Fraise Exotique

i hope you're not tired of seeing yet another entremet on my blog! it was my friend's birthday last weekend so i made her a cake. i chose a simple one from one of my japanese pastry books and this is basically a white chocolate vanilla entremet with strawberry syrup-soaked almond biscuit sponge and macerated strawberries in spices.

i thought this is like one of the prettiest cakes i've ever made! the height is perfect and i really like the pink specks on the glaze (made with adding strawberry puree into it). original recipe has got a torched meringue topping but i felt it would be too sweet hence i omitted. overall taste was not bad. the white choc mousse was exceptionally smooth, velvety and creamy but i didn't quite fancy that it had a pudding-like texture and i felt like i was eating custard instead of mousse. i guess its due to the proportion of white choc vs. whipping cream. anyway i haven't made much entremets using white choc before but i did recall i rather liked the toshi yoroizuka's lumiere and the ivoire from le cordon bleu's book. then again, the birthday girl really liked it so i guess thats all it matters.

recipe source : 创意新香精致法国甜点 by 山本光二 (patisserie les planetes by koji yamamoto)

ingredients (makes one 6"/15cm square entremet) :

for the spiced macerated strawberries :

30ml water

30ml sugar

1/2 vanilla bean pod, seeds scraped

1 star anise

8 strawberries

for the biscuit amandes sponge :

30g egg

21g powdered sugar

25g ground almonds

41g egg whites

20g caster sugar

18g cake flour

for the vanilla white choc mousse :

40g egg yolk

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

283ml whipping cream

183g white choc couverture, melted

5g sheet gelatin

for the strawberry soaking syrup :

30ml leftover syrup from macerated strawberries

55ml strawberry puree

10ml kirsch

for the decor :

macerated strawberries

mint leaves

vanilla pod

star anise

nappage neutre glaze (mix with 2 tsps leftover soaking syrup if any)

directions :

1. to make the macerated strawberries, cut each strawberry breadthwise into 3 slices. boil together water, sugar, vanilla bean & anise until sugar has dissolved. leave to cool then add in strawberries. toss to coat and leave to macerate for 2-3 hours. remove strawberries and reserve syrup.

2. to make the biscuit amandes, whisk together egg, powdered sugar & ground almonds in a bowl. make meringue with egg whites & caster sugar, fold into the above then fold in cake flour. pour mixture into 7" square tin and bake on 230C/446F for 5-6 mins or until golden.

3. to make the vanilla white choc mousse, whisk together egg yolk and vanilla bean until thick and pale. heat 113ml whipping cream until boiling then pour in bit by bit into the egg yolk. add in softened gelatin sheet then fold in melted choc. whisk the rest of the whipping cream until stiff peaks then fold into the above.

4. to make the strawberry soaking syrup, mix together syrup, puree and kirsch in a bowl.

5. to assemble, cut sponge into 6" square and place it into the bottom of the mousse ring. soak sponge with syrup and pour white choc mousse over. freeze until firm then glaze with nappage neutre and decorate with macerated strawberries, mint leaves, vanilla pod and star anise.