Tadaaaa ! With this despacito cake, here is my recipe... for Easter ^^. It seems that I'm getting back to my bad habits of approximate timing. But in my defense, I was knocked out by a virus this weekend and was unable to get up to finish this cake. Since I had opted for a fairly classic cake that can be made outside of Easter, I'm still giving you the recipe. Especially since it can perfectly fit into your CAP exam preparations since it's a sponge cake with chocolate and a chocolate mousse based on whipped cream.
The despacito is a Brazilian cake (simplified alternative to tiramisu) which apparently has had many followers on social networks recently. It seems to me that I missed it. But its success doesn't really surprise me because it's very simple to make and it looks quite impressive.
I thought I wasn't really going to like it because there's coffee in it but actually it stays very light. It's only in the soaking syrup and in fact it really enhances the chocolate. So you can definitely serve it to your children.
The sponge cake
The sponge cake is a recipe that sometimes gives pastry chefs cold sweats because the whole challenge is to manage to have a very fluffy preparation that will rise (a lot during cooking). There are several schools: either you use the bain-marie technique (which is quite technical for that matter), or simply in the robot bowl (which is what I did).
Well, I'll still explain the "real" technique to you but if it has been proven that it's useless (but if you want to play model students at the exam, it's not me who will judge you). We start by mixing the eggs and sugar in a bowl that we put in a bain-marie. We whisk regularly until the mixture reaches 40 degrees. Then, we pour the preparation into the robot bowl and whisk until completely cooled. We then delicately add the flour and mix to have a homogeneous preparation (in this recipe we also add cocoa).
Otherwise (and this is the method I use), you can put the eggs and sugar directly in the robot bowl and whisk for about 15 minutes. The mixture will become fluffy and double in volume. Then all that's left is to add the sifted flour and mix gently. You see it's much simpler.
For the sponge cake the consistency should be this before incorporating the flour:
Once you have the flour (and cocoa) you have several options. You can either pipe the sponge cake directly onto sulfu paper (in a template drawn with a marker): this is called plating the sponge cake. Another option, pour the sponge cake batter into a pastry ring (called "molded"). In this recipe we're going to assemble the cake in the ring anyway so we might as well mold the sponge cake.
Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C. The sponge cake is cooked when a knife inserted in the middle comes out slightly moist.
The chocolate whipped cream
While the sponge cake is baking, you can melt the 2 chocolates. You need to let it cool because it must be incorporated into the whipped cream at a temperature between 25 and 30 degrees. You can also prepare the whipped cream, I refer you to my After-eight cake without baking article for my whipped cream tips. One small tip, don't whip the cream too firmly, it will be difficult to incorporate into the chocolate. Once the whipped cream is whipped, add a large spoonful of chocolate to the cream, then mix. Then pour the cream obtained into the chocolate and mix until the preparation is homogeneous. If your chocolate is at the right temperature it shouldn't make lumps.
Chocolate coffee soaking syrup
For the syrup, nothing too complicated. Just put the water, milk, instant coffee, sugar and cocoa in a saucepan and simmer over low heat. Once the mixture is well homogeneous, remove from heat.
Assembly of the despacito
Place the sponge cake at the bottom of the ring (the recipe is for a 20 cm ring, make it one and a half times if you have a 22 cm ring). Soak the sponge cake generously with soaking syrup (you can really go for it!). Cover with chocolate cream and fill up to the top of the ring. The simplest if you have a flat angled spatula is to smooth it all in one go using the top of the ring. Otherwise you can smooth with a small spatula or a spoon.
For decoration, melt a little chocolate and fill a piping bag (or a spoon if the piping bag scares you). Draw parallel lines of chocolate (you need to be quite quick). Using a toothpick draw lines perpendicular to the chocolate to trace the peaks. Your despacito is ready!
Despacito
