Chocolate caramel banana mousse cake

This was one of my sons birthday cakes. He loves bananas, and he especially loves them in desserts. One of his favorite is Banoffee pie. And although I am not a big fan of bananas, I cant argue on this one. I eat it too, and I love it. Its so hard to resist the gooey caramel, bananas, whipped cream, and chocolate shavings.
So, I decided to make him a cake that will have similar ingredients, but that will be more elegant and sophisticated. And I was so happy with the result. Its two layers of chocolate sponge cake with pecans, that I soaked with rum syrup, chocolate mousse, dulce de leche mousse, and banana slices.

For sponge cake:
6 egg yolks
125 gr sugar
3 egg whites
50 gr flour
25 gr cocoa powder
50 gr pecans + 50 gr sugar (grinned together in food processor until fine powder)
50 gr hot melted butter

Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Combine the egg yolks with half of the sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
Using clean bowl whip the egg whites with other half of sugar until stiff peeks. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together over egg yolk mixture. Scoop about one third of the meringue on top and quickly and thoroughly mix it with a rubber spatula. Add remaining meringue and gently fold it into the batter. When almost completely incorporated, add pecan and sugar powder, and fold until completely mixed. Slowly pour the melted butter over the batter and fold it in. Bake in two 9 inch / 23 cm pans lined with parchment paper for 20-25 min until spongy.

Brushing syrup:
6 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon sugar
3 tablespoons rum

6 bananas

Chocolate mousse:
350 gr heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
100 gr chocolate
3 egg yolks
1 teaspoon gelatin
2 tablespoons cold water
First bloom gelatin in cold water. When its ready melt it in a microwave or in the hot water bath.
To make the mousse, bring 100 ml of  cream to a boil. Add chocolate and stir as it melts. Add melted gelatin.
Whisk the egg yolks with sugar until frothy and fold into the chocolate mixture. Cool to 95F/35C.
Whip the remaining cream until stiff and fold in the chocolate mixture.

Dulce de leche mousse:
350 ml heavy cream
1 egg
150 gr dulce de leche
1 teaspoon gelatin
2 tablespoons water
vanilla
Bloom gelatin in water, and dissolve in microwave or in hot water bath.
Heat  150 ml of cream with the lightly beaten egg for 10 min to 158F/70C. Mix constantly. Add dissolved gelatin, dulche de leche and mix until incorporated. Whip the remaining cream until stiff, and fold in the chocolate mixture.

To assemble the cake, brush chocolate sponge layer with brushing syrup. Put it in the spring form cake pan. Layer it with sliced bananas ( I needed 3 smaller bananas per layer, and mixed them with few drops of lemon juice to prevent them from discoloring ). Pour the chocolate mousse over bananas, and put it in the freezer until you make dulce de leche mousse.
Soak second sponge layer with brushing syrup. Put it on the top of the chocolate mousse. Layer it with sliced bananas, and pour dulce de leche mousse on top. Put it in the fridge overnight to set.
I decorated it with chocolate colar and with whipped chocolate cream.

Caramel Panna Cotta

There are people that can't eat gelatin. Usually, its because they are vegetarians. Gelatin is made out of boiled cows or pigs skins, ligaments, and bones. I think that something like that does not belong into a dessert.

Sounds bad, right?
Although I don't have any food, spiritual or religious restrictions, I don't like the smell of gelatin. And even more, I don't like how people use it. Sometimes they overdose their recipes with it, so you end up with a gummy bear, instead of cloud like dessert.
That's why I knew I will have to try out this panna cotta recipe. Its made without gelatin. Preparation is unusual for panna cotta, its baked, not cooked, but its really sophisticated, creamy, and luscious.

 It  is the best panna cotta I ever tasted. It takes only few minutes to mix, and hour and a half to bake, but its worth the wait. 

Good old panna cotta is very bland. If you dont serve it with berries, which is predictable, you will end up with dessert that's kind of boring.

