Imagine, imagine... A Raspberry, Rosebuds and Dark Chocolate Entremet
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| Raspberry, Rosebuds and Dark Chocolate Entremet |
"Maybe there's a whole other universe where a square moon rises in the sky, and the stars laugh in cold voices, and some of the triangles have four sides, and some have five, and some have five raised to the fifth power of sides. In this universe there might grow roses which sing. Everything leads to everything."
- It, by Stephen King
Imagine a time when sunshine still felt like powdered pearl over hillsides in full bloom, like cupcake domes piped with buttercream ranunculus; a place where treasuries were made of folktales, caves teeming with memories distilled into shards of crystal stalagmites, and living spaces weaved to be filled with stories.
Imagine, imagine!
A time when the peel of pomegranates was still as thin and translucent as blushing tissue paper, revealing the ripe rubies that clustered within, sheer enough that you could bite right through and have a burst of claret juice running down your chin. A place where people feasted on sweet-tart tajines of lamb, dates, fennel hearts and chrysanthemum petals, fresh geranium leaves and violet sherbet, fig and hibiscus wine spiced with nutmeg, broth of lilies and caraway, thick Etrog citron yogurt and quince paste spread on Barbari flatbreads, and sugar loaves drenched in honey. A time when the trade of each rose petal was as prized as a shred of cinnamon bark or a flake of gold nugget.
Can you see it, yet?
Imagine, imagine!
A time when the peel of pomegranates was still as thin and translucent as blushing tissue paper, revealing the ripe rubies that clustered within, sheer enough that you could bite right through and have a burst of claret juice running down your chin. A place where people feasted on sweet-tart tajines of lamb, dates, fennel hearts and chrysanthemum petals, fresh geranium leaves and violet sherbet, fig and hibiscus wine spiced with nutmeg, broth of lilies and caraway, thick Etrog citron yogurt and quince paste spread on Barbari flatbreads, and sugar loaves drenched in honey. A time when the trade of each rose petal was as prized as a shred of cinnamon bark or a flake of gold nugget.
Can you see it, yet?
A place where we could still drink in the sight of flocks of lilac-breasted rollers wading around littoral waters; a time when they were still as large as guinea fowls and could swoop up and down in acrobatic display to hold their nests against kingfishers. They bobbed softly on the surface of ponds and shallow lakes from dusk to dawn, plump and content, somehow managing to sleep through the night without disbanding, like a chain of pool floats stringed together.
Remember, remember...
In the flickering moonlight, their richly colored plumage would blink on the obsidian surface like a multi-faceted kaleidoscope: azure, olive, lilac. Bathed in the hush of the afterglow, children would play guessing games, betting the number of times a color would appear on the reflection of nighttime's largest clock. They'd crawl back to sleep, smelling of moss and clay, when the first roller woke up, the tell-tale sign a harsh, sawing "rak-rak-rak".
Just imagine
Remember, remember...
In the flickering moonlight, their richly colored plumage would blink on the obsidian surface like a multi-faceted kaleidoscope: azure, olive, lilac. Bathed in the hush of the afterglow, children would play guessing games, betting the number of times a color would appear on the reflection of nighttime's largest clock. They'd crawl back to sleep, smelling of moss and clay, when the first roller woke up, the tell-tale sign a harsh, sawing "rak-rak-rak".
Just imagine
A time when you could still hear the clink of a star when it slipped from the sky vault, the faintest hint of a murmur as it careened into a wisp of wishes.
Half-sigh, half-music.
...Wouldn't that be lovely?
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| Raspberry, Rosebuds and Dark Chocolate Entremet: Overhead shot |
This cake is an entremet that I'd imagine served at a place and time like this: rich yet delicate on the tongue; layered with velvety and light chocolate mousse - the kind that has a hint of bitter depth that all good dark chocolate conveys, a bright, refreshing tart kick of raspberry, and the coy trace of rose petals, with their sweetness so fragile.
