Toffee Apple Mousse Cake

Today it started off wrong.

I keep waking up in the middle of the night feeling horrified. I think I had a few dreams but couldn't remember what they were about, just the sad, horrified, troubled feeling remained and I couldn't go back to sleep until dawn.

Okay, time to cheer up.

I made these toffee apple mousse cake on the weekend but I was too full to eat them last night. Tonight's dessert it is!

This is actually the second time I tried this recipe but there are still glitches that I would like to iron out.

For say, the slices of apples are quite pretty lined up in the gel, but they made digging in difficult without collapsing the cake. Boo. The recipe of that layer needs to be refined as well as I found the alcohol taste a bit too strong. This is one part of the cake that I had to improvise as the original recipe does not have amounts or much description of how it was made. Although I keep tasting it during the process and liked it on its own, the flavour changes when it was paired with the other parts of the cake.

I was actually surprised by the mousse portion. The original recipe called for apple puree. Being too lazy and not having the right equipment to puree apples, I turned to store-bought unsweetened apple sauce. Could have been better if the texture is smoother but it saved me a lot of time! Maybe next time I would substitute with a vanilla bean bavarian cream if I opt for a more refined version. Still, I wouldn't mind exchanging a bit of fibre for some texture.

There was also a sour cream layer in this cake which I absolutely adore. I would use it again for other fruit cakes in the future. The slight creaminess and tang lightens up the cake.

The best part of this cake was the bottom cookie layer. It was just too good. It had a wonderful butter taste and fell apart in the mouth. I had doubt when putting together the recipe but very surprised on the result.

Translated from 創意蛋糕50款 published by Super Chef Book

Cookie Crust
softened butter 225g
salt 3g
sugar 120g
2 egg yolks
rum 20g
cake flour 190g
bread flour 20g
ground almond 30g

1. Soften butter at room temperature.
2. Add salt and sugar to incorporate.
3. Mix in egg yolks, then add rum.
4. Sieve flour and ground almond to the above mixture. Mix until just incorporated. Wrap the mixture in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge overnight. (Note: the mixture is very soft and difficult to work at room temperature. Keep it in the fridge until ready to roll.)
5. Roll into 1.5cm thick. Cut into desired shape. Put it on a parchment lined tray and return to the fridge until the oven is ready.
6. Preheat the oven to 160 C. Brush dough with egg wash and bake in the container for 45 minutes. (Note: since this cookie spreads a lot and doesn't cut easily without breaking, it is necessary to bake them in the container to retain it's final shape.)
7. Cool on a wire rack.

Apple Mousse (Note: one of this recipe will make enough for half of the above cookie crust.)
Apple puree/apple sauce 150g
gelatin 3g
egg yolk 20g
sugar 25g
whipping cream 80g
Calvados apple brandy 10ml (Note: optional to enrich flavour)

1. Warm up apple puree on a double boiler.
2. Bloom gelatin and add to the warmed puree. Add apple brandy and stir.
3. Make egg yolk and sugar mixture. (Note: I whisked the yolk and sugar over a double boiler until ribbon stage.)
4. Add #2 to #3 and mix well. Cool down
5. Whisk cream to stiff peaks and fold into #4.

Cream Cheese Mixture
Cream cheese 150g
Sour cream 30g
sugar 20g
whipping cream 100g

1. Mix the first 3 mixture until smooth.
2. Whisk cream and fold into the above mixture.

 Toffee Apple
(Note: Recipe still needs to be adjusted because of the ingredient availability in North America. Basically you need to melt some butter to fry the sugar to make a toffee sauce. Add the apple slices and fry at high heat. This recipe should take 4 big apples from my experience.)

Assembly
Align apple slices at the bottom of the mold. Pour in apple mousse. Refridgerate.
Smooth a (3mm) thick cream cheese mixture over the cookie. Invert the cookie onto the mousse. Invert the assembled cake and brush with glaze.