Blackberry Mousse Cake

I've been wanting to make a mousse cake for a while and I knew when I made one, I would make one based off of Verdade de sabor (an awesome Russian blog I stumbled upon). 
The recipe below is a transcribed/ modified version the translated recipe from Verdade de sabor: torta rubus. Lots of things didn't make sense with the straight translation, so I made sure to list my modifications.

Heads up, it's a very long process. Lots of freezing/ cooling wait steps. Not for the faint of heart. However, the blackberry mousse and gel is really good. So if you're going to make anything, make those. :D

There are 6 components: the chocolate sponge (sort of like a Jaconde sponge), blackberry jam, blackberry mousse, blackberry gelée, vanilla cream cheese mousse, and a mirror glaze. This recipe is for a circular cake around 7.5 - 8 inches diameter).

1. Chocolate Sponge:

70 g almond flour
70 g powdered sugar
70 g egg yolk
30 g egg white (1)
130 g egg white (2)
45 g sugar
55 g flour
20 g cocoa powder
25 g melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 440F. Get a sheet pan and lie down some parchment paper of silpat.

2. Mix almond flour and powdered sugar.

3. To that same bowl, add the yolks and the whites (1) and beat until smooth.

4. Add the sifted flour and cocoa powder.

5. Make a meringue by whisking the second egg whites (2) with the sugar to stiff peaks.

6. Fold the meringue into the rest of the ingredients.

7. Finally, add the melted butter and gently mix.

8. Pour the dough on a baking sheet (it shouldn’t really move that much since it’s a thick batter, so just make sure it’s spread out enough for the size of the cake you’re making) and bake for 6 minutes. Use a toothpick to make sure the batter has cooked.

9. Cool cake and separate from silpat. Cut out your cake shape (6.5-7in).


2. Blackberry jam:

70 g sugar (1)
15 ml of water
40 g corn syrup
200g frozen blackberries
8 g pectin
45 g sugar (2)
12 ml lemon juice

1. In a small bowl, mix the sugar (2) and pectin.

2. In a small saucepan, add the water, corn syrup, frozen blackberries and lemon juice. Put on medium heat, stirring constantly.

3. Once the sugar has dissolved and blackberries have thawed, stir the mixture until it’s very smooth.

4. When it comes to a boil, take off the heat and pour a thin stream of a mixture onto the sugar/ pectin, stirring constantly.

5. Put back into the saucepan and boil on high for a few minutes until it reduces a good amount (about 5 minutes).

6. Remove from heat and strain through a sieve. Let cool.

7. When the jam has cooled and thickened, put a thin layer on top of the sponge cake. Put in the fridge to cool.


3. Blackberry Mousse:

90 g heavy cream
90 g of blackberry pulp (pureed)
3.5 g gelatin (+ about 15 g water to bloom)
18 g berry liqueur
30 g Italian meringue **
**
15 g water
60g sugar
30 g egg white

1. Bloom the gelatin. Stir water into gelatin to get an apple sauce like consistency.

2. Heat the blackberry puree over medium heat and dissolve the soaked gelatin in it. Pour in a bowl and leave to cool.

3. Prepare the Italian meringue:
a. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water.
b. On low and stirring occasionally, cook the syrup.
c. Start whisking the egg whites until foaming.
d. When the syrup reaches 240F, remove the saucepan from the heat pour in a thin stream, while whisking the egg white.
e. Continue whisking to stiff peaks, then add in the berry liqueur.

4. Whip the cream. Prechilled bowl and whisk speed up the process.

5. Fold in meringue into the puree/gelatin (make sure it’s not warm).

6. Fold in the whipped cream into that mixture.

7. Pour the mousse into a mold or cake ring (6.5-7in) for and make a layer a little under an inch. Freeze.


4. Blackberry Gelée:

4.5 g gelatin (+ about 15 g water to bloom)
100 g pulp of blackberry (pureed)
50 g water
30 g sugar

1. Bloom gelatin. Stir water into gelatin to get apple sauce consistency.

2. Head the blackberry puree, water and sugar in a small saucepan and dissolve sugar and 
bring to a boil.

3. Remove from heat and add the gelatin. Mix. 

4. Cool to room temperature. 5. Pour over the frozen blackberry mousse, forming a thin layer (less than half an inch). Freeze.


