Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day!

I decided to make a little something for the Dad. I do love my Dad and all (hey, we're family!), but I'm not one for words of affirmation when it comes to such things. I'm not that kinda girl who'll go "I love you, Dad!". But. I'm still rather a Daddy's little girl nevertheless. So, here's a cake combining a few of his favourite elements for this Father's Day!

This is one cake that will be enjoyed by the men in your life. I mean, I'd risk a bet to say that 90% of men likes rum and raisin as their choice of poison favourite ice cream flavour. So, make this for the special men in your life (fathers, husbands, boyfriends) and I'm sure it'll bring a smile to their faces.

 Caramel coffee rum raisin entremet

I had the idea concept for this flavour combination from one of the recipes I've scanned previously. The book title is "香港頂級烘焙師 香港顶级烘焙师", and the recipe I had in mind was a caramel coffee rum raisin cake. However, looking through the recipe components, I wasn't too keen on it as it didn't seem very right to me.

I recall that Hidemi Sugino had a similar caramel coffee combination entremet - Brésilienne, in his book "Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé". It was one recipe that I've been wanting to try out, but didn't cos I didn't have the correct ring molds. I decided to use the recipe anyway, but modify it slightly to suit what I had in mind for the original combination.

 For the Daddy who likes alcohol and rum raisins...

While Hidemi Sugino used whisky as the choice of alcohol, I replaced it with rum. And I added in rum raisins into the coffee mousse. Oh, and I added a caramel glaze and coffee macarons for decor as per the "香港頂級烘焙師 香港顶级烘焙师 book".

As mentioned by previous bakers who had attempted this recipe (Evan, Yue and Pook), the coffee mousse was really bitter when eaten alone (I tried). However, the completed cake was just balanced perfectly. The caramel mousse was sweet enough to offset the bitter tones, and the addition of my caramel glaze pushed the sweetness levels barely to the brink. Just to the right level that is. Haha.

I loved the addition of the rum raisins as it provided a prominent alcohol note to the whole cake. Fans of rum and raisin ice cream will probably know what I mean. You'll probably want the alco level to be high enough so that you can taste the rum. And there certainly was plenty of rum flavour from my drunk raisins. *hic.

 Layers (bottom up): Cafe biscuit joconde, coffee mouse with rum raisins, caramel mousse, caramel glaze, coffee macarons

Macro shot of gold foil.

Daddy tend to stick around when I take photos, thus, his naughty finger was captured! ;)

While the macarons add to the lovely visual effects - that's sadly the only thing it offered. They turned soggy pretty quickly, so I recommend you decorate with the macarons right before you serve, or rather, just omit them. They won't be missed much. Trust me.

I ran out of gelatin (I had 4g while the recipe used 6g) for the glaze, so my glaze turned out pretty runny. I had to coat and re-coat the cakes several times, and also placed them into the freezer to set in between coatings. But even then, the glaze turned soft pretty quickly while I was photographing them (and it was in our hot humid weather today! *makes a face*).

I'll probably make this again in its original form. Sans glaze, and with whisky. It's safe to say I trust Hidemi Sugino's recipes. The ones I've tried so far are pretty good, and I can't wait to try more of them.

Rum raisin coffee caramel entremet 
(all except caramel glaze - adapted from Hidemi Sugino's Le Goût Authentique Retrouvé, caramel glaze - adapted from Evan's Kitchen Ramblings)
(makes one 4.5" round and five 3" sphere entremets)

Sirop à 30°B / Simple syrup
65g sugar
50g water

In a saucepan, bring the sugar and water to boil.
When all sugar crystals have dissolved, pour into a sterile jar & let cool.

Biscuit joconde sans beurre au café
25 g ground almond
25 g icing sugar
20 g egg yolks
15 g egg whites
2 g instant coffee
23 g cake flour

Meringue
50 g egg whites
30 g caster sugar

Combine icing sugar and ground almonds in a bowl.
Add in egg yolks and egg whites, whisk until thick and fluffy. Fold in flour and coffee.
To make the meringue, whisk egg whites and caster sugar together until stiff peaks then fold into the yolk mixture.
Spread a thin layer of mixture on a baking tray lined with baking paper with spatula.
Bake in a preheated oven at 230C for 4-6 mins until golden.

Sirop d'imbibage
30g sirop à 30°B
1 tbsp rum
1 tbsp water

Mix all ingredients and set aside.

Mousse au café
Crème anglaise au café
60g milk
10g instant coffee
30g egg yolks
20g caster sugar

2g sheet gelatin, bloom in cold water
13g rum
135g whipping cream

To make crème anglaise au café, whisk egg yolks and sugar in a saucepan, bring milk and coffee to boil in another saucepan then slowly whisk it into the yolk mixture.
Whisk the yolk mixture while heating over low heat until 82-85C.
Remove from heating and stir in the gelatin.
After cooling, mix in the rum. Whip the whipping cream till soft peaks. Fold in the whipped cream.

Rum raisins
100g raisins
75g rum

Soak the raisins in the rum for at 12 hours (overnight preferably). Place in saucepan, cover with lid. Cook over heat for two minutes. Cool (in saucepan with the lid on), drain and use.

Mousse au caramel
Creme caramel
150g whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
big pinch of fine sea salt
86g granulated sugar
50g glucose

Pâte à bombe
30g sugar
20g water
60g egg yolks

8g sheet gelatin, bloom in cold water
2 tsp rum
270g whipping cream

To make crème caramel, warm whipping cream and vanilla.
In a saucepan, combine sugar and glucose, heat over low heat and caramelise, carefully stir in vanilla cream, then stir in rum.
Sift through to remove vanilla pod then stir in gelatin.
To make pâte à bombe, bring the syrup to boil to about 115C. Start beating the egg yolks, and then add slowly the syrup to the egg yolks in a small steady stream, beating well till the mixture is cool.
Fold pâte à bombe into creme caramel, fold in whipped cream.

Caramel fleur de sel glaze
168g sugar
332ml whipping cream
32g glucose syrup
big pinch of fleur de sel
1/2 vanilla bean
6g sheet gelatin, bloom in cold water

Combine whipping cream, glucose, fleur de sel and vanilla bean in a saucepan and heat until boiling. (Remember to remove the vanilla bean before adding to the caramel!)
In another pan make a burnt caramel with the sugar and slowly add in the cream mixture. Stir until boiling, remove from heat then add in gelatin.
Mix well, let cool and use at room temp.