make life sweeter!

Finally a Daring Bakers challenge that I made before the reveal date :) This month's challenge was to make a Piece Montée (also called croquembouche).
I made the cake for my middle son's birthday party so I wanted to go with a more child-friendly decoration than caramel. Instead of caramel to build the tower, I used molten white chocolate (with a little coconut fat added). I submerged the puffs completely to get a uniform white chocolate look. Besides the white chocolate I also used toothpicks to keep the puffs together. Being naughty I didn't use the required crème patisserie to fill the puffs but used raspberry whipped cream that I stabilized with gelatin. I needed to have the cake ready on a schoolday at 9:30 a.m. so I didn't have the time to finish filling and building the cake in the morning. Besides that I was afraid that the crème patisserie wouldn't give as good a result the next morning as the whipped cream would, in other words I was hoping for a less soggy result. After building the puffs into a tower I wasn't too sure that the cake would look decent. Fortunately after the chocolate hardened in the fridge it already looked much better. The decoration was made out of marzipan that I just moulded into various shapes (the little guy loves snails and worms so I made those). As there were lots of girls coming to the party I added some little flowers too. I let the marzipan dry a bit overnight and painted the shapes with slightly diluted gel coloring (first time doing that and liked the end result a lot). I must say that I was very happy with the outcome, they looked pretty (though maybe yucky to some too ;) The birthday boy was really smitten with the cake :)

No real challenge's for me personally this challenge but I loved doing it anyway. If I ever make one again I'll do the traditional one and do a little spun caramel around the tower too :)

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

Recipes:
For the Vanilla Crème Patissiere (Half Batch)
1 cup (225 ml.) whole milk 2 Tbsp. cornstarch 6 Tbsp. (100 g.) sugar 1 large egg
2 large egg yolks 2 Tbsp. (30 g.) unsalted butter 1 Tsp. Vanilla
Directions:
1. Dissolve cornstarch in 1⁄4 cup of milk. Combine the remaining milk with the sugar in a saucepan; bring to boil; remove from heat.
2. Beat the whole egg, then the yolks into the cornstarch mixture. Pour 1/3 of boiling milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly so that the eggs do not begin to cook.
3. Return the remaining milk to boil. Pour in the hot egg mixture in a stream, continuing whisking. 4. Continue whisking (this is important – you do not want the eggs to solidify/cook) until the cream
thickens and comes to a boil. Remove from heat and beat in the butter and vanilla.
5. Pour cream into a stainless steel/ceramic bowl. Press plastic wrap firmly against the surface. Chill immediately and until ready to use.
For Chocolate Pastry Cream (Half Batch Recipe):
Bring 1⁄4 cup (about 50 cl.) milk to a boil in a small pan; remove from heat and add in 3 ounces (about 80 g.) semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, and mix until smooth. Whisk into pastry cream when you add the butter and vanilla.
For Coffee Pastry Cream (Half Batch recipe)
Dissolve 1 1⁄2 teaspoons instant espresso powder in 1 1⁄2 teaspoons boiling water. Whisk into pastry cream with butter and vanilla.
Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
3⁄4 cup (175 ml.) water 6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter 1⁄4 Tsp. salt 1 Tbsp. sugar 1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour 4 large eggs For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Preparing batter:
1. Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
2. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
3. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.
4. Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. 5. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes.
6. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
Piping batter:
1. Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
2. Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.
3. Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
Baking:
1. Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes.
2. Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool. Can be stored in an airtight box overnight.
Filling:
1. When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.
Use one of these to top your choux and assemble your piece montée.
Chocolate Glaze:
8 ounces/200 g. finely chopped chocolate (use the finest quality you can afford as the taste will be quite pronounced; I recommend semi-sweet)
Melt chocolate in microwave or double boiler. Stir at regular intervals to avoid burning. Use the best quality chocolate you can afford. Use immediately.
Hard Caramel Glaze:
1 cup (225 g.) sugar 1⁄2 teaspoon lemon juice
Combine sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan with a metal kitchen spoon stirring until the sugar resembles wet sand. Place on medium heat; heat without stirring until sugar starts to melt around the sides of the pan and the center begins to smoke. Begin to stir sugar. Continue heating, stirring occasionally until the sugar is a clear, amber color. Remove from heat immediately; place bottom of pan in ice water to stop the cooking. Use immediately.
Assembly of your Piece Montée:
You may want to lay out your unfilled, unglazed choux in a practice design to get a feel for how to assemble the final dessert. For example, if making a conical shape, trace a circle (no bigger than 8 inches) on a piece of parchment to use as a pattern. Then take some of the larger choux and assemble them in the circle for the bottom layer. Practice seeing which pieces fit together best.
Once you are ready to assemble your piece montée, dip the top of each choux in your glaze (careful it may be still hot!), and start assembling on your cake board/plate/sheet. Continue dipping and adding choux in levels using the glaze to hold them together as you build up. (You may want to use toothpicks to hold them in place)

