This decadent cake is so delicious thanks to the freshness of the pears and mousses and also the flavours that go so well together. Chocolate and pear, it's a no brainer but by adding the praline, you get a little nutty flavour that really goes well with pear and chocolate and the vanilla cream was there to add freshness and that soft and simple flavour we love.
I made two flavours of creme bavaroise, the vanilla and the chocolate ones but you could leave one out only I really love having both that complement the flavours so well and they both come from the same preparation, it's just a question of separating the mixture in two at one stage and continuing it from there.
In the recipe of the creme bavaroise, I don't precise how to make the creme Anglaise, I just give you the measurement you need to use to make it. If you do not know how to make one and would like to know more about it click here.
You will get a lot of chocolate glaze out of this recipe but it's just to be safe because it would be awful to not have enough and have a cake where you put so much effort into and not have it completely glazed. As you might know already if you have already glazed cakes, spreading the glaze is completely not an option. Please do not touch the glaze once it is on the cake because this will leave some mark.
You can freeze the remaining glaze and the one on the tray and then use it as a chocolate sauce for whatever you like (ex: on ice cream, poached pears, choux, ...)
As I explained briefly in the recipe, I made the chocolate decorations and all you need is 60 g of white chocolate but then you could garnish however you wish to, with mini pearls or pieces of pear, anything.
Ingredients
For the almond cake:
70 g ground almonds
100 g plain flour
120 ml of vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
70 g sugar
2 teaspoons of honey
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
2 tablespoons of milk
1/2 can pears, chopped
For the praline layer:
50 g praline
For the creme Bavaroise:
3 g gelatine in leaves
around 125 g creme Anglaise (1 egg yolk + 15 g caster sugar + 75 g milk + 75 g cream)
225 g double cream
For the chocolate bavaroise:
50 g dark chocolate
1/2 of the creme bavaroise
For the vanilla bavaroise:
30 g white chocolate chocolate
1 teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
1/2 of the creme bavaroise
Filling :
1/2 a can pears, sliced
For the chocolate glaze:
100g sweetened condensed milk
150g semisweet chocolate, cut in small pieces
150g sugar
100ml water
10g gelatin powder bloomed
20g unsweetened cocoa powder
To decorate:
70 g white chocolate
Recipe
For the cake:
Preheat the oven to 180 C and grease a cake tin.
Whisk the sugar + vanilla extract + honey + oil and then add in one by one the eggs mixing well in between each addition.
Add in the flour + ground almonds + baking powder and then fold in 1/2 of a can of pears, chopped into small pieces and place the mixture in the prepared tin and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
Leave to cool on a rack and then cut off the crusts to get a soft and airy cake.
For the praline layer:
Place the cake on a Silpat on a baking tray and spread the praline on the cake and then store in the freezer until needed.
For the creme bavaroise:
Make a creme Anglaise.
Add in the softened sheets of gelatin whilst the creme Anglaise is still hot.
Divide your creme into 2.
Whip your double cream and leave until needed.
For the chocolate bavaroise:
Melt your chocolate and add in in 3 stages to your 1st half of creme Anglaise and mix with a spatula. Make sure your creme Anglaise is still warm, so it might need 10 seconds in the microwave to make sure it's warm enough.
Strain your mixture to get rid of any lumps.
Fold in half of your whipped cream and leave in the fridge.
For the vanilla bavaroise:
Melt your white chocolate and add in in 3 stages to your 2nd half of creme Anglaise and mix with a spatula. Make sure your creme Anglaise is still warm, so it might need 10 seconds in the microwave to make sure it's warm enough. Also, add in at this stage your vanilla bean paste.
Strain your mixture to get rid of any lumps.
Fold in the remaining half of your whipped cream and leave in the fridge.
To assemble:
Place a tin circle around the cake (take the bottom out of a spring-form tin and you will have one), the tin should be bigger in diameter than the cake by about 5 cm.
Spread the vanilla bavaroise on the sides of the cake and then the top so that the top is completely levelled as the cake doesn't touch the edges of the metal circle.
Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes before spreading on the chocolate bavaroise. Make sure the top is completely smooth, preferably use a palette knife at this stage, it's much easier!
Place in the freezer overnight or for at least 5 hours.
Chocolate mirror glaze:
In a saucepan, heat the condensed milk + water + sugar + cocoa powder and mix to obtain an even mixture.
Leave to simmer a little and then add in the bloomed gelatin & mix.
Bring just to the boil and then pour over the chocolate chopped into small pieces. Mix with a spatula to help melt all the chocolate.
Strain the mixture into a jug.
With a stick blender, mix the whole mixture to be sure to get a super smooth glaze and get rid of most of the air bubbles.
Last Assemble:
Take the cake out of the freezer and take off the metal tin around it with a knife that had boiling water poured over it to make it super hot.
Once the cake is unmolded, place back into the freezer for a few minutes.
Take out of the freezer and place on a wire rack placed over a tray with sides as the glaze will leak off the sides of the cake.
Once the glaze is at 32-37°C, you can pour it slowly over the cake until all the sides are covered.
Take the drip off the bottom of the sides of the cake and then place the cake on a cake stand using palette knives or flipper spatulas.
Garnish with decorations. In this case, I just melted around 60 g of white chocolate and then placed it on a sheet of parchment paper, spreading it as thinly and evenly as possible with surprise surprise a palette knife. I then left it for 30 minutes in the fridge before breaking into different shapes and sizes.
There you have it, a delicious, fresh, filled with different elements, decadent dessert! I really recommend you to try this dessert.
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