Hey guys! How you doing! This cake is a chocolate mud cake with raspberry jelly, chocolate mousse and iced with chocolate ganache. Decorated with tempered chocolate triangles painted red.
I am just about to go back to work, we had a staff meeting at 2pm. It was about an hour just going over dress code, cash outs and upcoming events. We didn't get paid for the staff meeting either! What!? So while being in Canada I have a lot to tell you about the hospitality industry here. Especially in Vancouver where I am situated at the moment.
Working at a regular store as a sales assistant or retail assistant you would be on a wage of $12.50. With a typical room in downtown Vancouver costing about $800-900 average this is a very hard lifestyle to manage. The best way to make money is through the hospitality industry surprisingly. But don't get me wrong it is 10x harder then Australia and New Zealand hospo. In Australia as a sever your wage ranges from $20-$23.You get this wage paid no matter how many people walk through the door or how many tables you serve. It is a lot easier in Australia, if your a bartender in a busy service and your not pumping out the drinks, customer after customer you are still getting paid that wage.
Where here in Canada you get paid $9 an hour. It is expected that everyone tips on their meal/drink they have. When I first arrived in Canada I didn't know how the tipping system worked until I began working as a server on the ski resort. Basically 15% is expected of the whole bill for a tip. 4% is tipped to the kitchen and 1% to the bar. But it all depends on the company, all tip out percentages vary from restaurant to restaurant. At the ski resort I had top tip out 7% which is considered a lot. 5% is standard which is what I tip out at my new job. So if you have a bill of $75, you are expected to leave a gratuity of $11.25. This covers the server money to tip out the kitchen for the food you ate, and the tip out to the bar for the drinks you drank.
If you don't leave a tip, the server is literally paying for you to sit and eat/drink on one of her tables out of her $9 wage. Because she will have to tip out money to the kitchen and bar out of her wage because you didn't tip. So next time you decide to go get a few beers after work at the pub, grab a burger to eat, have brunch on a Sunday remember to always tip. Lots of people say I am not tipping servers they already make a killing, this is not true. I'm not saying we don't make money, but some nights we walk away with $200 and some days $20. We still do long hours probably longer then most people and work very hard. Regardless it is expected in North America and I always tell people if you can afford to eat that burger and drink that beer at a pub you can afford that $3.80 tip. Don't want to tip, don't eat out.
It was a big learning curve for me because I hated tipping, you never knew how much was acceptable. So I tend not to eat out much in Canada because of that reason. I think it has put me in a good routine and I just bring my food to work, or make dinners at home. I wish more people thought the way I did instead of dinning out on big bills and not tipping to save themselves $10. At work we get a lot of tourist not tipping because it's not their culture to tip and they have better wages back home. But I just wish they did a bit of research before they jumped on the plane. I had a $130 bill, split between 5 young adults and not a single person tipped. My boss was taking their payments because I was so busy with tables, he came up and told me none of them tipped. I was so shocked, I had a couple of laughs with this table, always checking in with them, always a clean table. My boss asked them how the service was they said I was great, very friendly, they said food was great, atmosphere was great in the pub. So we did nothing wrong just unknown to them what is expected in Canada. Because it's an option to tip a lot of tourist don't know its expected.
On saying that serving is the best job in the hospitality industry. You make the most tips most of the time. Bartenders tend to do very well on late nights and club nights. Kitchen get a good portion of tip out but they also have a very stressful job and work very demanding hours. I am so happy I jumped out of the kitchen and promised myself I would never go back. It's too hard for a girl to work in the kitchen with always men.
Anyway know you have learnt what tipping is expected in North America enjoy this cake recipe.
Recipe:
Rich Mud Cake Raspberry Jelly
Chocolate Ganache
Rich chocolate mousse:
Ingredients:
250g unsalted butter
200g good quality chocolate (60%)
330ml milk
330g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
260g all purpose flour
25g cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
Method:
Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Line 3 cake tins 11cm with butter and baking paper.
Place the butter, chocolate, milk, sugar and vanilla in a medium saucepan. Heat over medium heat stirring occasionally until everything has melted.
Set aside to cool slightly. Add the eggs at one at a time. Whisk until well combined.
Sift the cocoa, flour and baking powder in a seperate bowl. Make a well in the centre of the flours.
Pour the melted ingredients into the middle of the well and fold until all the ingredients are well combined.
Pour the cake batter into three seperate cake tins and place into the preheated oven.
Bake for 20-25 minutes, checking with a skewer.
Once the skewer is inserted and only a few crumbs or none are clinging to the skewer you know the cake is done.
Turn the cakes out on a wire rack and allow them to cool.
Tart Raspberry Jelly
450g fresh/frozen raspberries
Sugar
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon Salt
4-6 sheets gelatine
Method:
Soak the sheets of gelatine in ice cold water in a seperate bowl and set aside.
Combine fruit and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Bring to a simmer and cook constantly for about 10-15 minutes.
Transfer the mixture to a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl.
Allow the fruit to sit there for 4 hours, to drain all the fruit out of the raspberries.
Strain again with the sieve lined with a damp cheesecloth and you should be able to get more juice.
Add juice to a heatproof saucepan, for every cup of juice add 1/2 cup sugar. Add lemon juice and 1/4 teaspoon salt.
Return to the boil, stirring frequently.
To test if the jelly is done, dip a large metal spoon in the jelly, lift it horizontally above the pot and let the mixture drop back in. Jelly is done when mixture has thickened slightly and the jelly drops of the medal spoon in a sheet. (about 221 degrees)
Remove the pot from the heat and stir the jelly to begin to cool it down.
Squeeze the water excess out of the gelatine sheets. Add to the warm jelly and stir to combine.
Line small 6cm cake tins with glad wrap. Pour your jelly into the moulds. Allow it to set.
Assembly:
Slice the tops off the cakes so they are nice and levelled.
Begin layering your cake, place some chocolate mousse on top of the cake. Place a handful of fresh raspberries and place the small disc of raspberry jelly in the middle.
Cover up the filling with chocolate ganache and put on the new layer of cake.
Repeat this process until you have all the layers stacked. Crumb coat your cake and allow it to set it the fridge.
Complete your final coating of icing and pipe a simple border around the bottom of the cake.
Garnish with tempered chocolate triangles painted red.
Simple but elegant and delicious.
