I first made up the recipe for these when it was my friend's birthday, as she asked for white chocolate and raspberry cakes, and I wanted to jazz them up.
The cakes are made up of 4 elements:
- a raspberry and white chocolate cupcake
- a raspberry coulis
- a raspberry mousse, made using the coulis
- and a tempered white chocolate case, which holds it all in.
Although tempering is a really difficult technique to master, if you do, it can really improve your baking and final presentation.
I learnt to do it by comparing the techniques from different sites, my favorite being
Baking Bites; tempering chocolate, as it shows very simply how to do it.
First of all, you will need some sort of-preferably silicon- mold to bake the cakes and make the case with. I use a heart shaped one as it goes well with the cakes(well I think it does, anyway). Just make sure that the raspberries are fresh as frozen raspberries tend to release to much water when cooked.
The cakes:
White Chocolate and Raspberry
Cupcakes
Ingredients
300g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
150g golden caster sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
225ml milk
50g butter
100g fresh raspberries
110g white chocolate
Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 200/gas mark 6
2. Half the raspberries and chop
chocolate into large chunks.
3. Sift flour and baking powder into
large bowl. Stir in sugar.
4. Melt the butter
5. In separate bowl crack the egg, whisk
in the vanilla extract, milk and melted butter. Stir the liquid mixture into
the dry mixture.
6. Fold in raspberries and white
chocolate (Using a metal spoon is best as this avoids most damage to
raspberries.)
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| This is what your cakes should look like once they have been trimmed. |
7. Cook for 25 minutes or until
muffins are risen and firm (I find it doesn't matter if the tops catch a little, as these rise a lot, and i have to trim them down a lot).
Temper around 200g of white chocolate, and coat the sides and bases of 8 holes in your mold, like so:
Repeat this so that the bases are strong, but not too thick, about the width of a 10p coin, paying extra attention to the sides, as these have a habit of being thin, and leave to set. When set, gently ease them out of the mold, but if they are too thin, simply put them back in and add another layer or two. Once you have done this, do another set of cases, but without sides, so that they can be bases.
For the coulis;
- 50g of raspberries (about 3 tbsp)
- 2tbsp of sugar
- squeeze of lemon juice
- splash of water
- put all the ingredients in a saucepan, and cook on a gentle heat until the sugar and raspberries have dissolved(all that should be left of the raspberries is the pips). Taste it, but don't burn yourself, the sugar gets very hot- and adjust it according to taste: if it is too sour, add a little sugar; if too sweet, add a squeeze of lemon juice.
- Sieve the coulis, so that is seed free, and let it cool in a small container of some sort.
For the mousse;
Whip up some double cream ( you shouldn't need much, about 100ml), and add the coulis, 1tsp at a time, until it is light and fluffy, and has a subtle hint of raspberries.
Assembly time :)
So, trim the cakes until they fit snugly into the chocolate cases, but leave enough room to pipe mousse into them. Fill a piping bag with the mousse, and pipe it into any gaps in the cases.
place a base on top of the cakes, and pipe a line of melted white chocolate so that they meld together, and seal the cakes inside. When the chocolate has set, turn them upside down so you cant see the chocolate seam and decorate with whatever you want: I find freeze dried strawberries look really good.
And, voila! There you have some delicious and stunning white chocolate cakes.
