Flourless Black Forest Entremet

The first thing J said when he saw the cake was, "It's not Christmas yet."

Well, Mr Smarty Pants, have you not heard of Christmas in July?

Okay, so it's August now (What?!? It's August already?). And the cake does look surprising festive. But who's to say we can't have a festive cake whenever we want.

This entremet comprises of 5 components; flourless chocolate sponge, kirsch morello cherry syrup, chantilly cream dotted with morello cherries, chocolate mousse and cherry glaze. It’s not as difficult as it looks or sound. And it’s not as time consuming as most of the entremets that I have made so far. It’s probably as easy as making a traditional black forest cake. Maybe.

I might add some gelatin to the chantilly cream next time I make this. The cream is a tad too soft to neatly hold up the weight of the sponge, mousse, glaze and decoration on top.

Note that the chocolate sponge is very delicate and will fall apart if you are not careful handling it. And although you don’t have to freeze the cake overnight, I do highly recommend doing so, as the glaze will set a lot faster, you will get a neater cut and also the cream will hold up a lot better.





Flourless Black Forest Entremet

Makes 7"x7" cake

Flourless Chocolate Sponge Cake
250 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped
60 grams unsalted butter, cube
250 grams eggwhite (about 6)
80 grams caster sugar
60 grams egg yolk (about 3)

To make flourless chocolate sponge cake:
Preheat oven to 180C conventional (or 160C fan-forced). Line 2 numbers of 30x20cm cake pans with baking paper.

Melt chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, set aside to cool slightly while you work on the rest of the ingredient.

In a clean bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk eggwhite until foamy. Sprinkle in 60 grams sugar and whisk until soft peaks. Set aside.

In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, whisk egg yolks and remaining 20 grams sugar until pale and creamy.

Add one-third of whipped eggwhite and all of the egg yolk mixture to the slightly cooled melted chocolate. Using a spatula, fold the ingredients together thoroughly. Gently fold in the remaining whipped eggwhite.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pans. Using a palette knife, spread the batter to an even thickness. Baked for 8-10 minutes or until springy to the touch. Turn sponge straight from oven onto a sheet of baking paper. Peel off baking paper from the bottom of the sponge. Cover with baking paper, then a tea towel. Set aside to cool completely.

Kirsch and Morello Cherries Syrup
150ml juice or syrup reserved from jar of morello cherries
50 grams caster sugar
2 tablespoon kirsch

To make kirsch and morello cherries syrup:
Combine juice/syrup and sugar in a saucepan, stir, over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Allow to boil for 5 seconds. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely. Add kirsch and stir to combine.

Chantilly Cream
400ml heavy cream, cold
40 grams caster sugar

To make chantilly cream:
Whip cream and sugar using an electric mixer until cream holds firm peaks.

To assemble (1):
You will also need about 400 grams morello cherries.

Trim flourless chocolate sponge cakes to fit a 7"x7" square cake ring.

Line cookie tray (or any rectangular baking tray) with baking paper. Place a 7"x7" square cake ring on top. Place a trimmed cake layer in the cake ring. Brush cake generously with syrup. Pipe or spoon half of the chantilly cream over. Place morello cherries over cream, roughly 2.5cm apart, stagger the lines. Pipe or spoon remaining chantilly cream. Brush second cake layer generously with syrup, place cake syrup side down on top of cream, press down lightly, brush cake layer with syrup. Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate while you work on the chocolate mousse.

Chocolate Mousse
225ml heavy cream, cold
125 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped
1 egg yolk
25 grams caster sugar

To make chocolate mousse:
Whisk cream using electric mixer until it holds firm peaks. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Once the chocolate has melted, set aside to cool slightly.

Whisk egg yolk and sugar (I use hand whisk for this) in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water until the mixture reaches the ribbon stage, and is pale and creamy.

Using a spatula, fold whipped cream into the egg yolk mixture until combine. Fold one-third of the mixture into the cooled melted chocolate until well combine. Gently fold in remaining of the cream and yolk mixture into the melted chocolate until well combine.

Spread chocolate mousse evenly over assembled cake. Cover with cling wrap and freeze cake overnight.

Cherry Glaze
200 grams cherries (if use frozen cherries, allow to thaw.)
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon glucose syrup
2 sheets (6 grams) titanium grade gelatin

To make cherry glaze:
Puree the cherries in a blender or food processor. Strain the puree through a sieve into a bowl, pressing down with the back of a spoon and discarding the solids.

Soften the gelatin in a bowl of cold water.

Place 100 grams of the cherry puree juice, caster sugar and glucose syrup in a saucepan, stirring constantly, over medium heat until the sugar and glucose dissolves. Remove from heat. (Do not let the mixture boil. It should be warm but not hot.)

Squeeze excess water from the gelatin. Stir gelatin into the warm cherry mixture.

Allow glaze to cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Pour glaze over frozen cake. Return cake to fridge for 10 minutes or until glaze set completely. Remove cake from cake ring. Trim and cut the cake while it’s still frozen to get a neat finish. Remember to allow the cake to thaw completely before serving. This will take about 20 minutes at room temperature or 2 hours in the fridge.

To decorate, you will need:
150 grams heavy cream, cold
100 grams 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped

You can cut the cake to whatever size you like. I prefer a generous 3x12cm slices, which I get about 5 slices of that size out of the cake, which also means that there will be some wastage (or aka chef’s treat).

Whisk cream until it holds firm peak. Fill piping bag fitted with a medium size petal decorating tip, and pipe cream over cake in a zigzag motion.

To make trees, melt chocolate either over a saucepan of barely simmering water or in the microwave, and pour melted chocolate into a piping bag. I didn’t bother to tamper the chocolate for this job. Snip off a small hole from the piping bag, and pipe onto a baking paper. Allow the chocolate trees to set completely before you peel it off from the baking paper.

Dust with icing sugar before serving.