blackberry

Baby Shower | Congrats Vickee & Ian!

| Baby Showers

Back in November, we celebrated the expected arrival of a baby girl for my dear friends Vickee and Ian. I was unfortunately recovering from appendicitis and unable to stay for the baby shower, but was happy to deliver a lavender + bunny themed cake and cookies for the party. The cake itself was a white cake with lemon curd and blackberry Bavarian cream:

For the cookies, we had bunny-shaped iced shortbread cookies and salted chocolate chip cookies:

I love the opportunity to make gumpaste flowers for cakes. While they are a bigger time commitment, they are probably most reflective of my own cake decor aesthetic and I find the process meditative. For this cake, I made lavender buds, a white rose and some white filler flowers. Thank you to Subodh Kolla for sharing these beautiful photos!

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Ivoire Royale – White Chocolate Mousse & Berry Cake

| Uncategorized

According to Extraordinary Desserts’ website:

“Ivoire Royale — An exquisite torte made of fine layers of vanilla bean soaked pound cakes and creamy white chocolate mousse. Bursting with fresh raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and blueberries, this delicate mousse torte is hidden by white chocolate shaving dusted with powdered sugar.”

This is a 10″ cake, with sour cream pound cake layers, brushed with vanilla simple syrup. In between the layers are white chocolate sour cream mousse, fresh whipped cream, and berries. I only used strawberries and blackberries in my cake, but I think any combination would work. The decoration is white chocolate shavings and curls.

I’m not sure the recipe for mousse in the cookbook quite worked. For a better mousse consistency, I suggest the following:

White Chocolate Sour Cream Mousse
  • 4 egg yolks
  • cup granulated sugar
  • ¾ cup sour cream (room temperature)
  • 6.5 oz (1 ¼ cup) white chocolate
  • 2 cup heavy cream
  • ⅓ cup powdered sugar

Directions

  1. Heat ¾ cup of the heavy cream in a saucepan until it boils/simmers. Pour over white chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Let sit for a couple minutes before stirring with a spatula until the white chocolate is melted and smooth.
  2. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a stand mixer until pale yellow and fluffy.
  3. Add melted chocolate to the whipped egg yolks.
  4. In a separate bowl, beat the remaining heavy cream and powdered sugar together until peaks form.
  5. Gently fold in the whipped cream and sour cream into the white chocolate-egg yolk mousse base.

I played with this while in-process, so the measurements may not be exact, particularly with respect to the whipped cream addition. I think that part can be made to-taste and to-texture, depending on what consistency and level of sweetness you are aiming for. The important addition here to the cookbook is the whipped egg yolk base, which gives the mousse a sturdier structure that won’t run.

I had previously attempted this in cupcake form, but because this cake relies on being soaked in vanilla simple syrup, and having almost as much (or perhaps more) mousse and whipped cream than cake, I don’t think the cupcake form delivers the same texture and flavor. Not to mention, I also dropped my entire batch of cupcakes before delivering them to a potluck event, so it is not quite a happy memory. One day, I will post a collage of all my disasters (usually in transit), when it doesn’t pain me so much to think about it!

Yellow roses for my SYZters:

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