“TALES FROM THE VIENNA WOODS” MINI CAKES

cooking

Chocolate sponge cake (brownie)

• Sift and mix all the dry ingredients.
• Grind cream cheese with sugar, gradually introduce eggs and stir the whole mass until smooth.
• Melt the chocolate and margarine in pulses in a microwave oven, mix, add to the cheese and egg mass and combine everything with a paddle attachment until smooth.
• Add the dry ingredients, mix gently and put the dough in a foil-lined 20×30×5-cm frame.
• Bake in a preheated to 180˚C oven for 20–30 minutes (depends on the oven).

Sour cherry confit

While the brownie is baking, let’s cook confit.

• Blend defrosted sour cherries, but not to a completely homogeneous state.
• Add sugar mixed with pectin to the resulting sour cherry puree, stir thoroughly with a whisk and put it to cook over medium heat.
• Bring it to boil, cook for about 2–3 minutes stirring constantly to prevent confit from scorching. Then remove from heat.
• Carefully put the cooked brownie (do not remove it from the frame) on a pastry board according to the size of the frame and pour the hot confit on the brownie.
• Cover it tightly with cling film and put in shock freezer or other cold place.

Almond dacoise

• Whisk egg whites at medium speed gradually introducing sugar into the mass. Whisk for about 10 minutes. The mass will become dense and sticky.
• Mix all kinds of flour and salt. You may add finely crushed almonds for a brighter nutty taste. Combine the dry ingredients with meringue; gently stir with a hand spatula until smooth.
• Put the mass on a baking sheet (if it is large enough) or two baking sheets. Distribute an even layer little over 20×30 cm (approximately 25×35 cm). This amount of dough is enough for two thin dacoise crusts.
• Bake at 180˚С for 10 minutes. Do not over-dry the dacoise crusts, they are thin and should remain soft.

Tonka ganache

• Heat the cream almost to a boil (but do not boil), pour them over the chocolate.
• Emulsify with immersion blender; add tonka bean flavoring and blend again.
• Crop the dacoise crusts in the frame size (20×30 cm) and put the first one on the cherry confit.
• Pour ganache over the first dacoise crust. Knock the board with the frame on the table to let bubbles come out. Put the second dacoise crust on top. Place it in the freezer.

Sour cherry cream

• Whisk GRANDPRO Cream margarine until white and increase in volume.
• Add condensed milk, cherry paste, and rum; whisk the mass again until smooth.
• NOTE: if you have no sour cherry paste, you can make it yourself. Pre-boil the cherry puree with sugar to 120–150 g and be sure to let the mass cool down.
• Meanwhile, continue assembling the cakes. Get the frame out of the freezer, carefully cut the cake out and remove the frame. Crop the edges of the cake evenly with a hot dry knife. Slice the cake into mini cakes about 4×9 cm in size and place them in the freezer.

Gourmet glaze, decoration

• Melt the milk chocolate with pulses in the microwave (do not overheat!).
• Stirring constantly, pour vegetable oil into the melted chocolate and mix thoroughly until smooth. You can use a blender for this, but try to avoid bubbles.
• Add the waffle crumbs and mix. Pour the glaze into a compact rectangular mold, in which it will be convenient to glaze cakes.
• Dip each cake into the glaze; remove the excess glaze and put the cake on parchment paper to solidify.
• Transfer the sour cherry cream into a pastry bag with a big petal or star nozzle (13–15 mm in size). Decorate the mini cakes with cream the way you like.
• Dust the finished mini cakes with freeze-dried sour cherry powder or small pieces.