Merry Xmas 2011 and a Mango Mousse Log Cake

Merry Xmas to all of you out there! (I am still bathing in the mood of the Xmas as I am posting this. Hope it is not too late for greetings.) Christmas is one festive holiday in the year which I always look forward to. Somehow, the joy factor rises to an all-time-high and everyone seems to be pretty much hyped up and all ready for the arrival of this great festive season.

When it comes to the month of Dec, my mind would be preoccupied with festive shopping for gifts and not to forget, Xmas bakes! I had a couple of ideas for Xmas bakes this year - brownie cupcakes with chocolate peppermint patty center, mint chocolate cookies, Christmas tree cupcakes; but I decided not to make it an tiring affair. Instead, I made some orange cranberry shortbread and a mango mousse log cake since R2E2 mangoes are in season.

While I was doing grocery shopping for a Xmas potluck, R2E2 mangoes were going on sale (2 for S$6.55). Unable to resist the urge, I picked up two of these cheery-summery looking stone fruits and the idea of making a mango log cake was waving at me.

These days, I am more inclined towards eating mangoes that are plump and have reddish-orange skins. Such mangoes tend to be sweeter and more fragrant than the usual yellow coloured varieties like the Thai honey mangoes, which are a little lacking in fragrance.

It might prove to be tricky for some people when it comes to removing the skin from the flesh, but this can be easily done with some clever manoeuvre of the knife and a spoon. First, slice the mango following the curve of the stone on one side, sticking as close as possible to the stone. Repeat the same for the other side. You will end up with 3 sliced portions of mango, as shown in the first picture above. To remove the skin from the two portions without the stone with ease, simply use a spoon and dig as closely to the skin as possible starting from one end, until a whole chunk of mango is released from the skin. This chunk can then be used for diced easily for use in cooking or baking. I remember watching a chef preparing mangoes and have been using this method ever since. 

Compared to layer cakes, log cakes are much easier to prepare. They are in fact Swiss rolls disguised with an exterior of cream frosting. While I was doing the rolling, it reminded me of a failed attempt of a black forest log cake the year before. Previously, the filling was too runny and it made the rolling difficult to execute, causing the end product to be a mess. 

The same thing happened a second time. The mango mousse filling was a little runny and after rolling the sheet cake, some of the filling were 'pushed out' of the Swiss roll. Luckily, it didn't turn out a big mess and was decent enough to be frosted into a log cake. Next time, I would do the following:

1. Slope the filling towards the side to be rolled so that there is less filling on the ending side and the mango mousse would not be pushed out after rolling.
2. Omit the last row of diced mango and  mango puree.
3. Chill the mango mousse with the sheet cake and toppings so that it would be much easier to roll and the filling would not be so runny.  

 

Since the idea of doing the log cake was a last minute gut-feeling affair, I was unable to grab hold of Christmas log cake toy decorations. I had to borrow a stash of it from my baking buddy. Guess what? I returned her the toy decorations, but on top of the mango log cake. 

I made some observations when frosting the log cake with dairy whipping cream. All along, I have been faithfully using diary cream. When whipped and frosted, the appearance always look somewhat clumpy and un-smooth, unlike the smoothly frosted log cakes/cakes found in bakeries. I have been told that log cakes in bakeries are frosted with fresh cream. However, the so called 'fresh cream' from these cakes taste more like a cross between buttercream and dairy whipped cream, which puzzles me. 

All this while, I have never used non-dairy cream or whip-topping cream which are non-dairy in nature, but my experience tells me that dairy whipping cream taste nothing like buttercream and whipped fresh cream is no where as smooth as buttercream. Hence, I cannot help but suspect that the cream used for giving cakes that smooth appearance is actually non-dairy cream or whip topping cream and nothing like fresh cream as what some bakeries have claimed. Perhaps my dear fellow bakers can share your experience with use of whip topping cream and non-dairy whipping cream.  

