----~ Season's Sweet ~---- (
January)
Leopard Joconde Imprime Pineapple Cake
This is one of my favorite cakes that I've come up with. It not only taste amazing (for some reason the word 'sex' is always uttered when serving this cake...), but it looks like no other cake because of the leopard jonconde imprime. I tend to switch between mango and pineapple mousse whenever I make the cake, I guess it depends on which fruit is in season at the time. I prefer mango mousse, but pineapple mousse fits better with the upside-down pineapple cake. As long as it's some tropical fruit mousse I think it fits the theme of the cake.
It is of course a very labour intensive cake. Between waiting for cakes to cool and mousses to set, expect to spend up to 5 hours in the kitchen. I don't really find any of the elements of the cake to be particularly difficult to make. But it's just there are so much of it, that you can easily overlook a detail or two. As always you want to make sure you've read the recipe thoroughly twice before starting baking.
The pineapple in the cake does make it taste exotic, and the chocolate mousse complement it perfectly. With all that soft mousse the joconde imprime does a really good job at offering some more bite to the cake.
~Recipe~
Yields: 24 cm cake, 12-15 servings
Ingredients
Upside-down Pineapple Cake
150 g fresh pineapple
120 g sugar
60 g butter, room temperature
1 large egg
60 g flour
½ tsp vanilla extract
Cocoa Décor Paste
50 g butter, room temperature
50 g powdered sugar
50 g eggwhite (around 2 eggs, save the yolks for later)
15 g cocoa powder
43 g flour
Joconde Sponge
100 g eggwhite (around 3 eggs, save the yolks for later)
10 g sugar
100 g almond flour
80 g powdered sugar
30 g flour
2 egg yolks
30 g butter, melted
Chocolate Mousse
125 g 70% chocolate
250 ml cream
1 tbsp sugar
Pineapple Mousse
500 ml cream
350 g pineapple
70 g sugar
6 gelatin sheets
Apricot Glaze
125 g apricot jam
1 tbsp water
Directions
Upside-down Pineapple Cake
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease and line parchment paper in a 22 cm spring-form.
- In a small sauce pan, make a caramel with 60 g sugar and 1-2 tbsp of water on low heat. Once it becomes golden in color pour at the bottom of the spring-form. Cut the pineapple into chunks and place on the caramel.
- Beat butter and the remaining 60 g sugar light and fluffy. Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat again. Add flour and beat at low speed. Spread out over the pineapples. It will look like there's not enough batter, but just make sure to spread out the batter as far to the edges as you can and the oven heat will make sure the batter 'melts' through the pineapples and into place.
- Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown and let it cool on a baking rack while making the joconde imprime.
Cocoa Décor Paste
- Beat butter and sugar light and fluffy. Add eggwhites gradually. Fold in sifted flour and cocoa.
- Transfer batter to piping bag and pipe out onto a cookie sheet(on parchment paper) or silicone mat creating the brown circles of the leopard pattern.
- Place in freezer until it's fairly firm(20-30 mins).
Joconde Sponge
- Preheat oven to 250°C.
- Whip eggwhites and sugar to stiff peaks and set aside. In another bowl sift almond flour, powdered sugar and flour and mix. Add the ~7 egg yolks gradually. Fold in 1/3 of the eggwhite mixture and then the remaining 2/3. Finally fold in the melted butter(mustn't be too hot).
- Pour the batter over the frozen décor pattern so that it covers all holes, etc.
- Bake for 8 mins in 250C. The cake should bounce back when poked by a finger after being baked. Keep an eye on it though 8 minutes is goes quickly and +/- 1 minute means a lot. Remove from oven and let it cool a bit.
- Now it's time to assemble the cake parts. Place the upside-down pineapple cake on the serving plate in the center of a 24 cm cake ring(you can use a springform as well). Next we need to cut out the joconde imprime at the appropriate height and length. The strips need to be 6 cm high and you want the strips be as long as possible. In the end you should have to use 2 long strips and then a shortened 3rd piece. You want to use as few strips as possible to avoid unnecessary creaves.
- So layout the joconde imprime with the leopard pattern facing up and meassure a lot of 6 cm high strips with a ruler and cut them out with a sharp knife. There should be enough so that you don't have to use the dry/burned edges. Just remember that it's better to have too much joconde imprime as a ring as it will create a preassure holding the cake together).
- Line the strips in the 24 cm cake ring, fitting down around the upside-down pineapple cake. Be careful not to bend the joconde imprime too much as you handle it as it can easily crack (especially if baked too much). Use any excessive joconde imprime cake to fit any holes between the upside-down pineapple cake and the joconde imprime.
Chocolate Mousse
- Chop the chocolate fine and melt over a hot waterbath. Once melted, remove from the the bath to cool off slightly.
- Whip the cream and sugar into whipped cream.
- Pour the chocolate into the whipped cream while folding.
- Spread out evenly on the upside-down pineapple cake, and set the cake to cool for at least 30 minutes.
Pineapple Mousse
- Soak gelatin sheets in a small bowl of water for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, purée the pineapple and sugar in a blender or food processor until smooth. Then heat the pineapple in a small sauce pan to break down the enzyme, bromelain, denaturing the enzyme's ability to break the strands of protein which we need for our mousse. Bring it to a boil for a couple of minutes, then transfer to a large bowl to cool down.
- Once it doesn't hurt to poke a finger into the pineapple mixture, drain the gelatin from water and stir into the pineapple mixture.
- Whip the cream into soft peaks, then fold 1/3 into the pineapple mixture, then fold in the remaining whipped cream.
- If the mousse is thick enough pour it over the chocolate mousse and even it out at the top of the joconde imprime. If the mousse is too runny, refrigerate for 10-15 minutes to let it set somewhat. Cool for at least 1 hour before applying the glaze.
Apricot Glaze
- In a small sauce pan heat apricot jam and water over low heat until melted. Remove from heat and strain through a fine strainer to remove any apricot lumps. Let cool until it is only slightly warm and then glaze the cake.
- Let the cake set in the refrigerator, so that the pineapple mousse has at least been cooled for 5-6 hours, preferably overnight. Before serving remove the cake ring and decorate with chocolate chips, dried fruit, coconut shreds etc.
Cake inspired by Stef de Fla
