Workspace Wednesday - my first mousse cake

 

Guess what? I've officially made my first mousse cake! *high fives all around*

As you know, I tend to go all out when it comes to family birthdays...make a lot of stuff and give myself unnecessary stress. While I do believe that some stress in life is good because it engages your sympathetic nervous system, this time for my mum's birthday, I went with ONE singular cake. No tarts or cookies on the side. (Okay, there was the fail-safe fruit jelly in the fridge....I mean it is after all a birthday celebration, there has to be some sweet stuff). 

But of course, it had to be a cake I had never attempted before. Because I like to challenge myself. *LOL*

I decided to make Dominique Ansel's Peanut Butter Crunch Cake. Now I watched this video last year but thought it was a little too technical for me. But when I watched the video again last week, I thought that it was totally doable. Just 3 components: the crunchy base, the mousse middle and the chocolate ganache glaze.

Even though I didn't have the equipment (8 inch cake ring), corn syrup or puffed rice. But I had a few days to get my act together.

I did manage to get a 7 inch cake ring (on sale) on Amazon with next day free shipping (LOVE Amazon Prime). The 8 inch ring was twice the price so I went with the 7 inch of course...because it's the same of yumminess in a slightly smaller size right?

I didn't have corn syrup but decided I would just use honey instead. Surprisingly the hardest thing to find was the puffed rice. I couldn't even score Rice Krispies as an alternative in my nearby supermarkets. Luckily my sister was in town and got me a box of Rice Pops! I was already googling how to make puffed rice at home (either using oil or salt)...phew, I got the ready-made version. :)

But of course, I screwed up the first step by adding my melted chocolate to my puffed rice without caramelising the puffed rice first. It was yummy but I wasn't sure if it would get soggy when I put on the mousse layer so I made another batch (no worries, this batch didn't go to waste...the Gangster Gang ate them all up!).

The original recipe called for corn syrup and sugar to be added to the puffed rice before caramelising in the oven. I went with just raw honey because I didn't want it to be too sweet as the melted chocolate would add more sweetness to the mix.

And of course, I reduced the sugar in the mousse by 30% because I find that American recipes tend to be way to sweet for my liking. Plus I used regular sweetened peanut butter. I just made sure that I didn't kill my gelatine because that was what would set my mousse.

So I made the cake base (puffed rice) and mousse the night before and let it sit overnight in the freezer. In the morning, I made the glaze and poured it over the perfectly set frozen mousse and crunch layers. Then I added the puffed rice pieces to the cake as decoration. Done by 10am for birthday celebration at dinner time! :)

It was the first time I didn't have to rush through the whole afternoon, baking and frosting and preparing dinner too. I mean, there was a slight worry that the cake might not have set and we might end up with a soupy mess but it was a hit! 

Nephew #3 and the niece requested for this birthday cake for next year's birthdays. Mum was like, "Is this all you made?" when I took the cake out. But once we finished the cake, no one complained that it wasn't enough. I mean, there were no leftovers.

I think I'm becoming a lot more confident about my baking/cooking abilities these days. Even on recipes that are new to me. For that I'm grateful for the extra time I have during this stay-at-home-during-a-pandemic period. 

If peanut butter is your thing, give this recipe a go. I'm thinking I might buy his cookbook....and try to make the famous cronut.:)