Mango Mousse Swiss Roll/Log Cake (Sponge recipe adapted from 孟老师的美味蛋糕卷)

Serving size:10-12 slices
Taste and texture: Cake base is soft, moist and fluffy. Mango mousse filling is fruity, smooth and light.
Equipment and materials: 

• 12 x 12 inch pan or 10 x 14 inch pan
• Stand electric beater/ handheld electric beater 
• Spatula
• Wire whisk/balloon whisk
• Mixing bowls
• Wire rack
• Flour sieve
• Parchment/baking paper
• Brush for oiling pan
• Weighing scale

Separated-egg Sponge Cake Ingredients: 

• 40g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 80g egg yolks, at room temperature
• 25g caster sugar
• 170g egg whites, at room temperature
• 75g caster sugar
• 60g cake flour, sifted

Mango Mousse filling:

• 180g fresh mango puree (Use a good variety of mango for best results)
• 180ml dairy whipping cream
• 70g mango, diced
• 50g fresh mango puree

Whipped Cream Frosting:

• 250ml whipping cream (dairy or non-dairy)

Making the separated-egg sponge:
Prepare Oven and line pan - Preheat oven to 190 degrees C and line tin with baking/parchment paper. 

Preparing the egg yolk mixture - In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and 25g castor sugar. Whisk the egg yolks with a beater on high speed until the yolks have increased in volume, are paler looking in colour and thickened. 

Beating egg whites - In a metal bowl, beat eggs whites starting with low speed. When the egg whites turn frothy, slowly increase the speed to high and beat until egg whites are soft peaks (egg whites form peak that is drooping). Add the sugar (75g) slowly at this point and continue beating until egg whites are nearly stiff but still moist and not dry. This is when the bowl is overturned, the egg whites would not budge. Egg whites will form shiny and creamy upright peaks when beater is withdrawn. Take care not to overbeat the egg whites as they will become dry or may water out.

Folding egg whites into egg yolk mixture - Fold one third of beaten egg whites with a balloon whisk into egg yolk mixture to lighten and mix well. Incorporate another one third of the whites. Lastly, add the rest of the egg whites and fold gently to obtain a smooth uniformly coloured foamy batter. Scrape sides and bottom of bowl with a spatula to ensure batter is well mixed. 

Adding flour and butter - Fold flour gently into the whites-yolk mixture in 3 batches with a balloon whisk, turning the bowl as you fold. Ensure that there are no visible traces of flour before adding the next batch. 

Once the flour has been incorporated, scoop a portion of the mixture into a small mixing bowl and combine with the melted butter. Fold this mixture back with the bulk of the flour-white-yolk batter to obtain the final batter. 

Baking the cake - Pour batter into a 12 x 12 inch tin or 10 x 14 inch lined swiss roll tin. Level the batter and bake for about 12 minutes. Start checking for done-ness at 9 mins. Cake is done when inserted toothpick comes out clean. Allow sheet cake to cool. 

Preparing Mango Mousse:

Whip180ml of dairy cream until is reaches mousse state, about 70% stiff (before soft peak stage). Fold the  whipped cream into 180g of mango puree until well combined. Set mango mousse aside. 

Preparing whipped cream frosting: 
Before whipping the cream, chill the mixing bowl and beaters. In a chilled mixing bowl, whip 250ml of whipping cream on medium speed until it becomes mousse-like. Turn the speed to low and beat until it produce soft peaks. Do not beat it too stiff as the whipped cream will turn grainy when frosted.  

Assembly:
Turning the cake out - Carefully turn the cooled sheet cake onto a piece of baking/parchment paper. Slowly peel off the attached baking/parchment paper from the cake. Place a new piece of baking/parchment paper over the sponge. Invert the sponge again, carefully. Now, peel of the top piece of baking/parchment paper. The skin would be stuck to the baking/parchment paper and would be removed. 

Applying the filling - Dab a layer of mango mousse onto the cooled sponge sheet. Ensure the starting end has a thicker layer of mousse and the ending side has a thinner layer of mousse. 

Place a row of diced mango onto the mousse layer near the starting end and another row in the middle. 

Using a spoon, scoop the mango puree and form a stream of puree between the two rows diced mangoes. Add another stream of mango puree further down the second row of diced mangoes. It will look something similar to that as shown in the 6th picture above, without a 3rd row of diced mango and 3rd stream of mango puree. 

Rolling the cake - With the shorter side/breadth facing you (if using 10 x 14 inch pan), roll the cake up tightly to form a swiss roll. Allow swiss roll to chill in the refrigerator until mousse filling is set. 

