A thing of beauty!!

"Since when am I a chocolate cake lover?" The thought first occured to me a couple of weeks ago while I was flipping through the older blogs and noticed that most of the cake recipes I have shared so far are chocolate based. I do love the seductive stuff but its mainly my husband who eats no other cakes but only chocolate. And since I dont like eating all the calories myself, I generously share the goodies with him (and the neighbours ofcourse) and often end up making what we all enjoy. But the urge of putting up some different cake recipes on the blog was so thrilling that it literally kept my mind occupied for many days thinking about new flavours and recipes and when the idea finally popped into my head, I immediately knew this was going to be my next post.

We actually had a cooking extravaganza at our home last Friday. It was supposed to be our last sumptuous meal in this house before disassembling the kitchen and moving to our new home near Dusseldorf. So, I made couscous-pomegranate salad, herby crown rib roast with pan-roasted baby potatoes, two different types of sauces and a quick Irish soda bread for dinner. Yes, yes, it was festive and was surely very filling as well!!!

For dessert, I had actually two brownies and a full cup of left-over chocolate ganache in the freezer that I couldve easily used up on another chocolaty delight but after having  stuffed plenty of heavy food in it, my stomach wasnt willing to tolerate even a small amount of anything rich again so instead of having a dessert, my husband and I just settled on small cups of dark espresso. While taking the brief sips on espresso and watching our little son spooning up his favourite strawberry yoghurt on the other side of the table, I suddenly felt the urge to mix the two flavours. I know, I know, it sounds crazy but please do have a look at the pictures below before declaring me insane. Only then, youll be able to visualise what I wanted at that time;)






Its a coffee sponge cake filled with strawberry yoghurt mousse and raspberry glaze on top. The torte took hours to put together, making me postpone the packing plans and a lot of other important stuff around but it certainly was worth all the wait and effort. A true thing of beauty!!






Coffee - Berry Torte

Ingredients

Coffee Sponge:

3 eggs
100 g icing sugar
1 tbs instant coffee mixed in 3 tbs hot water
50 g plain flour
50 g cornflour
2 tbs cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking powder
few drops of vanilla

Filling:

100 g raspberries/strawberries
3 tbs sugar
1 pkt vanilla sugar
100 g strawberry yoghurt
200 ml heavy cream
3 tbs water
1 1/2 tbs powdered gelatin

Glaze:

1 1/2 tsp powdered gelatin
3 tsp water
200 g raspberries
3 tbs sugar
few drops of lemon juice


The sponge cake is the usual sponge I make but this time I flavoured it with instant coffee. Bake an 8 inches coffee sponge according to instructions shown here. Take out from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack. Remove the sticky crust on top with your finger tips.





Prepare the mousse filling. Its not an ideal season to buy fresh berries, so I have compromised on using the frozen raspberries. Take the raspberries and puree them with an electric mixer. Strain if desired (I personally like the mousse with seeds but the glaze without). Add sugar and lemon juice.

Dissolve gelatin into water. After 3 minutes, microwave for a few seconds (dont boil or itll lose its setting power) until hot. Stir with a spoon, mix into the strawberry puree and allow to cool. Sorry I havent taken any pictures here but its more or less like the raspberry glaze shown below.

Meanwhile whip the heavy cream with electric beaters. Stop beating once you see the soft peaks forming.






Beat the strawberry yoghurt with a fork and mix it in the raspberry purree.




Gently fold the whipped cream into the puree with a rubber spatula until well incorporated.




Slice the sponge cake into two equal layers.

Take an 8" ring mould and set it on a cake plate or anything similar. Make sure the plate fits in your freezer. Fit a layer of sponge inside the ring.






Pour the prepared mousse over the sponge base. Place in the freezer for an hour.





Take out the cake from the freezer and carefully place the second layer of sponge on top. Return the cake back into the freezer for another hour.

After 40 minutes, start preparing the raspberry topping.




Take 200 g of raspberries in a sauce pan and purree them.
Dissolve gelatin in cold water and set aside.
Add sugar and lemon juice to the purree.




Bring to a boil. Remove from the stove and add gelatin. Stir gently until the gelatin is well incorporated into the purree.




Strain and remove all the unwanted seeds. Allow to cool.




Take out the cake from the freezer and pour the prepared glaze over it.





Place the torte in the refrigerator until set (ca. 5 hrs).




Carefully remove the ring.
Coat the sides with white chocolate (use your vegetable peeler to make white chocolate shavings).




Carefully transfer the torte onto the serving plate. Tip: Slide a long heavy knife under the torte and carefully lift it up giving additional support with your other hand. Be very careful as its a soft mousse-like cake!




Decorate with sugar-coated raspberries and sliced apples. Tip: If you want to give your torte more professional touches, brush the top with a clear cake glaze (we call it Tortenguss here in Germany) or with melted apricot jam.





Enjoy the flavours and..




have a great day you all!!!


Comments

  1. Your efforts truly paid off.The cake is a beauty and I'm drooling for a piece.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Looks so yummy! I so want to try!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You are a STAR dear :))

    ReplyDelete
  4. this is perfect the instruction is clear and the photos are great

    ReplyDelete

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