Mmm pumpkin, chai and vanilla - such a great combination! Lovely winter spices that compliment each other. It's the perfect cake for e.g. Thanksgiving or a nice weekend project in the cold winter months. If you like pumpkin, you'll love this cake!
Happy baking <3
Servings: 10 people
Ingredients:
Day 1
Crunch with Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate:
35 g caster sugar
20 g roasted hazelnuts without shell
80 g milk chocolate
50 g Nutella
50 g feuilletine/cornflakes
a pinch of salt
Day 1
Pumpkin Cake:
1 tsp vanilla paste
90 g all-purpose flour
50 g brown sugar
25 g caster sugar
50 ml sunflower oil
A smidgen baking soda
a pinch of salt
3/4 (0,75) egg
20 ml milk
100 g pumpkin puree (made from Hokkaido pumpkin)
1,5 tsp chai spice (find the recipe here)
Day 1
Pumpkin Curd:
0,5 gelatine leafs (1 sheet = 1,75 g)
100 ml pumpkin puree (use the remaining pumpkin puree from the pumpkin cake)
30 ml lemon juice
1,5 eggs
1 egg yolk
30 g caster sugar
35 g cold butter
Day 1
Vanilla Cream:
0,5 gelatine leafs (1 sheet = 1,75 g)
1,5 egg yolks
1,5 tbsp powdered sugar
1,5 tsp vanilla paste / 1,5 vanilla beans
190 ml heavy cream (20 ml to be heated, 170 ml to be whipped)
Day 2
Chai Latte Mousse:
2 gelatine leafs (1 sheet = 1,75 g)
160 g white chocolate
350 ml heavy cream (140 ml to be heated, 210 ml to be whipped)
3 tbsp chai spice (find the recipe here)
Day 3
Glaze:
6 gelatine leafs (1 sheet = 1,75 g)
150 g white chocolate
100 ml heavy cream
50 ml water
150 g caster sugar
150 g glucose syrup
White and orange food colouring paste
Day 3
Chocolate Decoration:
160 g white chocolate
Chocolate shimmer pearls
Instructions:
Crunch with Hazelnut and Milk Chocolate:
Roast the hazelnuts for approx. 5-7 min at 175°C. Remove the shells
Carefully melt sugar to a golden caramel in a little saucepan. Add immediately the hazelnuts and pour the caramelized nuts onto a piece of parchment paper. Let them cool
Crop the nuts finely
Carefully melt the chocolate in a small saucepan (possibly in a bowl over a pan of simmering water / bain-marie). Put the saucepan aside
Add finely chopped hazelnuts, feuilletine, Nutella and salt to the chocolate mixture
Roll out the crunch layer between two pieces of parchment paper and put it in the freezer for approx. 5 min
Cut a circle with a cake cutter/pastry ring (16 cm diameter)
Place the circle crunch layer in a pastry ring (16 cm diameter) lined with plastic sheet inside and parchment paper at the bottom. Make sure it is even and flat
Pumpkin Cake:
Pumpkin puree: Cut a hokkaido pumpkin in half and bake it in the oven approx. 45 min at 175°C until the pumpkin is tender. Let it cool. Scrape the pumpkin pulp and hand blend for a creamy consistency. Measure 100 g of pumpkin puree and save the rest for the pumpkin curd
Whip sugar, brown sugar, vanilla paste and sunflower oil with a hand mixer. Stir in the pumpkin puree
Add eggs and milk and whip again
Lastly, whip flour, baking soda, salt and chai spice in the dough
Pour the dough in a springform or pastry ring (16 cm diameter) with parchment paper
Bake the cake for approx. 20-23 min. at 175°C
Let the cake cool. Place it on top of the crunch layer in the pastry ring
Put the cake in the freezer
Pumpkin Curd:
Use 100 ml of the remaining pumpkin puree from the pumpkin cake
Soak gelatine in cold water for 5-10 min
Stir pumpkin puree, lemon juice, egg, egg yolk and sugar in a saucepan. Cook slowly until it comes to a boil while constantly whipping the mixture
Let the curd simmer for a few minutes while constantly whipping until it thickens
Remove the pan from the heat and add butter cut in cubes. Whip in the gelatine in the mixture
Sift the curd in a refined sieve. Hand blend to get a creamy consistency
Pour the curd on top of the pumpkin cake
Put the cake back in the freezer. The curd needs to set before the next layer can be added
Vanilla Cream:
Soak gelatine in cold water for 5-10 min
