Hey guys! Oh do I have a goodie of an entry for you today! Look at this cake. I am thrilled how it turned out. Most of the time when people order cakes, I ask them the following questions.
Any allergies?
Any flavours you don't like?
Any favourite flavours you would like I cooperated into your cake?
Any designs you are thinking of?
What size cake?
From here most people tell me flavours they like and don't like, and what size they want. The rest they leave up to me. I loved this about my cake business because it made every cake unique that I was making and that they were recieving. I had a little notebook that I would carry in my handbag. Anywhere I was waiting for an apointment, on a break at work or waiting for the bus I would pull out my notebook and begin designing my cake for the next client. Most weeks I had 2-4 cakes a week so it was full on.
Today I have a chocolate buttermilk cake soaked with a strawberry glaze, layers of strawberry mousse, iced with three tone chocolate Swiss buttercream and finsihed off with a chocolate sail painted with gold.
I love the piped rosettes in a three tone ombré look. It goes from dark chocolate to milk chocolate to white chocolate gradually. I think this looks incredibly effective. Plus it's three different types of chocolate. And who doesn't love chocolate.
Back when I was making my cakes, I always adrmired the work of the fondant and gumpaste cakes. I tried making some gumpaste flowers and small decorations and they turned out lovely. But I would spend so long on these small decorations just for people to put them on the side of their plate and throw them away.
So I began researching chocolate and chocolate work. Because I am a huge fan of chocolate. It is my complete weakness. But only good chocolate. Like Lindt chocolate is my craving. I don't like diary milk chocolate it taste too artificial to me. I began learning how to make chocolate decorations and how to temper chocolate.
Don't get me wrong it took me a long time of trailing and error, going back to my note pad and troubleshooting. I finally began progressing in the tempering of my chocolate and that allowed my chocolate garnishes to become more difficult.
Recipe:
Rich Chocolate Rosette Cake
3 Tone Ombre Rosettes:
Mix 75g of good quality chocolate (white, milk, dark) with 300g swiss meringue buttercream in seperate bowls.
Chocolate Sail:
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
3/4 cups good quality cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 extra large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 cup freshly brewed coffee
Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Butter and line 3 cake tins 18cm.
Sift the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix until combined.
In another bowl combine the buttermilk, oils, eggs and vanilla. Whisk until the liquid is a uniform colour.
Slowly add dry ingredients, a cup at a time to the wet ingredients. Mixing well between increments. By incorporating the wet and dry ingredients this way you prevent lumps from forming.
Once everything is combined add the cooled down fresh brewed coffee to the batter and mix throughly.
Pour batter into prepared cake tins, evenly distributing between cake tins.
Bake cakes for 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer is inserted and the skewer comes out clean or a few crumbs attached.
Cool cakes in pans for 30 minutes before turning them out on a wire rack and allowing them to cool completely.
Strawberry Glaze:
170g strawberries
37.5g sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Method:
Cut the strawberries in half and place into a saucepan. Along with the sugar and the vanilla.
Cook over medium heat, continue stirring and breaking up the strawberries with the back of your wooden spoon, to help produce the syrup. Cook for another 15 minutes until it has thickened.
Remove from heat and place in a blender.
Set aside.
Strawberry Mousse:
225g strawberries
112g icing sugar, sifted
113g cream cheese softened
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
3 Tablespoons water (ice cold)
11/2 teaspoons gelatine
3/4 cup cold heavy cream
Method:
Place strawberries and powdered sugar (reserve 2 Tablespoons) into a blender. Blend on a high speed, you want a puree like texture. Add lemon juice and cream cheese and puree until smooth.
In a seperate smaller bowl, sprinkle the gelatine over the super ice cold water, and allow it to stand for 5 minutes.
Once gelatine has bloomed microwave for 10-15sec in the microwave to dissolve it.
Place the cream into a bowl fitted with a stand mixer, add icing sugar and whip the cream on high speed until hard peaks have formed.
Fold the cream mixture into the strawberry mixture. The mixture will be quite loose.
Place the mousse in lined 15cm cake dishes.
Line cake dishes with glad wrap and make sure there is some glad wrap falling over the sides. Then cover with glad wrap. Allow it to set and chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours, until it has set.
Assembly:
Slice the cooled cakes so they are levelled on top. With a pastry brush, drizzle on the strawberry syrup and allow it to soak into the cake. Pipe the buttercream around the cake to give it a border. Place your set mousse disk on top of the cake.
Place the next layer of cake on top of the mousse, and repeat the previous steps until you have no more cake or mousse disk left.
Frost your cake with the white buttercream, make a crumb coat on the cake.
Place the cake in the fridge and allow the crumb coat set.
Once the cake crumb set, begin piping with a star nozzle starting with the darkest coloured buttercream at the bottom, and working all the way to the top gradually getting lighter.
The best part about this decorating you don't need to wash the piping bag overtime you change colour.
It looks more natural because it will have streaks of the old colour in the new colour.
Place a chocolate sail on top, painted with edible gold paint.
And your all done!!
Until next time xxx
