This is a mousse cake with very comforting flavours! It’s like a big hug as the French pastry chef Cyril Lignac would say! By the way, this is a version of his famous “Equinoxe” mousse cake. I used the recipe proposed by Aurélien Cohen but I changed the sponge, the recipe of the glaze and the design. It was absolutely delicious!
It is made of:
A lotus biscoff crunchy layer
A "pain de Gênes" sponge
A white chocolate and vanilla mousse
A caramel cremeux
A white chocolate mirror glaze
Some fudge cubes to decorate
It's the first time I was making a "pain de Gênes" sponge, and I really liked it. It's dense but soft at the same time and it has a delicious almond flavour.
Regarding the vanilla and white chocolate mousse, it's the first time I made one this way. It's like a blend of a bavaroise mousse and a whipped ganache. The ingredients are those of a whipped ganache, but it is made as a bavaroise mousse: The cold cream is whipped and added gently to the ganache. I thought that this way, the mousse was much lighter compared to a whipped ganache and I preferred it.
I made the fudge using this recipe, but you can also find ready made mini fudge cubes.
Even though this mousse cake was a delight, I would adjust the quantities of the different layers next time. I would double the ingredients of the lotus biscoff crunchy layer to enhance the lotus biscoff flavour, and I would multiply the ingredients of the sponge by 1.5 to balance better the different textures. In the recipe below, I have not multiplied the quantities of the ingredients but feel free to try it.
Also, I think that I would change slightly the order of the different layers. I would move the sponge layer to the bottom, topped with the lotus biscoff crunchy layer. I would leave only the caramel cremeux in the middle of the cake. That's because when eating the cake with a spoon, the sponge smashes the vanilla cream. Also, the crunchy layer tends to stick to the plate and break when cutting it because it's soft at room temperature, so I think it would be better on top of the sponge.
Here is my recommendation for organising your time if you want to make this mousse cake:
Day 1 :
- Make the sponge
- Make the caramel cremeux
Day 2 :
- Make the mirror glaze
- Make the lotus biscoff crunchy layer
- Make the white chocolate and vanilla mousse
Day 3 :
- Glaze and decorate the mousse cake
Recipe :
(For a 18 cm mousse cake)
"pain de Gênes" sponge :
(Recipe from Charles et Ava)
(You can increase the quantities by 1,5 if you would like more sponge in your cake)
100g of marzipan
100g of egg (about 2 eggs)
17g of butter
16g of sunflower oil
20g of flour
1,2g of baking powder
Gently heat the marzipan for a few seconds in the microwave.
In a blender, add the eggs and the marzipan and blend until the mixture is smooth
Pour this mixture in the bowl of your stand mixer and whisk on medium/high speed for about 10 minutes. The mixture will double in size.
Melt the butter and add in the sunflower oil. Leave the mixture to cool down at room temperature.
Add a small portion of the mixture of eggs and marzipan in the butter and oil and mix well.
Pour this mixture back in the bowl of the stand mixer and gently incorporate it to the rest of the mixture with a spatula.
Add in the sifted flour and incorporate it gently with a spatula.
Pour this mixture in a greased pastry ring of 18 cm.
Bake for 27 minutes in an oven preheated at 170°C.
Let the sponge cool down completely then cut inside a circle of 16 cm of diameter.
Caramel cremeux :
(Recipe from Aurélien Cohen)
125g of sugar
43g of water
23g of glucose
43g of hot double cream (30 - 35% fat content)
65g of egg yolks (about 4 egg yolks)
205g of cold double cream (30 - 35% fat content)
2,9g of powdered gelatin
17,4g of cold water to soak the gelatin
1,5g of salt
Soak the gelatin in the cold water for 10 minutes.
With a whisk, mix the egg yolks with the cold double cream.
In a saucepan, pour the sugar, the water and the glucose and heat until you obtain a golden caramel.
Add in the hot double cream and mix well.
Pour the mixture of egg yolks and cold cream in the sauce pan while mixing. Keep heating while mixing until the mixture reaches 83 - 84°C.
Remove the pan from the heat and add in the gelatin mass and the salt. Smooth the mixture using a hand blender.
Pour the cremeux in a pastry ring of 16 cm lined with cling film at its base.
Let it to set at room temperature for a few minutes and place the sponge on top.
Place this insert in the freezer overnight so that it sets.