My absolute coup-de-coeur in this recipe is Pastry Workshop's raspberry chocolate ganache: 1) Olguta's post from Pastry Workshop just taught me the handy trick of freezing your ganache layers to manipulate them more easily when assembling layer cakes. It works so, so well. 2) Don't omit the raspberry. It makes a wondrous, delicious difference ;)
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| Raspberry, Rosebuds and Dark Chocolate Entremet: Buttercream Roses Close-Up |
Raspberry, Rosebuds and Dark Chocolate Entremet
Servings: 1 x 9.5" inch mousse cake
Ingredients:
Rosebud Tea Jelly:
Adapted from Oh, How Civilized
125 ml boiling water
10 rosebuds (use a package of rosebud tea)
1/4 teaspoon loose green tea leaves
1 tablespoon rose petal jam OR 1 1/2 teaspoon white granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon plain gelatin
Raspberry Chocolate Ganache:
Recipe from Pastry Workshop
60g frozen raspberries
30g white granulated sugar
15g unsalted butter, at room temperature
50 ml heavy whipping cream
80g dark chocolate (60-65%), chopped
Moist Chocolate-Raspberry Génoise
Recipe from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Rose's Heavenly Cakes
115g dark chocolate (60-65%), chopped
1/2 cup boiling water
4 large /230g eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed / 75g cake flour
1/3 cup /100g superfine sugar (mix 75g white granulated sugar + 25g powdered sugar)
Cocoa-Raspberry Syrup
125 ml / 125g boiling water
50g white granulate sugar
25g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 vanilla pod, scraped (Subs.: 3/4 teaspoon)
15 ml / 1 tablespoon raspberry liqueur (I used Lejay-Lagoute's Crème de Framboise)
Raspberry Rose Mousse:
Adapted from Pastry Workshop
2 cups / 300g frozen raspberries
1/2 cup / 100g white granulated sugar
2 tablespoon rose petal jam
15 ml lemon juice
2 teaspoon plain gelatin
1/4 cup / 60 ml cold water
250 ml heavy whipping cream, cold & straight out from the refrigerator
225g fresh raspberries
Dark Chocolate Mousse:
Recipe from Alton Brown
200 ml semi-sweet chocolate chips
50 ml strongly brewed coffee
2 teaspoons dark rum
2 tablespoons / 30g unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon plain gelatin
250 ml heavy whipping cream, cold & straight out from the refrigerator
Rose Wreath Crusting Buttercream:
Makes enough for a bunch of practice roses + cake wreath - you'll likely have leftovers
2 cups unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature
7 cups / 0.9 kg powdered icing sugar, sifted
Pinch of salt
1 tablespoon / 15 mL vanilla extract or raspberry liqueur (depending on the color you want)
5-6 tablespoons milk or raspberries reduced to purée (depending on the color you want)
Food coloring as needed
Piping Material:
Flower nail (I used Wilton's No 7)
Plain round piping nozzle (I used Wilton's piping tip #12)
Petal piping nozzle (I used Wilton's piping tip #104)
Leaf piping nozzle (I used Wilton's piping tip #352)
Piping bags
(Optional) Decorating couplers - Might be useful if you alternate often between two colors
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| Nom :3 |
Preparation:
Rosebud Tea Jelly:
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| Mise-en-place: Rosebuds, Rose Jam, Green Tea, Gelatin |
1. Put the rosebuds in a bowl and let them steep in 125 ml boiling water. Ideally, you want to start steeping them at a minimum temperature of 98C - their fragrance is very, very light and won't be drawn out as much with lower temperatures.
2. When the water temperature drops to 74C (~ 5 minutes), add the loose green tea leaves to the rosebud tea. Let the tea mix steep for 15 minutes and strain.
3. Add either 1 tablespoon of rose petal jam or, alternatively, 1 1/2 teaspoon of white granulated sugar. Give it a stir to dissolve/combine well.
4. While the tea is still warm, sprinkle 1 1/2 teaspoon plain Knox gelatin evenl over it. Set aside for 5-10 minutes or until the gelatin fully blooms.
5. Stir gently to dissolve the bloomed gelatin. If a few gelled clumps remain, or if your tea has gone too cool, pop it in the microwave for 20-30 seconds.
6. Pour the tea jelly into a 7-inch silicone pan or a regular one lined with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until it completely sets (at least 2 hours). A silicone pan will be best by the way :/ the jelly is quite soft and sticky even after an overnight refrigeration - I managed to unmold it through the plastic wrap but I fractured some parts on the edges.