I wish I finished this month's Daring Baker's challenge on the day I intended: on Christmas eve. This was the evening I invited family for a Christmas diner. I already did some preparations to make it but just before going to bed on the 23rd I discovered that I wouldn't be able to finish the entremet in time because of lack of time. I didn't register that you had to freeze it overnight in between :( Lucky for me that this dessert was one of the desserts I planned on making so it was no problem from my guests. But I was sad that I didn't have this showstopper to serve along with the rest. In the end it turned out I wouldn't have been able to make it in time anyway even without the overnight freezing. I wasn't going to make this dessert for just the 4 of us so I finished it today to take with us to friends of ours who have recently moved to the US and are back in the Netherlands for the Holidays. We're spending the last days of 2008 with them in a holiday home near Apeldoorn. I don't think there will be an internet connection over there so you'll have to manage with only a picture of the outside. Will provide the inside when we get back on the 31st.
I didn't do extravagant things with the flavours, I left the dark chocolate mousse as the recipe, same for the crème brûlée and crispy chocolate insert. The only things I flavoured differently were the ganache that I flavoured with orange essential oil, yum! Added about 15 drops. For the dacquoise I used 10% bitter almonds to get a stronger almond taste and flavoured it with ½ ts of cinnamon. The end result was just delicious! It tasted like good marzipan flavoured with cinnamon, definitely a keeper! I'm curious how the complete dessert will taste.
So how was the process? A quick recap:

- The crème brûlée took a LOT longer to set, I think it took double the time, besides that it was easy to make (was the first time I made crème brûlée :)

- The crispy chocolate insert was easy, I used a butterscotch chocolate bar (with small pieces of crunchy caramel bits) in addition to the praline.

- I couldn't find glucose of corn syrup (not common in the Netherlands, the shop I knew where to get it was sold out from Thanksgiving and were only able to get a new batch at the end of January!). Instead I used something could corn/malt syrup, someting I found in the health shop. Didn't taste the same but I guessed it more or less had the same qualities. Worked out fine.

- I heated the pâté à bombe in a double boiler after adding the mixing in the sugar syrup because according to my calculations there was no way the egg yolks would be cooked enough to make it pregnant woman and children proof. This also makes the pâté à bombe even more stable. While checking the temperature I ruined my electric thermometer, it got stuck between the whisks of my hand mixer :( The hand mixer is in bad shape too :(

- Mousse worked well, though it was a bit on the bitter side because I used 70% chocolate.

- Ganache was easy and tasted very good (have left-over :)

- Assembly wasn't difficult but I'm curious if the layers will be parallel

- I added an extra layer of crunchy chocolate against the ganache.

- I was distracted during the making of the chocolate icing so it nearly boiled over. Ended up with small lumps too. Removed them when possible after icing.

- Though the icing covered the back of a spoon I think it was still too liquid when I poured it over the mousse. Well better too liquid than too stiff.