5. Vanilla Cream Cheese Mousse:

70 ml of milk
50 g sugar
2 tsp vanilla (or to taste)
4 egg yolks
9.5 g gelatin (+about 20 g water to bloom)
250 g of cream cheese
350 g heavy cream
40 g dark chocolate (shaved/ chopped)

1. Bloom gelatin.

2. Add egg yolks and sugar into a bowl and whisk a bit until they become a bit whiter in color.

3. In a saucepan, mix milk and vanilla and bring to a boil.

4. As soon as the milk starts to boil, remove it from the heat and pour a thin stream (about half the milk mixture) onto the egg yolks/sugar, whisking constantly. This is tempering the egg yolks so they won’t scramble.

5. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan with remaining milk and set on low heat.

6. While constantly mixing/ whisking, bring the mixture up to 170F.

7. Remove from heat and add in gelatin and stir until fully dissolved.

8. Stir in the room temp cream cheese.

9. If the mixture isn’t already, let it cool to 85F.

10. Whip the heavy cream.

11. Fold the whipped cream into the cream cheese mixture.

12. Fold in the chocolate shavings.


Assembly:

1. In a larger mold (8in), add about half of the cream cheese mousse.

2. Next, add the frozen layers of blackberry mousse and jelly and gently push them into the mousse.

3. Next, lay out the remaining mousse with cream cheese.

4. Finally, add the layer of sponge cake with blackberry jam and also slightly push it to the mousse.

5. Add saran wrap to cover/tighten the mold and put into the freezer for a few hours.


6. Mirror Glaze:

100 g white chocolate
35 g condensed milk
50 g sugar
61.25 g corn syrup
25 ml water
4 g gelatin (+ about 15 ml water to bloom)

1. Mix gelatin in water until you get an apple sauce consistency.

2. In a small pot add corn syrup, water, matcha powder, and sugar and bring to a boil.

3. Add in gelatin and condensed milk. Whisk until gelatin fully dissolved.

4. In a bowl with the chocolate, add the liquid mixture and whisk until chocolate is fully melted. If you have a hand blender, I highly recommend that you use it to blend the chocolate.

5. Portion off and add desired food coloring. Do some more hand blending.

6. Bring the glaze to about room temp.


Final Decoration:

1. After cake has set, remove from mold and set it on top of a smaller bowl or something in a sheet pan.

2. Pour glaze over, creating desired designs with other colors.

3. Let the glaze fully drip off. Clean off the surplus drips on the bottom of the cake and then transfer to a serving plate.

4. Garnish with whatever other fancy stuff you want.

5. Freeze or refrigerate. The mousse tastes when it’s not frozen, but even then, still good!

This is a marathon to make. I guarantee it's delicious though! Gluck!

Matcha Strawberry Sponge Cake

There are 5 main components for the cake, including the macarons (green tea sponge, whipped cream frosting, green tea glaze, green tea macaron shells, strawberry curd filling). The optimal timeline is probably: make the cake and whipped cream and assemble and chill. Make mirror glaze and cool to RT. While that's cooling, make the macarons.

1. Matcha Sponge : [makes 1 jelly roll sheet]
112g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
16 g matcha powder
1/4 tsp salt
5 large eggs, separated
156 g granulated sugar
60 g whole milk

1. Oven at 400F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat

2. Whisk together sifted flour, baking powder, green tea and salt.

3. In a different, large bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and milk until pale.

4. Separately, whisk egg whites until medium stiff peaks (if you whisk too stiff, it's harder to incorporate).

5. Add dry mixture to wet mixture and fold together. Then slowly fold in the medium stiff egg whites.

6. Pour batter onto the baking sheet and then rap the sheet down a few times to release any big air bubbles.

7. Bake for 9 minutes (a toothpick should go in and out cleanly).

8. Using a knife or something thin, move along the edge of the pan and cake. Remove cake from pan and silpat and let cool on a baking rack.


Note: I'm guesstimating on amounts for the whipped cream frosting. To make it stabilized, just make a corn starch paste first and add enough to make the whipped cream firm. Also sugar can always be adjusted based on your sweetness preferences.
 
2. Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting:

350 g heavy whipping cream
10 g powdered sugar
10 g powdered sugar
10 g corn starch
some strawberries, not wet and sliced 

1. Whenever whipping your own cream, make sure the first thing you do is throw your bowl and whisk attachment into the fridge or freezer. Cold is your best friend.

