did not melt at room temperature. If you don't know what tempered chocolate is, check out my other blog entry. Chocolate Spike Cake.
Although tempering white chocolate is a lot harder then dark chocolate because essentially white chocolate is not real chocolate. It doesn't have any cocoa butter in it.
This cake does take a lot of prepping, the chocolate scrolls, the chocolate snowflakes, the chocolate lace balls. I always do all my chocolate work a few days in advance so that I can bake the cake fresh for the customer.
This cake is a vanilla sponge cake, with passionfruit coulis and white chocolate mousse. And a vanilla swiss meringue buttercream. Garnished with all my homemade chocolate work.
I love the lace balls, they are meant to represent the ornaments on the Xmas tree. I think when you know that's the inspiration of these balls, they seem to look very similar.
So happy with my finished cake!
Place your sponge on some icing on a cake board the same size as the cake. Place icing on the sponge and spread it across evenly. Spread the passionfruit coulis over the cake. Repeat this until you have 5 layers.
Spread a thin amount of icing on the cake and make a crumb coat ( this seals in the loose crumbs )
Set it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Ice the final coat much thicker and apply your chocolate scrolls across diagonal ways.
Add your prepared lace balls and your snowflakes. Sprinkle your chocolate shavings over your cake.
Recipe:
Passionfruit Coulis
3/4 cup Passionfruit Puree
125g caster sugar
2 Tablespoons Water
Method:
Place all the ingredients into a saucepan, and let it simmer over love heat. Until the passionfruit puree turns to a thick syrup.
This is a multi purpose syrup that you can use on desserts and many other sweet baked goods.
White Chocolate Ganache Frosting:
White chocolate doesn't have as many cocoa solids as dark chocolate. So you need a ratio of Chocolate to Cream (2.1)
300g good quality white chocolate
150ml pouring cream
Method:
Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is simmering, bubbles floating on the sides.
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place into a glass bowl. Pour the hot cream over the top of the chocolate. Let it sit for 2 minutes.
With a spatula stir and fold the cream and chocolate together until a nice consistency is formed.
Wrap in glad wrap and let it sit on the bench at room temperature until it thickens up.
Once it has cooled down completely, with electric beaters, beat the chocolate ganache for 30 seconds to make a nice light frosting that is easy to spread.
I hope you all have a lovely xmas! Share the love and are kind to all your loved ones.
That's me out!
Till next time lovellies..
xx
LINZ