Frosting the log cake: Place swiss roll on a 10 x 10 inch square cake board. Slice one-fifth of the log and position this sliced portion at the side of the main roll. This is to give the log cake a branched shape. Chuck rectangular slips of baking paper under the log cake. 

Apply a thin layer of whipped cream over the swiss roll, ensuring all sides are covered with cream. Use the tines of a fork to scratch along the surface of the whipped cream frosting to create a 'tree bark' effect. For a snowy effect, dust with snow powder/icing sugar and decorate as desired. Carefully remove the rectangular slips of paper. 

Notes:

1. Serve log cake chilled. Mango mousse filling would not hold its shape well at warm room temperature for long. 
2. Dairy or non-dairy cream may be used. 
3. Whipped cream will continue to firm up when frosted, hence take care not to whip the cream too stiff. A softly whipped cream, slightly flowy with soft peaks (about 70% stiff) is ideal. 

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Stephanie's Birthday Cake

When I knew Stephanie's birthday (my  baking buddy) was approaching, I offered to bake her a cake. After knowing that the cake-cutting will be done at her home, I decided to bake a Strawberry Yoghurt Mousse Cake. If she had decided to have the cake elsewhere, I would not have chosen a mousse cake since mousse cakes do not hold their shapes well and can pose as a serious headache during transportation. There was once I transported this very same mousse cake in its cake ring to a chalet, fearing that the cake will collapse without warming from lack of refrigeration throughout the journey.

Since this was my 3rd attempt on the Strawberry Yoghurt Mousse Cake, I was confident of the outcome, be it the taste and texture. The cake is very light in texture and on the palate as opposed to rich cakes. I remember eating slice after slice of it and almost polished off almost 80% of the cake on the same day when I first baked it. Now you know my verocious appetite for cakes.

When baking layer cakes, the task that always leave me clueless is the decoration. I had no idea on how to proceed with the creaming for this cake. Somehow, my mind was prompted to pipe mini rosettes all around the perimeter and strawberry halves were placed in a circular fashion resting on the rosettes. It is a fuss-free solution and it yields good results.

I am glad that the cake was well received by Stephanie, her friends and her family. Happy Birthday Stephanie! It is always a rewarding experience baking birthday cakes for friends and family members.  


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Cake Project 4: Mission Tiramisu and a special day of a lifetime, 20/10/2010

You might be wondering whats with the date 20/10/2010. It marks my 26th birthday and the date conincidentally forms a unique number sequence, 20102010, which is rare to come by. For this very special occasion, I promised to treat myself to a luscious layer cake. Hmm.. sounds a bit weird huh? Poor Bakertan has to resort to baking his very own birthday cake. Well, I would prefer a home-made birthday cake anytime. Firstly, I get to customize the texture and flavour to my liking and secondly, its going to be another enjoyable experimental layer cake session/lesson/therapy at home.   

I scratched my head pretty hard trying to decide the flavour. Was wondering whether I should make a blackforest cake, a tiramisu or a durian mousse cake. After some considerations, I opted for the tiramisu. It has been quite a while since I helped myself to one and I was certainly looking forward to a nice turnout.

So last friday, I stepped forth and tried my hands at making tiramisu for the first time. Instead of using saviordi fingers (lady fingers), I decided to make it a tiramisu torte by using coffee sponge cake layers. The first attempt on making the tiramisu mousse was a complete disaster. The steps were tedious and there were plenty of room for errors.

The recipe had asked for warmed egg yolks (leave to cool) and beaten egg whites. I might have overwarmed the egg yolks slightly, scrambling it a little (straining it might help, which I didn't) and the beaten egg whites turned out dry and clumpy (I used Swiss meringue method instead of the Italian meringue method). After mixing the yolks, beaten whites, mascarporne cheese and whipped cream, the mixtue curdled real badly. It taste good though but it was not going to do the job for sure.

You can imagine my morale and spirits dipping to an all-time low at that instance. I almost fell into despair thinking that I will be going cakeless the next day when my family will be celebrating for me in advance. At the same time, I hated the fact that I wasted my precious mascarporne cheese, a good 300g of it. Arghh!