2. First make your corn starch paste. Add corn starch, one 10g of powdered sugar, and about 100 g of cream and stir in a pot.

3. Heat over medium, stirring constantly. When it becomes paste-like (you will see a drastic change in the consistency from liquidy to custard like), take the pan off the heat and continue to mix until smooth. Make sure it cools down to room temp (throw in freezer if need be).

4. Take out chilled bowl and whisk and add the second powdered sugar and remainder of the cream. Whisk until soft peaks.

5. Whisking at a fast speed, add in the paste (make sure it's not hot!), a bit at a time.

6. Whisk until stiff peaks.

7. Remove about 1/3 of the whipped cream and save that for the outside of the cake.

8. With the remaining 2/3, fold in the strawberries. You could also use whatever other fruit you like. Purees should work too, but just be careful of how much you add to not deflate the whipping cream (I usually make extra whipping cream if I know I'm adding a puree).


3. Matcha Mirror Glaze:

100 g white chocolate
35 g condensed milk
50 g sugar
61.25 g corn syrup
25 ml water
4 g gelatin (+ about 15 ml water to bloom)
3 g matcha powder

1. Mix gelatin in water until you get an apple sauce consistency. 

2. In a small pot add corn syrup, water, matcha powder, and sugar and bring to a boil.

3. Add in gelatin and condensed milk. Whisk until gelatin fully dissolved.

4. In a bowl with the chocolate, add the liquid mixture and whisk until chocolate is fully melted. If you have a hand blender, I highly recommend that you use it to blend the chocolate. 

5. Add desired food coloring.

6. Bring the glaze to room temperature or slightly colder. (You can cover it with cling wrap and throw it in the fridge, but be careful. You don't want it to solidify, but don't want to melt the whipped cream frosting either.)


4. Matcha Macaron Shells:

For about 10 1.5 inch macarons:
46 g almond flour (sift, no big almond pieces)
40 g powdered sugar
2 g matcha powder
35 g egg whites (room temp)
35 g granulated sugar

1. Oven to 300F (or 325F, see below). Measure out and sift your powdered sugar, matcha, and almond flour. Whisk together and set aside.

2. Make your meringue. Beat/ whisk your egg whites until frothy and start to incorporate the granulated sugar a bit a time. Beat until stiff peaks.

3. Okay. You should look up macaronage (folding of ingredients) on Youtube if you don’t know how already. Make sure you set aside some of the batter if you plan to make faces.

In summary: add in dry ingredients to the meringue, a third at a time until mixed. And folding by basically scraping along the edge of the bowl and then pressing down along the center in sort of a J shape. Do this until you have a lava like consistency, where you can pick up your spatula and the batter will drop down in a ribbon. My test is to bang the bowl on the table and see if the ribbon that just fell incorporates back into the main blob—if it does, it’s ready. Otherwise, I do a few more folds. Put into a piping bag.

Add black/ other food coloring to the batter you set aside and fold until the right consistency and put into a bag. (I have tiny piping tips, but if you don't, a sandwich bag with the very very end cut off would work well too.)

4. Pipe out your macarons. I use a silpat (would highly recommend). Rap the baking sheet against the table a few times. Pipe on derpy faces onto the shells. You could also probably use a toothpick if you're gentle enough.

5. I hate waiting for the shells to dry, so I cheat and actually put the oven temp at 325. Then I open the oven and hold the tray in the oven, rotating it every 10 seconds or so for about a minute. Then again for another 30 seconds. This quickly dries out the shells :p.
You want to be able to touch the shell and have it not be sticky. Then I drop down the oven temp back to 300 (it’s about this low anyways since the door has been open.)

6. Bake for 15-20 minutes.


5. Strawberry Curd:

5 - 8 strawberries, pureed (you can sieve if you want)
16 g corn starch
50 g granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
10ish g lemon juice
28.5 g butter (sometimes less, depending on how thick you make the custard)

1. Add puree to a pot. Heat up until simmering.

2. Lightly beat the egg yolk and add sugar, sifted corn starch, and lemon juice. Get it so it's not lumpy.

3. While whisking, slowly add the heated up puree onto the egg/sugar/cornstarch/lemon. You're tempering the egg to prevent it from scrambling. Once it's fully incorporated, add the mixture back into the pot and stir constantly on medium. Eventually, it'll start to thicken. I usually thicken until it's a nice paste.