- I used marzipan dipped in cocoa for decoration

Like I said, I'm curious about how all components taste together. Also curious about the textures in frozen state. Will update about that on the 31st , together with a picture of the inside.



Update:
I tasted the entremet and thought it was good but like I already said, the mousse was a bit on the bitter and not so sweet side. Would use a chocolate with less cocoa content next time. The orange ganache was a delicious addition. The dacqoise didn't come through like it did on it's own but was still a good base. My layers were pretty level, so I was happy with that. Above the crème brûlée is a not so visible crispy chocolate layer. The picture is not very clear but from the bottom there is almond cinnamon dacqoise, orange ganache, crispy chocolate, chocolate mousse, crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, crispy chocolate, more chocolate mousse and chocolate glaze.
Sorry about the not so clean cut ;)

This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux.
They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand.

I made this cake for friends of ours who just had a baby son. Instead of using 'blauw met witte muisjes' (blue and white anise seed sprinkles) I wanted to make something with a pea in the pod theme even though this was not a baby shower cake. I mean, a pod filled with peas is like a family, right? Seemed like a fun enough idea. The original idea was to just make a marzipan pod with four white chocolate truffle peas (they already have a little girl) in a pod. I was very happy with the cuteness of the pod when I finished it. Instead of presenting it on a little plate I made a simple mini cake glazed with orange coloured (and orange flavoured) white chocolate ganache. I wouldn't normally opt for this colour combination but the birth announcement had these colours so the parents were bound to like the combination.
The pod looked a bit lost on the cake, even though it was a small cake. To fill up some of the vacant space I cut out the first letters of the first names of the family. Problem solved ;) In retrospect I think more peas (not pods) would have been a prettier but I was running out of time (as usual ;)

Peas in a pod

35 g (1 ¼ oz) heavy cream
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped
green food colouring
caster sugar
about 100 g (3 ½ oz) marzipan

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and combined. Add a little green food colouring. Allow to cool to room temperature. Chill for a few hours before rolling. Roll the ganache into 2 smaller and 2 bigger balls. Roll the truffles in some caster sugar to cover. Cover and chill until ready to assemble the pod.

Colour the marzipan green with some green food colouring. Roll it out until about 5 mm (¼ in) thickness. Put a piece of baking paper up till the middle and fold the marzipan over. Cut out a pea pod shape free hand but it should be big enough to contain the 4. Fold the top layer of marzipan back and remove the baking paper. If you're lucky you should see an imprint of the cut layer that was on top. If not, cut it free hand.
Place the 2 bigger truffles in the middle towards the edge of the marzipan. Place one small truffle on the left and one on the right of the bigger truffles. Fold the marzipan over the truffles, creating a pod shape. Adjust the marzipan were needed.
Cover and chill until ready to assemble the cake.

Cake

makes a 15 cm (6 in) cake

60 g (2 oz) butter, softened
60 g (2 oz) caster sugar
1 large egg
60 g (2 oz) flour, sifted
¼ ts almond extract

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Grease a 15 cm (6 in) springform or cake pan. Mix the butter with the sugar until pale and white. Add the egg and continue to mix for a few minutes. Fold in the flour.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Orange white chocolate glaze

50 g (1 ¾ oz) heavy cream
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped
a few drops of orange essentail oil
orange food colouring

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and combined. Add the orange essentail oil and a little orange food colouring. Pour the glaze over the cake and help it along with a spatula when necessary.

When I think spring, I think flowers so it wasn't difficult coming up with this cupcake to enter Spring Funny Cuppy that is hosted by La casserole carrée and Les gourmandises d'Isa.
Also today is my sister-in-law's birthday so Happy Birthday S! She will be getting this little cupcake :)

I used a basic recipe for pound cake (creaming butter and sugar, adding eggs and finally flour) instead of using regular sugar I used palm sugar and instead of using regular flour I used spelt flour. I flavoured the cakes with ground ginger. Will be posting this particular recipe in the coming week. Decoration is - as usual - made of marzipan. The frosting is made of white chocolate ganache. The ratio was supposed to be 1 part whipping cream and 2 parts white chocolate but I sort of missed a chunk of chocolate so I ended up with a ratio of more like 1:1. I had to thoroughly chill the ganache to stick the marzipan in it. Hope I will be able to transport the cupcake to S. without the flowers falling...