At that moment, I was faced with a tough decision. Should I carry on or abandon the mission? My coffee sponge layers were sitting aside and drying out with every minute that passed by. Thanks to the encouraging words from my mum, I decided to re-attempt the mousse a second time using a different recipe and my remaining 200g of mascarporne cheese, minus the yolks and whites which were way too troublesome for me to handle.

Thankfully, the second attempt was a successful one. I made some coffee syrup and brushed it over the sponge layers to moisten them. Making the mousse the second time round was a familiar sight to me. The mousse consists of gelatin solution, whipped cream, mascarporne cheese, a little of the coffee syrup and a small amount of kahlua. Gently folded these components and they came together to form a nice smooth mousse. With the help of my cake/mousse ring, I managed to get my desired tiramisu torte cake with ease. Now that I learnt my lesson the hard way, there will be no more tiramisu mousse containing eggs in future! I actually brought trouble to myself trying to figure out how to make the eggs as safe for consumption as possible in the first attempt.

It was'nt all that bad after all. Despite the disaster with the mousse curdling at first, the silver lining was that the tiramisu turned out decent on the second attempt. What I liked best about the tiramisu was the sponge layers were moist due to the coffee syrup and the mousse firmed up well without being gelatinous. I will be adding more kahlua to give it a little more kick, increase the amount of mascarporne cheese and add more sugar in future. Will be posting the complete recipe in future when I am done with the fine-tuning.

I received a book from a friend today much to my pleasant surprise. Its a book I wanted to get but do not have much luck finding it =] Yay! This would make a nice addition to my mini-library of books.



Strawberry Yoghurt Mousse Cake

My mum got me a cake book when she was in Taiwan - 超人气香港蛋糕56款. After browsing some of the cakebooks around, she decided that the cakes in this book look interesting and delicious. When I got hold of the book, I was fascinated at first sight~ However, it did not take more than mere minutes for disappointment to be written over my face. The book look promising with its recipes, but there were some major drawbacks that could potentially undermine the confidence of the reader.

One major letdown was the missing pan sizes. Pan sizes are important. They are the very basic information that the baker should have, along with the ingredient list and baking temperature. Does that mean that the reader has to trial and error or base on his own judgement what the requirement pan sizes are? Apart from that, there were missing instructions and the steps were too briefly written, kind of slipshod in a way. Good thing I could figure out what the required steps are base on my shallow experience.

As I have bought a pound of strawberries which were on sale recently, I decided that a strawberry mousse cake would put them to good use. That would use up whatever remaining cream I had left in the fridge too.

This is the second time attempting a recipe from this book. The first recipe I attempted was a mango mousse cake. It did not turn out to match my expectations. The genoise sponge for the mango mousse cake was dry and the mango mousse did not have much mango flavour. Learning the lessons from the previous attempt, I decided I would never use a genoise sponge cake as a base again. It is far too dry to be suitable for use in layer cakes. Some books recommend that genoise sponge layers be brushed with a layer of syrup but I have yet to try that out. 

After some careful considerations and planning, I used a sponge cake recipe which required the separation of eggs. The choice was a good one and the sponge layers turn out soft and moist.

Making the strawberry mousse was an enjoyable process. I was doing taste-testing while mixing the ingredients. When the mousse was done and the cake layering was carried out in the cake ring, I crossed my fingers and hoped that the strawberry mousse cake would hold its shape well after chilling. To my pleasant surprise, everything went very smoothly. The cake firmed up well and all I did was to top it with chopped strawberries to decorate. 

The success of this baking session boosted my confidence for the recipes in the book. I would surely refer back for ideas on tantalizing cakes.

Tastewise, this cake promises a very light mousse layer with natural strawberry yoghurt flavour and soft moist sponge layers.

Strawberry Yogurt Mousse Cake ( Recipe adapted from 超人气香港蛋糕56款)
Taste and Texture: Fruity strawberry mousse layers with moist and light sponge
Serving Size: 10 slices

Equipment:

1) 8 inch round pan

2) 8 inch round cake ring

3) 9 inch round cake board

4) Cake leveller or palette/serrated knife longer than 8 inches

5) Balloon whisk

6) Rubber spatula

7) Handheld beater/Stand beater

8) Baking paper

9) Wire rack

10) Toothpick/wooden skewer

11) Flour sieve

12) Mixing bowls

Sponge cake:

4 egg yolks, room temperature ( from eggs weighing 60g each with shells on)

40g caster sugar

4tbs vegetable oil

3 tbs water

95g cake flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

4 egg whites, room temperature (from eggs weighing 60g each with shells on)

40g caster sugar

Method:

Prepare Oven: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C.