Tip: the firmness of gelatin will depend on not only temperature and water:gelatin ratio, but also the amount of sugar it has to interact with. The more sugar in the recipe, the softer your resulting gelatin will be. So if you want to increase the rose petal jam to enhance the delicate floral flavor, add a bit more gelatin than specified above.
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| Steeping Tea :) |
Raspberry Chocolate Ganache:
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| Shaving blocks of dark chocolate :) (P.S.: Bulk Barn has bricks of those) |
2. In a medium stainless steel bowl, place the dark chocolate and softened butter. Nestle that bowl so that it fits on top of a larger saucepan filled with water (make sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn't dip into the water). Bring the water to boil and melt your chocolate over the bain-marie. Stir the chocolate and butter until the mixture is smooth.
3. In a separate saucepan, heat up the heavy whipping cream just until it is lukewarm, stirring constantly so that the bottom doesn't burn. Add the strained raspberry purée and whisk to combine.
4. Gradually add the raspberry cream into your melted chocolate. Whisk again to combine.
5. Pour the raspberry chocolate ganache into a 7-inch pan lined with plastic wrap - you'll need it to remove the ganache.
6. Cover and place in the freezer until it firms up enough to be manipulated (at least 2-3 hours). I let mine freeze completely overnight.
Moist Chocolate-Raspberry Génoise:
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| Sift, sift sift~ |
1. Preheat your oven to 350F. Prepare a 9 x 2" inch round pan: grease, flour and line it with parchment paper.
2. Melt the chopped dark chocolate over a bain-marie. Transfer it to a medium heavy saucepan and pour the boiling water on top. Cook on low heat, vigorously and continuously stirring with a silicone spatula until the chocolate mixture thickens to a smooth, shiny pudding-consistency (~10-15 minutes). If the chocolate separates, give it a good whisking to emulsify everything together again. Cover with plastic wrap, spreading it directly against the chocolate. Let it cool to room temperature.
3. Prepare a large pot of water and bring it to simmering point.
4. In the bowl of your stand-mixer, unattached, put the eggs and sugar. Using a hand-held whisk, beat them together until it starts to bubble.
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| Whisk, whisk, whisk~ (...hmm it doesn't sound as nice as "sift"..) |
5. Place the bowl over your pot of simmering water, being careful that the bottom of the bowl isn't in contact with the water, and that the water doesn't reach boiling point. Whisk aggressively and constantly until the egg mixture becomes lukewarm to the touch (I insist on the aggressive whisking :O it'll prevent curdling).
6. Attach your bowl to the stand-mixer. Beat on high speed for at least 7-8 minutes (Yes, that long! Keep beating it even if you feel that it's ready before that amount of time). It should triple-to-quadruple in volume, lighten in color and be very thick and airy. The eggs are ready when they reach the ribbon stage (see picture below).
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| Ribbon stage :) Notice how the fluffed up egg whites fall back into fat, soft ribbons. They should hold their shape a minute or two before slowly disappearing back into the mixture. |
7. Sift the flour into the eggs mixture in 3 parts, folding it gently with a large silicone spatula and making sure that each part is completely incorporated before adding the next one. Use your fingers to crush any remaining flour clumps in the batter.
8. Fold in the chocolate mixture in 2 parts. Move swiftly, but gently. Press the silicone spatule against the far edge of the bowl and plunge it under the batter, pulling it towards you. Bring the spatula up the other side of the bowl, scooping up a ribbon of batter underneath and folding it over on top. Rotate the bowl a couple of degrees and repeat the motion until everything it incorporated. Chocolate is quite heavy, so really make sure to reach to the bottom of the bowl when you fold, else there might be some heavy glop sunken there.
9. Immediately pour the batter into the prepared pan. It should be 2/3 to 3/4 full.
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| Chocolate génoise ready-to-bake |
10. Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with a few moist crumbs, but not wet ones. Génoise structure is quite fragile and prone to collapse, so avoid opening the oven door until the minimum baking time.