I never knew there was a thing called yellow cake until I read about it on Mansi's Fun and Food. The yellow in the cake comes from using egg yolks instead of whole eggs, how interesting....
So when I needed to make some cupcakes for Arfi's Spectacular Cupcakes 2008 I decided to use the concept of yellow cake. I didn't use Mansi's recipe but used a basic recipe for pound cake and used egg yolks instead of whole eggs. With the egg whites missing in the recipe I added a little baking powder to compensate for this.
The cakes are flavoured with rosewater and cardamom. I've seen many recipes for cakes with rosewater but the amount used varies greatly. Trying to avoid a soapy taste I didn't put too much in. The end results were cupcakes with a hint of rose but nothing overpowering. I thought it was just right for the combination with the marzipan. If you're a big fan of rosewater you might want to use a little more. The cardamom is subtle too btw. I really liked the use of egg yolks, it seems to make the cake moister (more moist?) and richer. And of course more yellow (sorry no inside-of-cupcake photo).
I actually made ⅓ of the recipe below because there's a limit to the amount of baked goods one can eat or should eat ;) I used 2 medium egg yolks and weighed them, they were 35 g (1 ¼ oz). I needed 50 g (1 ¾ oz), adding an extra yolk would have been too much (have to be careful not to add more egg yolks than flour in weight). So I added a tbs of milk (=15 ml=15 gram (½ oz)...well nearly). So I'm not sure how much egg yolks you'd use for the recipe below. Best to weigh them till you have (nearly) 150 g (5 oz) and if necessary fill up with milk.
The decoration is made out of marzipan. My favourite molding material ;) and also in my favourite colour combination.

Note - be sure to use fresh marzipan or well stored marzipan, mine was a little bit on the dry side as is visible in the flower.

Rosewater and cardamom yellow cake cupcakes

makes 12

150 g (5 oz) flour
½ ts baking powder
½ ts cardamom powder
150 g (5 oz) caster sugar
150 g (5 oz) butter, diced and room temperature
150 g (5 oz) egg yolks (about 6 large I think)
milk (if needed to get to 150 g of egg yolks - see text above for explanation)
1 ts rosewater
green and pink marzipan

Preheat the oven to 150°C (300°F). Line a 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners.
Mix the flour, baking powder and cardamom. Sift the mixture.
Cream the sugar and butter. Add the yolks one at a time, mixing it in well before adding the next. (Add the milk). Add the rosewater. Add the flour in 4 additions and carefully fold it in. Fill the muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes or until pale yellow with a hint of brown. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Knead the pink marzipan until smooth, trying not to overheat it. Roll out the marzipan to 2-3 mm (1/16 - 1/8 in) thickness. Cut it into 12 rectangles of about 15 cm x 7 cm (6 in x 3 in). Lightly mark a line about 1½-2 cm (½ - ¾ in) on the long side of each rectangle. Repeatedly cut the marzipan up to the marked line, about ½ cm (1/5 in) wide. Fold the marzipan double lengthwise. Roll up the marzipan to create a flower. Adjust 'petals' that might come loose. Cut off part of the bottom to get a flatter flower.
They are not difficult to make, just use your common sense and forget about my horrible explanation ;)
Knead the green marzipan until smooth, trying not to overheat it. Roll out the marzipan to 2-3 mm thickness. Cut out a round that will fit on the cupcake.
'Glue' the marzipan circles onto the cupcakes using whatever 'glue' you like (or no glue like I did ;) You could use melted white chocolate, some heated apricot preserves or royal icing.
'Glue' the flowers on top.