Prepare flour mixture: Whisk flour and baking powder in a large bowl to combine

Making the egg yolk batter Place egg yolks, 40g caster sugar, oil and water in a large bowl. Beat with electric mixer until thickened and fluffy (ribbon stage), about 10 minutes. The batter should increase in volume about 4 times and when the beater is lifted, the falling batter will leave a visible trail on the rest of the batter. The falling batter will not level with the rest of the batter immediately.

Folding flour into egg yolk batter: Sift the flour mixture into beaten egg yolks in 3 batches and fold gently using a ballon whisk. The volume will decrease due to inflating. Be sure to fold gently to prevent excessive deflating. Use a spatula to scoop sides and bottom of the bowl to ensure flour mixture is evenly incorporated.

Beating egg whites: Next, whisk egg whites on low speed. Increase speed slowly to medium and beat untill egg whites are foamy. Gradually increase speed to high and add the rest of the sugar gradually. Beat untill egg whites are stiff. This is when the beaters are lifted, the egg whites will form peaks that are upright and not drooping slightly. Egg whites will resemble whipped cream.The entire bowl of whites will not drop out when the bowl is overturned.

Folding in egg whites: Using a ballon whisk, fold one third of beaten egg whites into egg yolk batter gently to lighten and combine. Fold in the rest of the beaten whites to combine. Final batter should be foamy and uniform in colour with no streaks of egg white present. Fold egg whites gently using balloon whisk will prevent egg whites from deflating too much.

Baking the sponge cake: Pour batter into a greased and lined 8 inch round pan and bake at 160 degrees C for 25 -30minutes. Test doneness using a skewer or toothpick. Cake will shrink from edges on cooling. Unmould sponge cake and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Stawberry Yoghurt Mousse:

140g strawberry yoghurt ( I used Meiji strawberry yoghurt, 1 small tub)

45g - 75g caster sugar

210g fresh stawberry puree

300g cream, whipped until stiff

10g gelatine powder soaked in 40g water

strawberries for decorating 

Method:

Preparing strawberry yoghurt mixture: Blend strawberry puree, sugar and yoghurt together. Use 45g sugar for a slightly tart taste. For a sweeter taste use 75g sugar.

Making gelatine solution: Soak gelatine and water and allow it to bloom for 5 minutes. Heat the gelatine mixture over a double boiler untill gelatine dissolves completely. Leave to cool.

Making strawberry yoghurt mousse: Combine gelatine mixture and strawberry yoghurt mixture. Lastly, fold in whipped cream to obtain a smooth pale pink mousse.

Assembly:

Slicing sponge cake: Slice sponge cake into 2 even layers using cake leveller or long serrated/palette knife. Slice off the part that has domed.

Preparing the sponge and mousse layers: Place one sponge layer into the cake ring supported by a cake board below. There should some allowance surrounding the sponge layer. Pour half of the mousse over the sponge layer. I measured the mousse by weight and divided it evenly into 2 portions. Level the mousse as evenly as possible.

Place the second sponge layer over the mousse layer. Pour the remaining mousse mixture over the second sponge layer and level the top as evenly as possible. Place cake ring in the refrigerator and allow a chilling time of 4 hours or more until mousse is firm.

Unmoulding finished cake: To unmould, wrap a warm kitchen towel around the ring or use a hairdryer to briefly heat up the exterior of the cake ring. Take care not to apply too much heat using the hairdryer. Remove cake ring slowly and steadily. Bring cake back to the refrigerator to firm up before decorating and cutting.

Decorations: Decorate with whipped cream and sliced strawberries as desired.

Note:

1) The strawberry yoghurt is very soft and creamy, almost ungelatinous in texture. Do not leave the cake unchilled for long period of time. The cake may not hold its shape well.

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