11. Let the génoise cool 2-3 minutes in the pan, then immediately unmold it onto a cooling rack. You want to let it cool just enough so that the side crumb can set and hold your cake together, but not too much so that condensation starts pulling the génoise down - that can cause it to collapse as well. The trick is to unmold it while it is still warm.
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| Can you believe that I sliced this with dental floss? :P |
Cocoa-Raspberry Syrup
1. In a small saucepan, combine the cocoa and the sugar.
2. Add 2-3 tablespoons of boiling water and stir to form a paste. Continue adding the boiling water gradually, stirring each time to homogenize the mixture. Once the mixture reaches a honey consistency, you can pour in the remaining boiling water all at once and whisk it to combine well.
3. Cook on low heat. Stir occasionally until the mixture reaches boiling point.
4. Remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool to room temperature.
5. Add the scraped vanilla bean and the raspberry liqueur.
6. Cover tightly to prevent evaporation.
Raspberry Rose Mousse:
1. In a small saucepan, combine the 300g frozen raspberries, sugar and rose jam. Cook on medium-low heat and whisk everything together until it becomes the consistency of nectar. Remove from heat and press the raspberries through a fine-mesh sieve with the back of a spoon to extract as much juice as you can. Set aside.
2. In another small saucepan, sprinkle 2 teaspoons of gelatin over 1/4 cup cold water (the gelatin granules cannot soften properly in warm or hot water). Let it sit 5-10 minutes or until the gelatin blooms. Then, melt it over low heat until it becomes translucent and evenly dissolves. Give it a quick stir to verify that the granules have completely melted.
3. Pour the raspberry-rose purée and 15 ml lemon juice into the gelatin saucepan. Whisk until everything is well-blended together. Cover and pop it in the fridge to thicken it slightly -it will look like slurry (~45 min.-1h).
4. Transfer 1/3 of the thickened raspberry-rose-gelatin mixture to the bowl of a stand-mixer. Hook up an egg-beater attachment and beat on high-speed until the mixture is foamy.
5. Gradually pour in the heavy whipping cream. Continue beating on high speed. When your whipped raspberry cream reaches soft peak, sprinkle in the sugar in 2 parts, adding the second part only when the first one has been well-incorporated. Keep whipping on high speed until firm peaks form.
6. Take your whipped cream off the stand-mixer. Using a large silicone spatula, gently fold in the rest of the raspberry-rose-gelatin mixture in three stages. Spread on cake immediately.
Assembling (Part 1):
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| I love the garnet hue of raspberries :) so bright, so vibrant! |
1. Once your génoise has cooled, use a serrated knife to remove any domed parts and horizontally divide the cake into 2 equal layers (Tip: I use a knife to trace the circumference of my cut, then use dental floss to run it through the cake).
2. Liberally brush the layers with cocoa-raspberry syrup. Don't be afraid to really soak it - the syrup is what brings a génoise to life.
3. Place one chocolate génoise layer on the base of a springform pan, syrup-side up. Scrape 1/3 of the raspberry mousse on top of the génoise and spread it into an even layer.
4. Wedge the fresh raspberries into the mousse, lining them against the circumference of the springform pan. Pour the remaining raspberry mousse over this and spread again into an even layer.
5. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Dark Chocolate Mousse:
1. In a shallow wide-rimmed bowl, pour 1/4 cup of whipping cream and uniformly sprinkle the gelatin over it. Let it sit until the gelatin absorbs the liquid and blooms.
2. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie.
3. When it is smooth, take the bowl off the pot and add the coffee and dark rum. Whisk to combine.
4. Pop the gelatin bowl into the microwave for 1 minute to melt it (it should become translucent). Add it to the chocolate mixture and stir well.
5. In the bowl of your stand-mixer, pour the remainder of the heavy whipping cream and beat on high speed until you reach medium-firm peaks.
6. In 3 parts, fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. It's alright if there are a few stray streaks of cream through the chocolate mousse. Be careful not to overfold - it should still feel airy.
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| Folding that chocolate mousse :) Probably one of my favorite baking steps. |
Assembling (Part 2):
1. Take your half-assembled caked out of the refrigerator.
2. Place the second chocolate génoise layer on-top of the raspberry mousse.
3. Unmold the frozen ganache by pulling the plastic wrap off. It will be firm enough to manipulate but will still be somewhat malleable. If the weather is hot, you'll notice it starts to weep in your fingers. As soon as it is taken out of the freezer, center it on top of the génoise layer.