This one is made with caramel, and served with melted milk chocolate.
It does not get better than that.
Recipe comes from Baker's corner, which has some beautiful recipes, so I will ask you to check them out. Diana makes best breads, ice creams and desserts. I am sure you will find something you will like.
Enjoy :)

Chocolate pine nut caramel cake - Cokoladna torta sa pinjolima

This cake very rich, and its a special occasion cake. It has three layers of goodness. Layer of brandy soaked chocolate cake, caramel layer with nuts, and whipped chocolate ganache.
If you are not big fan of pine nuts, you can use any other chopped nut that you like.

To make the caramel pine nut filling you will need:
150 ml. heavy cream
150 gr. sugar
150 gr. pine nuts (or other nuts)
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 tablespoons of water
Place 3 tablespoons of water with sugar in medium saucepan over medium high heat. Cook it for about 10 min without steering until sugar turns golden brown. Add heavy cream, vanilla and with pine nuts. Immediately remove from the heat, and cool to room temperature.

For the ganache:
500 ml. cream
300 gr. chocolate
Place chopped chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat the cream until it comes to boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it stand for a few minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let it cool completely in the fridge for few hours, and whip it when chilled.










































For the cake layer:
70 gr. almond flour
80 gr. sugar
6 eggs
25 gr. cocoa powder

Mix 6 egg yolks with half of the sugar until light and fluffy. Set aside.
Mix 6 egg whites until soft peeks, and start adding sugar slowly until it holds medium peaks. Gently fold egg yolk mixture into egg whites, and add almond flour mixed with sifted cocoa powder. Bake in two 9 inch pans that you have layered with baking paper, at 375F/190C for about 10 min.until a wooden wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, and the sides slightly pull back from the edges of the pan.

To assemble the cake, brush the brandy syrup over the each layer.  Place cake layer on the serving plate.Spread the caramel on the soaked side of one of the layers. Cover with the second layer of cake flipped, so that its soaked side touches the caramel. Spread whipped ganache over the whole cake. and chill the cake in the fridge.







































Za karamel:


150 ml. slatke pavlake
150 gr. secera
150 gr. pinjola
3 kasike vode

Za karamel, u secer dodajte 3 kasike vode i stavite da se kuva desetak minuta dok se secer ne istopi i smesa ne postane zlatna. Za to vreme ulupajte slatku pavlaku i kada je secer spreman iskljucite ringlu, sipajte pavlaku i dodajte pinjole. Smesa ce zapeniti. Promesajte dok se ne ujednaci, pa sipajte u staklenu ciniju i ostavite da se ohladi na sobnoj temepraturu. Za to vreme ce se zgusnuti.

Za biskvit
70 gr. samlevenih badema
80 gr. secera
6 jaja
25 gr. kakaa

Zumanca ulupajte sa polovinom secera dok se ne udvostruce i dok smesa ne postane svetla. Isto uradite i sa belancima, ulupajte ih u cvrst sneg. Sjedinite belanca sa zumancima pazljivo mesajuci, pa dodajte samlevene bademe pomesane sa kakaom. Pecite u kalupu od 22cm. Mozete podeliti na pola i peci u dva kalupa, ili peci u jednom pa biskvit preseci na pola.


Cokoladna krema
500 ml. slatke pavlake
300 gr. cokolade


Za cokoladnu kremu, ugrejte slatku pavlaku pa pre nego sto prokljuca sklonite s vatre i dodajte useckanu cokoladu. Ja sam koristila onu gorcu da torta ne bi bila preslatka.
Koricu premazite sirupom koji ste napravili od dve kasike secera, vode i konjaka. Prelijte karamel masu, razmazite i poklopite drugom navlazenom koricom. Vlazan deo treba da legne na karamel.
Cokoladnim kremom premazite celu tortu i dekorisite po zelji.

Sirup za korice
2 kasike secera
2 kasike vode
1 kasika konjaka