Original Gateau, Chocolate-less Chocolate Mousse & Glaze

Chef Karen's Chocolate-less "Chocolate" Mousse Gateau With "Chocolate" Glaze

This is the day of reckoning where we put the blueprints of our Original Gateau to the test, 2 weeks before the final assessment. But first, a short demo on making chocolate mousse and glaze with cocoa powder instead of chocolate. A chef must always be prepared for pantry emergencies and substitute under pressure.

A personal take on cocoa powder: it's underrated. I always add a tablespoon or two of it to my chocolate desserts as I find it brings a richer and more concentrated flavor without the unnecessary sweetness.

Cocoa "Cream Patisserie" Made Into Glaze

The methods are pretty unorthodox here. For the glaze we boil water, sugar, flan gel, glucose, cream and cocoa powder, remove from heat, whisk in softened gelatine and set aside to cool. If you can cook soup from a box, you can certainly make this "instant" glaze.

Once cooled the glaze will solidify and resemble cream patisserie. This is warmed over a bain marie just till it melts (28°C to 30°C is the ideal temperature for use here) and strained through a fine sieve (a chinoise or coffee filter works a treat) to remove the bubbles and attain a smooth shine, the way glazes should be.

Boiled Cocoa Slurry Lightened With Whipped Cream, Made Into Mousse

For the mousse, make a slurry with cocoa powder, cornflour and a little water (to dissolve and disperse the cocoa powder, making it easier to incorporate into the other ingredients). Boil the slurry with more water, egg yolks and sugar, remove from heat, add a knob of butter and softened gelatine, finally fold in semi-whipped cream and you have your mousse! 

The verdict? The glaze was beautiful but the mousse was more creamy than chocolaty and way too sweet. I would reduce the sugar by a third and double up on the cocoa powder if I am to make this recipe, to bring it as close as possible to real MaCoy.

Pistachio Jaconde Base With Brandy Syrup, Bottom Layer Of Kirsch Mousse

Strawberry Jelly In The Middle, Top Layer Of Kirsch Mousse

My Original Gateau consists of brandy-soaked pistachio jaconde, kirsch mousse and a kirsch-seeped strawberry jelly. I call it The Hangover©. The jaconde turned out well: cheery green with the fragrance of pistachio, but the jelly was rubbery from too much gelatine (the one in my strawberry cheesecake was runny so I decided to err on the side of caution today).

The Archilles' heel was my mousse: To ensure it set well I added extra gelatine which probably wasn't mixed thoroughly enough into the mousse: instead of setting, it sank and seeped out when the gateau was sliced, and with it sank my heart.

From Promising Top To Melting Flop

Chefs Karen and Luigi were disappointed but not as much as I was. Saving grace were the flavors which they agreed worked beautifully together. That said, I binned my creation and come home empty handed for the first time. Back to the drawing board with this one. Dang!

Special Occasion Fruit Cake, Sugar Decoration, Royal Icing

Chef Gert & Chef Keith's Wedding Masterpieces

Chef Andre & Chef Gert's Teddies

Today's decorated fruitcake is a juxtaposition of the old, the new and the timeless. Fruitcakes have been around since ancient Rome, when pomegranate, pine nuts and raisins were mixed into barley mash and baked (not very appetizing, is it?). In the Middle Ages, honey, spices and preserved fruits were thrown in and the name "fruitcake" was born.

Coupled with this the modern take on cake decorating, where colorful and easy-to-use sugar pastes allow a chef's creativity to reach new heights, and patrons find endless inspirations from a favourite comic character for a child's birthday to edible models of a couple on their wedding day, possibilities are endless for both inspired chefs and delighted customers alike.

Baked Fruitcake, Patched With 66% Marzipan, Glazed With Apricot Jam

Despite the long baking time, our fruitcakes did not burn, thanks to Chef Keith's advice to insulate them with up to 8 layers of silicon paper all around, and a crowning piece the end of baking. The cake came out moist, amber gold and smelled an absolute high (from the brandy, that is). A thin coat of jam binds the marzipan to the cake, which at 66% almond content tastes vastly superior to cheaper versions and is therefore the perfect paste to coat and smooth the cake with, not to mention good enough to eat on its own!

Rolling Out Marzipan, Wrapping Fruitcake For Smooth Surface

Covering Cake With RTR, "Sandpapering" For Smooth Surface

RTR or Ready To Roll is a commercial sugar paste that is a dream to use: unlike fondant or marzipan which absorbs too much moisture from the air and gets all sticky on you, RTR reminds dry, pliable and a sheer joy to work with. Brings to mind our croquembouche and I wonder why we weren't given RTR to make the decorative flowers with then.

