Out & About #803 | Pecan Chocolate Mousse Cake With Chocolate Ganache

Baking endeavours serve as the ideal amalgamation of innovation, precision, and fridge purgation.

More often than not, I construct my next creation based on available inventory and its best-before declaration. The objective is rarely altered, though additional constituents may be incorporated to facilitate consumption of weary ingredients.

​Of course, the amount of liberation varies from project to project. Similarly, some creations may come to be without utilizing items of prior preparation.

​In the weeks leading up to the sleepy polar bear's annual celebration of birth, I embarked on a journey to determine flavours and textures of interest. Earning the highest praise was the Layered Chocolate Cake for its chocolatey-ness, followed closely by my impromptu Tiramisu Cake for its airy sponge. A Mango Yogurt Mousse composed of homemade Mango Jam and yogurt-enhanced mousse was also sent in for feedback, though the response was far more subdued than expected, alluding to the preference for creamy cakes rather than fruity.

The sweet-salty profile of pistachios had been made known to me during a visit to Nani's Gelato. In an attempt to emulate the essence, I hunted down a source of pistachios, grew appalled at the price per unit, and shifted my focus to pecans instead. Toasting the a small tray's worth then passing it through a food processor yielded pecan butter - an obscene amount, might I add. This intermediate product was then folded into sweetened whipped cream, along with a minute amount of gelatin, to form a pecan mousse.

​Two sheets cakes were also constructed: a plain (vanilla) sponge and chocolate slab, both from Sunday Baking's roster of recipes. The vanilla sponge was a safe bet, given its positive response in the Tiramisu Cake. The denser, moister chocolate cake was not quite as durable, and crumbled nearly immediately even after cooling. Taste-wise, it was not too distant from a brownie, yet malleable was lacking for use in a tiered cake. A part of me wondered whether it had mattered that cocoa powder and the melted chocolate-butter mixture had been incorporated at the same time, rather than fat first and flour later. Constructing the vanilla sponge in a similarly rushed format, 10 g of excess honey were added into the yolks. The cake emerged sweeter than desired when sampled by itself, yet acceptable once incorporated as part of a whole.

Experimenting with a newly-acquired square mould and deeply creased acetate sheets, I would assemble the cake from the bottom-most layer, starting with the plain sponge. Pecan mousse was smoothed atop the sponge after a light wash of simple syrup. The crumble chocolate sheet would follow, next chocolate mousse, then a too-small square of vanilla sponge, and lastly more chocolate mousse to finish.

The subsequent day would see finalization of the cake: a luxurious chocolate ganache (with 54% cocoa and butter!) and a chocolate cream cheese squiggles for decoration. The latter saw tiny white bits, for the cream cheese had been softened, left to seize, then loosed once more without success. More acetate sheets and an offset gripped in steadiness finished the cake with a textured but smooth edge, reminiscent of Ferrero Rocher surfaces.

​The remnants of ganache, pecan mousse, and cake scraps were fitted into glass containers - mousse cups - and delivered to my birthday buddy while en route.

​Emails would permeate the inbox while in transit, leading me to log in remotely for the remaining thirty minutes of the work day. From these brief correspondences would ensue a hectic scramble to finish change order documentation using MS Office Online; the attempt was later deemed fruitless, for the files were not syncing to the main folder anyway.

A dinner of Tomo Sushi was proposed, and finally acquired about roughly forty minutes of back-and-forth (in)action. Madness it was, for the communication was anything but efficient and anything but effective. There appeared no sense of urgency, as if the schedules of all attendees were vacant and free-flowing. However, that was hardly the case for me. I was escaping from my 9-5:30 duties and on a time crunch before hurrying back for the next task of the day.

​The platter was extravagant, and each species neatly labelled on the tray cover. An order of Black Dragon Roll was mistakenly inserted as Red Dragon, though at no cost disadvantage. I would have passed it off without a moment's hesitation, yet the spiteful Aries nature opted to capture photographic evidence for record, despite any intentions to pursue the issue for compensation.

Since my last visit, Tomo Sushi has seemingly expanded its sashimi variety. Along with this comes surges in price, likely rendering it one of the more costly options in the neighbourhood.

Celebratory chants and the long-awaited cake reveal would take place shortly afterwards. By this time, the ganache had set to an impeccably glossy finish. The layers encased within were visually distinctive, though not as easy to distinguish by flavour. Overshadowed was the pecan mousse layer, which was entailed the most tedious creation process of all tiers. The tastebuds would be too distracted by the rich, indulgent ganache and crumbly centre layer of chocolate cake to identify its sweet-savoury properties. Also appearing to pale in comparison was the chocolate mousse; in reality though, the cake was quite balanced and not particularly heavy even after a rice-heavy meal. Each rectangular slice boasted fluffiness and creaminess in all the right departments.

​I was, personally, rather proud of the seven-layer creation. Time had been incredibly limited, with little to no room for error and redos. Furthermore, the mould was finnicky and, truthfully, not as stable as I would have liked. Additional reinforcement assisted in keeping its shape, but taping the acetate frame to the mould is a step I surely would not recommend.

​As the clock neared 8 PM, I grew wary of my upcoming schedule. Gradually, I gathered my belongings and hurried back. The evening would be a long one, filled with dropped connections and last-minute change order updates.