4. Take off the heat and stir in the butter, a little a time.

5. I transfer to a piping bag and chill it in the fridge for a short while to firm up before piping onto my macaron shells.


Assembly:

1. Slice off a small piece for topping decoration. Slice cake into thirds. Remove any obvious crumbs.

2. Smooth out a layer of strawberry whipped cream between the cake.

3. Use the normal whipped cream to surround the cake. I go slowly to not get crumbs showing. You can add a small amount then throw it in the fridge. Then add the final amount to cover any crumbs.

4. Once finished frosting, chill the cake in the fridge or freezer.

5. When mirror glaze if room temp and the cake is cool, add it over the top, with only small amounts so you can get some nice drips.

6. Assemble macarons.

7. Make the top look pretty by adding sliced strawberries, macarons, cake fragments (from that small piece you cut off before you sliced it into thirds), and strawberry curd.

Enjoy!

Guava Crepe Cake

I've made a few different crepe cakes, but despite this, it always takes a gazillion years. Really tasty, but long and laborious. Definitely worth at least one try though :D. Traditional mille crepe cakes have 21 crepe layers (but no one will notice if you do less or more :p. This recipe should provide enough batter and pastry cream for up to ~25-30 crepe layers.

Crepes

650 g milk, room temperature!

240 g flour
90 g sugar
4 eggs
50 g butter, melted
70 g guava puree (you don't need fruit puree, but if you do, add a little less milk)

1. Sift flour into a large bowl.

2. Add sugar and mix briefly (I use a whisk).

3. Add in eggs and mix.

4. Add in milk, slowly at a time. Once about half the milk is added and mixed, add the rest and the guava puree.

5. Add melted butter and mix fully.

6. Pour mixture through a sieve. Want runny consistency.

7. Cling wrap and throw into fridge for at least 30 minutes. Longer is better.
8. After mixture has become cold, take a pan and on low to medium heat, add a small amount of batter. It takes some trial and error to figure out the right about to cover your pan.

9. When the edges of the crepe become dry (a minute or so), flip over and cook for a short while longer (<1 minute).

10. Repeat.

11. To get a consistent size, place a bowl or something circular over the crepe and cut off excess scraps.

12. Let crepes cool completely before assembling.

 Pastry Cream
4 large egg yolks
37 g cornstarch
340 g milk
100 g sugar
70 g guava (or more, to taste) 225 g heavy cream
10 g powdered sugar

You need to make a custard and a whipped cream. Take your large bowl and whisk that you're going to make the whipped cream with and throw that into the fridge before you begin. You want it cold.

1. First prepare custard component. In a large bowl, combine egg yolks and cornstarch.

2. In a saucepan, high heat, combine milk, sugar, and puree. [NOTE, if you're using a different fruit that's acidic, it will curdle so instead fold puree into custard.]

3. Bring to boil and remove from heat.

4. While whisking constantly, slowly add to bowl with yolks and cornstarch. You are 

tempering the egg yolks so that they won't scramble.

5. Return the mixture to the saucepan on high heat.

6. Bring to rolling boil, while whisking/ mixing constantly. The mixture will become custard  like.

7. Sieve through a fine mesh into a bowl and cover the bowl with cling wrap. Make sure to press it directly onto the custard to avoid condensation.

8. Chill.

9. Now prepare whipped cream component. Take out the chilled bowl, whisk, and cream. 

10. Add cream and powdered sugar and whisk until firm peaks.

11. Take out guava custard and whisk a bit to loosen it up. Add a small amount of whipped cream to lighten the mixture even more.

12. Slowly fold in the rest of the whipped cream, making sure not to overfold (will deflate the cream).

Assembly

1. Assemble the cake on whatever you want it to be served on. These cakes are difficult to transfer.

2. Lay down a crepe and then add some pastry cream. Spread it out to an even amount.

3. Add another crepe. Then some more pastry cream.

4. Repeat.

5. Every few crepes, use something that's flat to press down onto the cake to help even it 

out. The edge of the cake will inevitably have less pastry cream than the center.

6. Once assembled, refrigerate for a few hours (will make it so much easier to cut into).

7. Top with powdered sugar.

8. Enjoy!