4. Unmold the rosebud tea jelly. Again, use the plastic wrap to help you (the jelly will be quite soft and might break easily - be gentle). Place it on top of the ganache.
5. Scrape the dark chocolate mousse into the springform pan. Spread evenly to fill in the gaps and cover the ganache and the jelly.
6. Cover and chill in the refrigerator again.
Crusting Buttercream:
1. Hook up the paddle attachment to your stand-mixer. In the bowl, cream softened butter, starting on low speed and gradually cranking it up to high speed, until you get a light and fluffy mixture. Add the pinch of salt.
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| Creaming the butter: make sure that it's at room temp. Contrasting temperature variations in your buttercream ingredients can cause it to weep and separate. In this case, chilled butter can cause the hard, cold fats to separate from its liquid components, creating a lumpy, curdled buttercream. Alternatively, creaming butter that it too warm will create a soupy buttercream mess. What you're looking for before starting that first step is butter that is firm enough to hold its shape, but soft enough to mix and push through without much resistance. |
2. Reduce the speed to medium-low and slowly add the powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at the time. Increase to high speed after each addition to make sure that the part is well-incorporated before adding the next one.
3. Repeat and cream until all the sugar has been blended with the butter.
4. Depending on the number of colors you want, divide your buttercream base into different labeled bowls: I took out 1/2 cup first to dye it green (leaves), then weighed the remaining buttercream and divided it into 3 bowls for 3 types of colored roses.
5. Return one buttercream base at the time into the stand-mixer. Depending on the color that you want, add the vanilla/raspberry extract, milk/raspberry purée and food coloring if using - don't forget to divide the vanilla/raspberry quantities in the ingredients' list by the number of colors that you are doing. Beat at high speed until the buttercream is smooth and creamy and fluffy.
For the green buttercream, prepare it with vanilla extract and milk, and add a few drops of green food coloring.
6. Repeat until all buttercream colors have been whipped up.
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| Pink, purple, white and green buttercream :) Ready to be piped! |
Rose Wreath:
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| Mise-en-place for piping! From left to right, starting on the first row: Coupler, large petal nozzle, small petal nozzle, piping bag, rose nail, leaf nozzle, plain round nozzle |
1. To learn how to pipe roses, I used 2 sources:
- From GlobalSugarArt, Chef Alan Tetreault's fantastic video tutorial here
- Wilton's pictorial step-by-step here
3. To make the 2-toned roses, squirt a line of gel food coloring along a piping bag seam fitted with the petal nozzle. Holding the bag horizontally (to prevent the coloring from spilling everywhere), fill it with buttercream. The food coloring will create the outline of your rose.
4. Pipe a tidbit of buttercream in the center of your rose nail. Glue a square of parchment paper over it. Using the plain round nozzle, pipe a tall cone: go high rather than fat. The petals will plump your rose out, but if the base wasn't piped tall enough your flower will look all smooshed.
...Like this cat's face.
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| I'm kidding, I love that cat. And its flat face. Photo Source: catharsisaudade's tumblr |
5. Pipe all your roses before assembling them into a wreath. If you notice some of them melting and losing their shape, pop them in the fridge until they are needed. They will crust over time, which means that they will be firm enough to touch without smudging, but they need an initial cool temperature to do so.
6. To familiarize myself with the placement of roses, I used this reference:
- Vanessa's buttercream flower wreath tutorial at CakeStyle here
8. When you're done forming the wreath, fit the leaf nozzle to one of your piping bags and fill it with the green buttercream. Again, practice on a parchment sheet beforehand because leaves need to be piped at a 45-degree angle to come out ruffled. Squeeze in the buttercream leaves between a couple of roses.
9. Nom when you're ready :)
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| Buttercream roses wreath :) |
References and writing inspiration:
http://www.saveur.com/article/Travels/The-Land-of-Bread-and-Spice
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/what-was-it-like-to-dine-with-the-persian-kings-116203239/?no-ist
http://asiasociety.org/persepolis-persian-feast-fit-king
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