Hey guys, how are you going? I got up early this morning, 7am, I had my alarm set for 6am because I had an early night last night. But my housemates got home at 1.30 last night and had kick ons in our living room. Now I realise how thin the walls are from the living room to my room. I just kept putting my pillow over my head.
I love this cake so much, I think it is probably my favourite. I love how tall and elegant it looks but also how simple it is at the same time.
We have for you a rich chocolate mud cake soaked with boysenberry syrup, iced with chocolate ganache, boysenberry mousse, red berry jubes and crushed biscuits. Garnished with a chocolate sail, drizzled white chocolate ganache, boysenberries and macarons.
I painted the chocolate sail with some chocolate lustre paint in gold, I think it really helps with the whole finished look of the cake. The boysenberries I painted with gold as well on the tops and I love this look. I find when you paint certain garnishes with lustre paints it helps the light hit different parts of the cake that you normally wouldn't see.
Again because this cake was black forest and boysenberry themed I decided to stick with the purple colour when I was styling my shoot. I found these flowers on a small bush outside my room and knew they would photograph well. I kept the styling simple for this cake as I do for all my cakes, because the cakes are very complex and are distracting enough without huge props or lots of props.
I remember I had brought this glass at the farmers market myself and my mum would go to once a month. I hadn't found an opportunity to use it because a lot of my shoots are not that elegant they are more rustic. But I felt like this shoot it was the perfect occasion to use it. Plus is shows off my boysenberry macarons so well!
I don't know what is your favourite type of chocolate but as a kid I was a sucker for black forest. I loved the different textures you got all in one mouth full. The creaminess from the chocolate, the chewiness from the berry jubes and the crunchiness from the biscuit. Heaven! So I took this chocolate and tried to combine all those elements and textures into a cake.
I think as my skills developed in cake making and my eye for detail became more precise my style of cakes really developed. I learnt to love less is more and simple is better. Although you can get those amazing cakes that have a gizillion things going on, I grew to love the cakes that were simple but so effective.
I began using much more subtle colours when I could, fine tuning the garnishes and making sure everything I did was perfect or close to it. Making sure my icing is perfectly smooth, all my macarons are the same size. Ensuring all the small details were covered.
Let's get into the recipes! I have some good ones for you today!
Recipe:
Chocolate Buttermilk Cake:
Chocolate Ganache:
Boysenberry Macarons:
Chocolate Sail:
White Chocolate Ganache Drizzle
Boysenberry Mascarpone Mousse:
2 teaspoon powder gelatine
2 Tablespoons hot water
2 1/2 cups frozen boysenberries (thawed)
1 cup cream
2 egg whites
6 Tablespoons caster sugar
200g mascarpone
Method:
Stir gelatine in the boiling water until the crystal granules dissolve.
Puree the boysenberries in a blender until smooth. Push the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove seeds. Stir in gelatine and set aside.
Whisk the cream until medium peaks are formed, set aside.
In a clean dry bowl, place the egg whites in a bowl and beat on high with an electric mixer. Gradually adding a tablespoon of sugar at a time.
In another bowl mix together the pureed berries and mascarpone. Fold in the whipped cream and then the egg whites being very delicate to not deflate the egg whites.
Place the mousse in lined cake tins with glad wrap smaller then the diameter of the cakes your are going to make.
Set in the fridge until set.
Raspberry Jubes:
500g frozen raspberries (thawed)
800g caster sugar
40g liquid glucose
1 vanilla bean
12 sheets gelatine.
Method:
Combine raspberries and 40g of the caster sugar and 650ml water. Bring to a simmer over medium high heat and set aside. Allow it to sit for 1 hour to infuse.
Strain mixture into a large saucepan and scared seeds or any large solids.
Add glucose, remaining caster sugar and the seeds scraped out of the vanilla bean.
Cook over medium heat or until the mixture reaches 116 degrees on a sugar thermometer.
Meanwhile soak gelatine in cold water until it has softened (5 minutes)
Squeeze the excess water from the gelatine sheets and add to the raspberry mixture and stir to combine.
Pour the mixture into a prepared square tin with high edges. Make sure it is lined with glad wrap and set in the fridge to cool.
Once set, cut up the jubes into cubes and set aside until you begin assembling the cake.
Biscuit Clusters:
1 packet oreos
1 teaspoon salt
50-100g butter (melted)
Method:
Blitz the oreo biscuits until they resemble fine crumbs, fold in the salt and melted butter. Pack down into a rectangle tin and refrigerate to set.
Boysenberry Syrup:
100g sugar
100g water
100g boysenberries
Method:
Thaw out the boysenberries, blend them in a blender. Push the puree through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
Bring the water and sugar too a high simmer, heat the simple syrup mixture until the sugar dissolves.
Add the boysenberry puree to the simple syrup.
Assembly:
Evenly layer the cakes so they are flat on top.
Prick the cakes with a fork and make some holes in the cake layers. Brush each layer with some boysenberry syrup with a pastry brush.
Pipe a ganache border and place your boysenberry mousse disc in the middle of the cake layer. Sprinkle the cubes over the top of the mousse. Break up the biscuit mixture and sprinkle clusters over the top of the mousse.
Seal the layer with chocolate ganache and place another cake layer on top.
Repeat this process until you have no cake layers left.
Ice the fully layered cake with chocolate ganache using a crumb coat method and a final layer iced method.
Garnish the cake with a chocolate sail, macarons, white chocolate ganache drizzle and fresh boysenberries.
Yum! Enjoy your black forest cake!
xx
