I celebrated the beginning of 2014 with a cake. Cake makes me happy, more cake makes me happier! And this cake makes me very happy. Zingy passionfruit, dense chocolate almond sponge, fluffy passionfruitmousse, milkchocolate ganache and whitechocolate/passionfruit ganache. YUMMY! Get happy with this passion-bomb. On with the fatty-pants, grab a spoon and dig in :-D.
The recipe is a little long, but hang-on, it is worth it.
Chocolate Almond Sponge (22 cm):
- 50 g/ 1/2 cup of icing sugar
- 100 g grated marzipan
- 1 egg
- 15 g all purpose flour
- 10 g of cocoa powder
- 50 g of egg white
- 25 g/ 1/4 cups of icing sugar
Method:
Grate marzipan on a coarse grater.
Stir marzipan and icing sugar together into a marzipan mass.
Add 1 egg a little at a time.
Sift the flour and cocoa into the marzipan mass.
In another bowl, beat egg whites and the remaining 25 g/ 1/4 cups icing sugar into a meringue, and fold in the marzipan mass.
Draw a 22 cm/8.6 inch ring on a piece of baking paper.
Spread the batter on the baking paper inside the ring, the thickness should be about 0.3 inches / 0.7 cm.
Bake at 200°C/392°F for about 10-12 minutes.
Let it cool down.
Passionfruit purée:
- 340 g passionfruit pulp (about 12 passion fruits)
Method:
Cut the passionfruits in half and remove the pulp with a melon spoon or teaspoon.
Put the pulp into a small saucepan.
Slowly heat the pulp over low heat and simmer for 4-5 minutes .
Sieve the heated pulp through a strainer into a small bowl.
Wash the seeds and save them for garnish. (see tip below)
Whitechocolate passionfruit ganache:
- 75 g passionfruit purée
- 95 g/ 1/3 cup+1tsp/3,5 oz. of Heavy cream
- 15 g glucose syrup
- 250 g/ 2 cups/8.8 oz. of finely chopped white chocolate
- 1 tsp freeze-dried passionfruit powder
- 4 drops of passion fruit essence (available at specialty cake shops)
- 25 g/ 2 tbsp/ 0.88 oz./ 1/4 stick of butter.
Method:
Put passionsfruit purée, heavy cream and glucosesyrup in a small saucepan, heat it to the boiling point over low heat.
Mix butter and white chocolate in a bowl.
Pour the cream over the whitechocolate/butter and leave it for 4-5 min.
Stir until the mixture is uniform and blend with a hand blender for about 30 sec.
Make a 20 cm/7.8 inch cake ring ready and place it on a cuttingboard lined with baking paper.
Pour ganache into the cake ring.
Put a book or something heavy over the cake ring, to hold it down against the cutting board.
Place the cake ring in the refrigerator for approx. 1-2 hours.
Take out the ganache and move it to the freezer for approx. 1/2-1 hour .
Look every 5 minutes so it does not freeze too much. It should be solid enough for lifting and for the baking paper to let go.
Take it out when the paper release without any major problems. Lift ganach onto chocolate almond bottom.
Cover loosely with aluminum foil.
Make the milkchocolate ganache.
Milk chocolate ganache:
- 250 g finely chopped milk chocolate
- 225 g of heavy cream
Method:
Chop the milk chocolate.
Boil the cream in a small saucepan, keep an eye on it as it burns easily.
When the cream boils, pour it over the chopped chocolate.
Leave it for 4-5 minutes.
Shortly blend with a hand blender until the mixture is completely smooth. Let it cool slightly.
Put a cake ring around the white chocolate ganache and pour milk chocolate ganache on top of the white chocolate.
Place in refrigerator for 2 hours.
Passionfruit Mousse
- 120 g passion fruit puree
- 1 tsp freeze-dried passionfruit powder
- 2 1/2 sheets of gelatin (or gelatin powder equivalent to)
- 20 g icing sugar
- 10 ml Vodka
- 1 egg white
- 30 g granulated sugar
- 125g/ 0.53 cup/4,2 fl.oz. heavy cream
- 10 drops of passion fruit essence
- A little yellow fruit colour if you like.
Method:
Soak gelatine sheets or soften the gelatinepowder in water. Meanwhile, heat passionfruit purée and freeze-dried passionfruit in a small saucepan.
Remove the cake from the refrigerator and loosen the cake ring (I usually use a gas burner to remove the cake ring)
Move the cake ring out to 22 cm/8.6 inches, to fit the chocolate-almond sponge.
Add the gelatinesheets or gelatinepowder to the warm passionfruit purée and let it dissolve.
Add powdered sugar and vodka, stirring well.
Leave the mixture to cool a bit, but not too much, as the gelatin then set too much.
Whip the heavy cream stiff and fold into the passionfruit mixture.
Beat the egg whites till it thickens slightly and then add the sugar. Whisk until the mixture is stiff and glossy.
Fold the meringue into the whipped cream/passionfruit mixture.
The mousse is now ready to be poured into the cake ring.
Be careful around the edges to avoid air holes. I normally use a pipingbag for an even result.
Gently slam in on the table 2-3 times and put it in the refrigerator.
Let the mousse stiffen for at least 2 hours, or until it is fully set. Preferably overnight.
Attention! It may take longer than 2 hours.
TIP: Passionfruit seeds can be used in granolabars or granola crumble for yoghurt.
Tip1: The cake is beautiful with a passion mirror glaze(see gallery below), but it is not necessary.
TIP2: The recipe for chocolate almond base is from La Glace. Which is the number one pâtisserie in Copenhagen, Denmark. La Glace is the oldest pâtisserie in the capital and are well known for their cakes
The passionfruit mousse is inspired by www.copenhagencakes.com, I added a little passion fruit essence and freeze-dried passionfruit powder, to get a more prominent flavor of passion fruit.
See shelf-life on mousse cakes here.
[green-skrift]Very happy day from Katrine[/grøn-skrift]