Lotus biscoff crunchy layer:
(Recipe from Aurélien Cohen)
(You can double the quantities to enhance the lotus biscoff flavour)
25g of feuilletine
40g of lotus biscoff spread
12g of white chocolate
Melt the white chocolate
Add in the feuilletine and the lotus biscoff spread and mix well.
Place this mixture in a 16 cm pastry ring and smooth the surface.
Let it set in the freezer for at least 1 hour until it's hard.
White mirror glaze:
(Recipe from @hugoo_patissier)
Nappage:
125g of water
100g of sugar
10g of glucose
27g of sugar
4g of pectin
1g of lemon juice
In a saucepan, heat the water, the 100g of sugar and the glucose.
In the meantime, mix the pectin with the 27g of sugar.
Once the water, glucose and sugar mixture reaches 70°C, add in the pectin and sugar mixture and mix well.
Let it boil for 1 minute while continuously stirring.
Remove the saucepan from the heat, add in the lemon juice and mix.
Leave in the fridge until it cools down completely.
Mirror glaze:
113g of sugar
113g of glucose
63g of water
113g of white chocolate
80g of sweetened condensed milk
10g of powdered gelatin (200 blooms)
45g of nappage
Soak the gelatin in 60g of cold water for about 10 minutes.
In a jug, place the white chocolate, the sweetened condensed milk, the nappage and the mixture of gelatin and water.
In a saucepan, add the water, the sugar and the glucose.
Bring to 103°C and remove the pan from the heat.
Leave it to cool down slightly for 1 minute and then pour it in the jug on top of the rest of the ingredients.
Leave that mixture to sit for 5 minutes so that the chocolate melts with the heat.
Blend with a hand mixer at low speed while trying to avoid the formation of air bubbles. Blend for about 2 minutes to obtain a smooth glaze.
Cover it with cling film and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours.
White chocolate and vanilla mousse :
(Recipe from Aurélien Cohen)
150g of hot double cream (30 - 35% fat content)
165g of white chocolate
5,5g of powdered gelatin
33g of water to soak the gelatin
290g of cold double cream (30 - 35% fat content)
1 vanilla pod
Soak the gelatin in the cold water for at least 10 minutes.
Pour the hot cream in a saucepan.
Cut the vanilla pod in half in the length and scrap each half with a knife to collect the seeds.
Place the seeds and the pod in the saucepan with the cream and bring to the boil.
Remove from the heat, cover the saucepan with cling film and let the vanilla infuse for 15 minutes.
Remove the pod and warm the vanilla infused cream again.
Add in the soaked gelatin and mix well.
Pour the hot vanilla infused cream in 3 times on the melted white chocolate and mix well with a spatula between each addition until you obtain a smooth and shiny ganache.
Whip the cold double cream until it has the consistency of a shaving foam (not too firm). (Place the bowl and the whisk in the fridge before whipping the cream.)
Keep the whipped cream in the fridge until the ganache cools down to 25 - 28°C.
Then, add in 3 times the whipped cream to the ganache and mix very gently with a spatula to combine both mixtures.
Pour the vanilla mousse in a piping bag and prepare for assembling the cake.
Assembling the cake :
On a tray, place a 18 cm pastry ring lined at the base with cling film. Line the edges of the ring with rhodoïd.
Pipe half of the vanilla mousse at the bottom of the ring and on the edges. With a palette knife, smash the mousse against the edges of the ring.
Place the frozen insert (sponge + caramel cremeux) on the mousse, sponge towards the top and press it slightly in the mousse.
Pipe the rest of the vanilla cream on top.
Place the frozen crunchy layer on the mousse and press slightly so that the mousse comes up on the edges.
Smooth the mousse with a palette knife so that the surface is completely flat.
Leave the mousse cake in the freezer overnight so that it becomes frozen and hard.
Decorating the cake :
Remove the ring, the rhodoïd and the cling film from the cake and put it back in the freezer until it's time for glazing it.
Heat the mirror glaze in the microwave at 700 W until half of it has melted. Check the texture every 30 seconds.
Blend it with the hand mixer. It must be runny and at about 38°C.
Place a bowl upside down in a large tray and place the frozen cake on top of the bowl.
Pour the glaze, making sure to cover all the parts of the cake.
Directly after pouring the glaze, remove the excess at the top with a long palette knife.
Let the mirror glaze continue to drop of the edges for 1 to 2 minutes.
Remove the set drops of glaze at the base with a knife.
Transfer gently the cake to the serving plate using a long palette knife.
Decorate it with some fudge cubes.
Let the mousse cake thaw in the fridge for at least 3 hours before you can taste it!
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