Friday, February 24, 2012

Lychee, Rose & Raspberry Mousse Cake


This month a new baking challenge was launched - AlphaBakes. The idea is that each month a letter of the alphabet is randomly generated, your entry should then have a main ingredient beginning with this letter. The challenge comes courtesy of the The More Than Occassional Baker and Caroline Makes. This month's letter is 'L' which is fortunate as February is the month of Love. So therefore, here is my entry for AlphaBakes...made with Lychees and Love!
I went for an adventurous entry this month, using an ingredient I've never baked with before...Lychees. I made a Lychee, Rose and Raspberry Mousse Cake. The cake is inspired by Pierre Herme who created the Ispahan, which is a rose, lychee and raspberry macaroon. The recipe for my bake came from The Pleasure Monger.

This was certainly a labour of love and took several hours to make! I would definitely recommend giving it a go, however...just make sure that you like the person you're making it for... A LOT! :-)

First up was making the sponge base. This was made by making a meringue mix and then adding flour, egg yolks and flours. The base was then cut out using a ring mold and covered with a sugar syrup made with lychee juice. Next up was a lychee mousse, made with milk, vanilla paste and rosewater amongst other ingredients. This was made by boiling the milk and then whisking in the other ingredients.


To assemble the mousse cake, the sponge base was placed in the ring mold and a layer of mousse piped on top, followed by cut raspberries facing outwards and a layer of lychees inside this. Next up another layer of mousse, before making a raspberry jelly using rosewater, lychee juice, raspberries, sugar and gelatine leaves. This was poured over the mousse cake and left to set in the fridge.
As you can see, the result is a very pretty little dessert! It's not quite as perfect as I would of liked, but something to work on next time as you never know how it's going to turn out before it comes out of the mold!

19 comments:

  1. Wow, very impressive! I like the way you've got the cut raspberries facing outwards, they make a really nice pattern around the edge!

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  2. What a pretty looking little dessert, very professional.

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  3. You are great at baking!It is a professional dessert. Well done!

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  4. Fabulous dessert. I've never used lychees in a dessert before (well, except in a fruit salad) and now I don't know why I haven't. I'd be so impressed if I were served this.

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  5. Wow this looks AMAZING!!! Thank you so much for entering this to AlphaBakes. I remember eating something similar at Laduree in Paris. I don't see the imperfection at all, it's a prefect art of beauty. I'm sure it tasted delicious too!

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  6. Thanks for the positive feedback...they took a while to make but I think I would make them again!

    Thanks to for the challenge baking addict...I would never have made these otherwise!! :-)

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  7. These are a work of art - I would dearly love to plunge my fork into one of these right now! Particularly love the thick red glaze on the top and the side view of the raspberries

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  8. This is a dessert I will make to impress family and friends! Thanks so much for this recipe!

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  9. Oh Laura, these look gorgeous. You clearly put a lot of hard work into them. They are making my mouth water :-)

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  10. I love looking at your blog as I always think no she can not top that and then you do- time and time again! A-ma-zing! I have so wanted to attempt something like this for so long - Laura you are a legend - that is also a L! Good luck I think you will blow away the competition.

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  11. Wow! This mousses cake is like a work of art! Every ingredient is so neatly combined and beautifully plated.

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  12. This looks so pretty! And sounds delicious! Amazing!

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  13. Wow! Absolutely gorgeous! Rachel x

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  14. Thanks for your kind words! I think this is what blogging is all about...I never would have tried this without seeing everyone else's wonderful creations and without the baking challenges! x

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  15. They look fabulous. Well done! Lychees are my favourite fruit at the moment. xx

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  16. can I know the recipes and the ingredients?

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