Cake covered and smoothed, it is now a ready canvas on which you may add any decoration your imagination dictates. Chef Gert finished up Chef Keith's design of the cake started yesterday and shared with us some tricks of his own along the way.

Gluing On Columns & Flowers With Icing Sugar

Edging Cake Frills, Leaving Onto Side Of The Pot To Dry & Harden

 Weddings Are Always Better With Cake

As with all fruitcakes I've been given in the past (and unable to dispose of without offending the gifter) I took a teensy weensy bite of chef's cake and by golly was it good! I did not taste any overly sweet dried fruit, all I picked up was a Bang! In-Ya-Face hit of brandy and I immediately fell in love with fruitcake for the first time! Sure the fruits and nuts provided moisture, texture and crunch, but it was the heat of that brandy going up my nose that had me going back for more. Happy Hour at 10 in the morning? Bring it on, I say!

My Porcelain Flower & Butterfly Fruitcakes

I kept my cakes simple that's how I like them: not only are they easy to slice, there is also far less of the sugary stuff around to distract from the cake. That said, I wouldn't mind making a decorative cake again, this time with a more complicated design to try my hand at. 

Have a look at what the other (more creative) guys and gals in my class did!

Lily & Sunny's Pretty-In-Pink Creations

Jing's Octopus, Smital's Sleeping Baby

Erica's Baby Converse, Matin's Sunflower

Jo Ann's 2 Tier Wedding Cake!

Gateau Traditional Aux Fruits, Royal Icing, Pastillage, Rock Sugar

"Grumpy" Chef Keith

It's mise en place day for tomorrow's decorated fruitcake, into which goes an array of sugar tools from royal icing to rock sugar, all made from scratch. Before we commence, however, we first have to make and bake our fruitcake.

So dense is this cake it requires up to 3 hours of baking time. Mine was such an overdose of liquor that it sat pretty in the oven for 3.5 hours before the skewer came out clean.

Creaming Butter, Brown Sugar, Apricot Jam, Golden Syrup, Molasses

Adding Eggs, Sifted Flour, Bicarbonate Of Soda, Ground Allspice, Mace, Almond

Stirring In Slivered & Flaked Almonds

Macerated Fruits & Chopped Dried Dates

Fruited Batter Pre & Post Baking

The smell of brandy from Chef's cake was so strong that I was starting to wonder how mine would turn out: surely you can't have too much booze in fruitcake? (In my delusional opinion, moderation is so overrated.)

The cake smelled like Christmas morning, what with the booze, fruits and molasses baking away. Much as I used to loath it as a kid, making fruitcake for the first time had my curiosity piqued and I actually want to try a (tiny) piece now.

Pastillage: Making A Well With Icing Sugar

Pouring Hydrated Gelatine Powder & White Vinegar Into Middle Of Well

Kneading Till Smooth & Pliable (From The Gelatine)

Pastillage is a modeling dough perfect for white wedding cakes or can be colored to choice. Pliable enough to make intricate flowers and figurines with, it can dry up quickly and become hard and fragile, but handled with care and kept in the right (read moisture-free) condition, sometimes with a coat of lacquer or varnish, the sugar in the pastillage showpiece will preserve it till the end of time.

Royal Icing: Icing Sugar & Egg White, Mixed Till Stiff Peak

One of the most versatile icings around, royal icing can be drizzled onto cakes and biscuits, piped into intricate flower pieces and used to "glue" decorative pieces onto cakes. Like pastillage, it dries and hardens over time, so keep moisture out and they'll keep forever.

Erupting Rock Sugar: Caster Sugar, Water & Royal Icing

Boil sugar syrup to 136'C, remove from heat, add a tablespoon or so of royal icing and quickly stir! A chemistry-set reaction will take place almost immediately - the mix will start "erupting" like volcanic lava (don't know why, if anybody does, please kindly enlighten me). The lava will set and can be broken off as needed.

Precious Pink Gemstone

The basics done, we now move on to make the decorative pieces for our cake.

Stenciling & Air Brushing Decorative Pastillage

Purple Roman Columns

Chef Keith's Flower Blog

Chef Keith Demonstrating Pastillage Lily

Some complicated-looking things can be so simple to make it surprises you. Chef Keith showed us how to make a lily with little more than a small knob of colored pastillage and a homemade embossing-board. A nimble hand and a quick twist later, a flower blooms. 

Chef Keith's Airbrush Circa 1988