Chocolate, Chai, Caramel

Bonjour mes amis! All everyone seems to talk about right now is vacation. And all these talk of vacation is making me look forward to my imminent trip back to Auckland even more! I will be there for a couple of weeks before commencing my internship at a hotel in Champs Elysees in late September. It has been a little more than a year since I've left, and I cannot begin to list all the things I've missed about NZ. The flights will be about 26 hours each way - which I am not too happy about. But the thought of seeing all my friends, going to gigs and eating all the delicious foods I've missed will definitely get me through them no problem.

Two of the faces I simply cannot wait to see again are those of Rosie and Sarah from The Bread and Butter Letter. They have been very supportive with my baking even since the Teacups' Cake Stall days, that when I needed inspiration for my next cake they were an easy email away. To my delight, they proposed a pair of their new super-cute geometric earrings for me to muse upon. Though their triangle-shaped earrings gave me an indication of what form the cakes are going to take, I had no idea what kind of flavors they could possibly have. So I decided to play a little game:

Triangles have three sides, so I will choose three flavors. To narrow it down even more, I chose elements that begin with the third letter of the alphabet: "C". So dear friends, behold the Chocolate, Chai and Caramel cake!

My White Chocolate, Chai Tea and Caramel Pyramid Cake

A pair of cakes to go with the earrings

Yes, that is a gooey caramel center

With this cake I really wanted to experiment more with white chocolate. It was a huge learning experience trying to get the tempered triangle pieces to stick together neatly. A really fun part was when I got to spray cocoa butter at my chocolate pyramids with my newly-acquired paint sprayer for a velvet effect. 

I think the end result looks pretty neat.

Here's the recipe if you're curious..

Talita's White Chocolate, Chai and Caramel cake

-inspired by Bread and Butter Letter's geometric earrings

Makes 6 (with 7 cm pyramid silicon molds)

White chocolate cream 

95 g white chocolate - melted

85 ml heavy cream

pinch of vanilla powder or a little vanilla extract

- - - 

250 g cold whipped heavy cream

Warm up 85 g of cream and vanilla to a gentle simmer, stir into melted white chocolate

Cool mixture to 23 degrees C

Add in a cupful of whipped heavy cream into the mixture and whisk in to incorporate

Place mixture into the whipped cream and fold carefully with a rubber spatula until just incorporated

Caramel sauce

50 ml water

125 g sugar

140 ml heavy cream

Combine water and sugar in a saucepan, bring to the boil

Keep heating until a dark brown colour is obtained

Deglaze with cream and stir to dissolve bits of caramel 

Strain into a bowl and place in the fridge to cool completely

Chai crème brulée

400 ml heavy cream

20 g brown sugar

65 ml chai syrup (I used Monin)

6 egg yolks

2 sheets of gelatin - soaked and drained

pinch of cinnamon

Warm up cream and cinnamon to a simmer

Blanche egg yolks and sugar, add to cream and cook to 84 degrees C

Add in the gelatin and syrup off heat, strain if needed

Cool to 35 degrees C before piping into moulds

Praline, white chocolate, streusel square

250 g of almond and cinnamon streusel (click for recipe)

100 g white chocolate

85 g praline paste

Process streusel into fine crumbs

Melt white chocolate with praline paste atop a hot water bath (bain marie), stir to combine

Stir praline/white chocolate mixture into streusel crumbs to form a dough like mass

Place onto a silpat and roll out with the aid of wax paper

Peel off wax paper (don't worry if it looks dimply) and cool completely in the fridge

Cut into 8 cm squares and use smooth side up

White chocolate pyramids

200 gr white couverture chocolate

Prepare triangles out of firm plastic sheets with a base of 8 cm and height of 7.5 cm (you will need 4 per cake)

To temper white chocolate, melt over a hot water bath to a temperature of 38-40 degrees C

By stirring over an ice bath or by leaving it out on room temperature, bring the temperature down to 26 degrees C

Bring temperature back up to 28-29 degrees C by placing it back onto the hot water bath

Using a piping bag, pipe out tempered chocolate over the plastic pieces

Remove triangle pieces before the chocolate sets and place onto another flat surface

When chocolate no longer sticks to fingers, cover with wax paper and place a weight on top so chocolate pieces won't deform while crystallizing

When completely set, peel plastic backing off carefully from the corners

Using more tempered chocolate in the piping bag, stick four triangles together into a pyramid and smooth out the edges with the warmth of your fingers

Place pyramids in the freezer for at least 30 minutes before quickly spraying with white cocoa butter

Montage

Pipe out white chocolate cream onto the onto the bottom and sides of pyramid molds

Place into the freezer to set before piping out a little cooled caramel sauce in each

Place back into the freezer to firm up, then pipe out the chai crème brulée to the very top

Freeze completely!

Unmold, place onto a streusel square

Pop on a white chocolate pyramid and finish with golden powder and a gold leaf

Well that's it.  Gotta go, I've got to see about this pyramid cake that needs eating.

x Tal