As the weekend approaches, my thoughts start drifting toward two things: a. food, and b. friends. It doesn’t matter if it’s an apéro, a dinner party or even just afternoon tea, there’s nothing more special than spending these precious days off surrounded by good company and good food.
The recipe I want to share with you today is a little complicated, but the perfect dessert to bring if you’re looking to impress. In French, this style of cake is referred to as an entremet. I think pastry chefs use the same word in English but it’s far less commonly used. Basically this “entremet” consists of an almond biscuit base, a layer of passionfruit cream, a passionfruit fruit insert, a tonka bean mousse and a white chocolate mirror glaze. It’s fresh, it’s light and it’s the perfect way to finish a dinner among friends.
I decorated my cake using sugar flowers that I bought from a cooking store, you can do the same or simply omit them.
You’ll need:
- A silicon cake mould or a bottomless cake mould
- Some Pectin NH
- A thermometer
Passionfruit and Tonka Bean Entremet
Servings: 8
Ingredients
Passionfruit insert
- 200 g of passionfruit pulp
- 4 g of pectin NH
- 20 g of sugar
The cake layer
- 110 g of melted butter
- 20 g of melted chocolate
- 125 g of icing sugar
- 50 g of flour
- 60 g of almond meal
- 120 g of egg white
- ½ tsp of baking powder
The tonka bean mousse
- 1 vanilla seed pod seeds scrapped
- 1 to nka bean
- 190 g of milk
- 45 g of egg yolk
- 45 g of sugar
- 25 g of cornflour
- 4 g of gold strength gelatine leaves
- 240 g of whipping cream
The passionfruit cream
- 100 g of passionfruit pulp
- 35 g of egg yolks
- 50 g of egg
- 30 g of sugar
- 2 g of gold strength gelatine leaves
- 60 g of butter at room temperature, in cubes
The mirror glaze
- 75 g of water
- 150 g of sugar
- 150 g of glucose syrup
- 150 g of concentrated milk
- 150 g of white chocolate
- 50 g of neutral glaze available online or in pastry supply stores
- 10 g of gelatine
- 1 pinch of yellow food colouring
Instructions
The cake layer
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Sift the flour, baking powder and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the almond meal, then the eggwhites. Mix well then add the butter and chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
- Pour onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. You want to pour enough to have a layer of cake approximately 1/2cm in thickness. Use a spatula to smooth it out.
- Bake for 10 mins, or until it’s golden and springs back when you touch it. Allow the cake to cool, then cut out a circle the same size as your mould. Set aside.
The tonka bean mousse
- In a saucepan, heat the milk, the vanilla and the grated tonka bean. As soon as the milk starts to boil, remove it from the heat and cover with plastic film, insuring that the film is touching the surface of this milk – this will prevent a skin from forming. Allow the vanilla to infuse for at least half an hour.
- Place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water.
- Remove the film from the milk and reheat it. While it’s heating, whisk together the egg yolks, the sugar and the corn flour in a small bowl. Once the milk starts to boil, pour half onto the egg yolks, whisk, then pour back into the pan. Whisk continuously as you bring the mixture to a boil. Once the first bubble appears, continue to heat for 1 minute. Remove from the heat. This mixture is your pastry cream.
- Squeeze the water out the gelatine and whisk it into the pastry cream, then allow the mixture to cool to 30°C.
- Once the pastry cream has cooled, whip the cream so it’s light and has a mousse-like texture. Add 1/3 of the cream to the pastry cream and whisk to combine the two. Swap your whisk for a spatula, and gently fold in the remaining 2/3 of the cream.
- Pour the mixture into the mould so that it’s half full and smooth the top with a spatula. Take the fruit insert out the freezer and place it on top of the layer of cream. Place the mould in the freezer until you’ve finished the next preparation.
The passionfruit cream
- Place the gelatine in a bowl of cold water and set aside.
- In a bain-marie, heat the passionfruit pulp, the egg yolks, the egg and the sugar. Whisk continuously until the mixture reaches 85°C.
- Remove from the heat and add the gelatine (squeeze out the water first), then whisk in the butter. Keep whisking until completely incorporated.
- Take the mould out the freezer and pour in enough passionfruit cream so that it almost reaches the top. To finish, carefully top with the layer of cake. Gently push the cake into the cream so that it’s level with the top of the mould.
- Place in the freezer until completely frozen (roughly 4h).
The mirror glaze
- Place the gelatine in a bowl of cold water and set aside.
- In a saucepan, bring the water, sugar and glucose to a boil.
- Place the white chocolate in a bowl (it should be chopped into small pieces), and pour the hot sugar mixture over the top. Mix well until smooth then squeeze the water out the gelatine and add it to the mixture.
- Next, add the colorant (gel colourants work best) and the neutral glaze. Mix until completely incorporated, then allow to cool to 35°C.
- Remove the cake from the freezer and demould it. Cover your countertop in plastic film, then place a grill on top. Place the frozen cake on the grill and pour over the mirror glaze. Allow the glaze to dribble down the sides before transferring it onto a place.
- Decorate the bottom of the cake with desiccated coconut and add the flowers (optional).
- Allow the cake to unfreeze before serving.
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