whipped cream

Ivoire Royale – White Chocolate Mousse & Berry Cake

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According to Extraordinary Desserts’ website:

“Ivoire Royale — An exquisite torte made of fine layers of vanilla bean soaked pound cakes and creamy white chocolate mousse. Bursting with fresh raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, this delicate mousse torte is hidden by white chocolate shaving dusted with powdered sugar.”

This is a 10″ cake, with sour cream pound cake layers, brushed with vanilla simple syrup. In between the layers are white chocolate sour cream mousse, fresh whipped cream, and berries. I only used strawberries and blackberries in my cake, but I think any combination would work. The decoration is white chocolate shavings and curls.

I’m not sure the recipe for mousse in the cookbook quite worked. For a better mousse consistency, I suggest the following:

White Chocolate Sour Cream Mousse
  • 4 egg yolks
  • ⅓ cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup sour cream (room temperature)
  • 6.5 oz (1 ¼ cup) white chocolate
  • 2 cup heavy cream
  • ⅓ cup powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Heat ¾ cup of the heavy cream in a saucepan until it boils/simmers. Pour over white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Let sit for a couple minutes before stirring with a spatula until the white chocolate is melted and smooth.
  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer until pale yellow and fluffy.
  3. Add melted chocolate to the whipped egg yolks.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat the remaining heavy cream and powdered sugar together until peaks form.
  5. Gently fold in the whipped cream and sour cream into the white chocolate-egg yolk mousse base.

I played with this while in-process, so the measurements may not be exact, particularly with respect to the whipped cream addition. I think that part can be made to-taste and to-texture, depending on what consistency and level of sweetness you are aiming for. The important addition here to the cookbook is the whipped egg yolk base, which gives the mousse a sturdier structure that won’t run.

I had previously attempted this in cupcake form, but because this cake relies on being soaked in vanilla simple syrup, and having almost as much (or perhaps more) mousse and whipped cream than cake, I don’t think the cupcake form delivers the same texture and flavor. Not to mention, I also dropped my entire batch of cupcakes before delivering them to a potluck event, so it is not quite a happy memory. One day, I will post a collage of all my disasters (usually in transit), when it doesn’t pain me so much to think about it!

Yellow roses for my SYZters:

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More Chocolate Cupcakes – Peanut Butter Banana & Hazelnut

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Continuing from my last post, I tried two more chocolate cake recipes this week.

  1. Chocolate Butter Cupcake (Rose Levy Beranbaum, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes)
  2. German Chocolate Cake (Rose Levy Beranbaum, Rose’s Heavenly Cakes)


The verdict:

  1. The Chocolate Butter Cupcake recipe was slightly less dense/dry than the prior All-American butter cake I made, and tasty in small portions. But, I think at this point, I am going to conclude that butter cakes are not ideal for cupcakes, which are ultimately a very thick slab of cake. I think butter cakes are much better for holding up layer cakes, and I will put this to the test at some point. One exception might be a red velvet variation with cream cheese frosting, which I tasted at a recent cocktail event. Perhaps the creamier/richer the frosting, the better the pairing, which would explain why the curry ganache cupcakes I made last week worked. Important to note: These red velvet cupcakes I tried were mini cupcakes; I am not sure I would have enjoyed that much fudginess/density at the full cupcake size. Ultimately, I will admit this could be a taste/texture preference of mine, and others might like butter cakes more.
  2. The German Chocolate Cake is fantastic, and definitely can serve as an alternative to the Ultimate Chocolate Cupcake recipe. It is slightly less rich, but it has a good texture and distinctive chocolate taste which makes it yummy to eat on its own.

Chocolate Butter Cupcake: Hazelnut Ganache Cupcakes

I filled these chocolate butter cupcakes with hazelnut ganache, and topped with whipped cream with a hint of hazelnut. Finally, a piece of sugar cone, because who doesn’t like ice cream cones?

German Chocolate Cake: Peanut Butter Caramelized-Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

These cupcakes were filled with a peanut butter cream cheese filling, covered with a peanut butter chocolate whipped ganache, and topped with caramelized bananas. I am not normally a peanut butter fan, but these cupcakes came out pretty delicious, creamy without being heavy, and with the right balance of flavors. I had never caramelized bananas before, and really had no plan for how to pipe the frosting but I pulled it together somehow.

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Malted Chocolate Cupcakes – Baked Sundaes!

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These malted chocolate cupcakes are topped with fresh whipped cream, sprinkles and a Maraschino cherry.

I also filled the cakes with a “Whoppers” buttercream (using ground Whoppers choclate malted milk balls) to add to the malt flavor (which unfortunately was largely masked in the cake itself). The buttercream filling adds a needed sweetness and moisture so that the cupcake doesn’t end up tasting like a black forest cherry cake. Which, would be interesting to try . . . hmmmmm . . .

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