Whisk egg yolks and powdered sugar in a bowl to a thick and foamy consistency. Add vanilla beans / vanilla paste
Heat 20 ml heavy cream almost to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove it from the heat and whip gelatine in the mixture
Stir the cream in the egg mixture. Let it cool until lukewarm
Whip 170 heavy cream to whipped cream with hard peaks and gently fold the cream into the egg mixture
Spread the cream on top of the pumpkin curd
Freeze the cake overnight
Chai Latte Mousse:
Soak gelatine in cold water for 5-10 min
Carefully melt the chocolate (possibly in a bowl over a pan of simmering water / bain-marie) and put the chocolate aside in a bowl
Heat 140 ml heavy cream and chai spice almost to a boil and move from heat. Whip the gelatine in the mixture
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate while you stir in the middle of the bowl with a rubber spatula
Let it cool until lukewarm
Whip the remaining heavy cream (210 ml) to soft peaks and gently fold the cream into the lukewarm chocolate mixture (if it is too hot it can separate the cream)
Pour the mousse into a silicone mould at 18 cm diameter (I have used a Silikomart TOR mould) lined with plastic sheet (as the cake will be higher than the mould). If the mousse is a bit liquid in the consistency, it needs to set a bit before the frozen cake is added in. Place the mousse in the mould in the refrigerator until it is set a bit (as a rule of thumb, it has set enough when you dip the end of a spoon in the mousse and it forms a soft peak when you remove the spoon from the surface)
Take the frozen cake out of the freezer and carefully press it down in the chai latte mousse with the vanilla cream facing downwards
Freeze the cake overnight
Glaze:
Soak gelatine in cold water for 5-10 min
Chop chocolate finely and put it in a large plastic pitcher
Heat sugar, water, heavy cream and glucose syrup in a saucepan almost to a boil and remove from the heat. Whip the gelatine in the mixture
Pour the cream over the chocolate in the pitcher and hand blend (place the hand blender at an angle when blending to avoid air bubbles). Add white and orange food colouring paste
Cover the surface with cling film and cool the glaze down to 34°C-35C°
Take the cake out of the freezer right before you are ready to glaze. Place it on a baking rack with parchment paper underneath
Pour the glaze over the frozen cake. Use two palet knives to remove the glaze excess from the bottom of the cake
Place the cake on a plate and let it thaw in the fridge for approx. 6 hours
Chocolate Decoration:
Chocolate ribbon:
Cut a piece of plastic sheet (3 cm x 58 cm) and put it on the kitchen table
Put a pastry ring (18 cm diameter) in the fridge
Temper all the chocolate
Pour the chocolate over the plastic sheet, even the surface with a small palet knife, release the plastic sheet from the table and run the fingers along the sides of the plastic sheet to remove chocolate leftovers. Leave it on the kitchen table until it is almost set
Place the ribbon around the cold pastry ring and put it back in the fridge
When the chocolate has set, remove the plastic sheet and place the ribbon around the cake
Chocolate circle:
Pour the chocolate (the rest of the tempered chocolate) between two large plastic sheets and even the surface with a cake roll
Place the plastic sheets between two chopping boards and put the chocolate in the refrigerator. This keeps the circle even and flat
When the chocolate has set, cut a chocolate circle with a 12 cm diameter pastry ring
Chocolate pattern:
Melt 50 g chocolate and put it in a plastic bag with a tiny hole in the bottom
Drizzle the chocolate on the chocolate circle
Place shimmer pearls in the chocolate pattern before the chocolate sets
Place a few shimmer pearls with a little melted chocolate on top in the middle of the cake
Place the chocolate circle on top of the pearls
Comments