OK, so now I have the time and energy to write this. You may have seen some bloggers whom I met up a couple of weeks ago talking about this cake, or the lemongrass cake.. This is it!. It is quite a lengthy one. I am usually not so long-winded. But sometimes,  I am. Haha! Well, there are times where I try to be all ambitious and super experimental and work on recipes or cakes which I don’t know if it will work or not. It’s like a gamble. But I’m lucky enough, most of the times, it worked. Not a 100% but at least the flavours are quite there.

Similar to this cake, after Emeraude, the pistachio, raspberry and white chocolate cake, I wanted to make another entremet. I try to pick a flavour, then work around it to come up with matching flavours and components. The ‘sorta‘ selected flavour was lemongrass. I am quite addicted to lemongrass, especially when it’s cold. So I knew, it’d be a great component in the cake.

Now, lemongrass equals tropical, exotic fruits and the likes. So then some ideas start coming out. Passionfruit ? mango ? pineapple ? white chocolate? lime? coconut ? Yup, then I started to build the components and layers, on which should be the cake, or creme or gelee. Memory caught me. I did quite a similar cake during my days in Le Cordon Bleu.

Ok, so it’s quite similar to what I had in mind. Long story short, soon there after, I came up with these components for the entremet.

a. Coconut Lime Dacquoise

b. Passionfruit and Mango Bavarian Cream

c. Tropical fruits gelee, which includes pineapple, mango, and banana.

d. Lemongrass Bavarian Cream

e. White chocolate ganache

Here comes the difficult part. The recipes. For some, I can’t find exactly the recipe that I want, so basically it’s just a try-n-error kinda thing. Like, cut this change that replace it use this not that. Especially for the lemongrass cream. Not exactly cool but it’s worth a gamble. After all, it isn’t calledan experiment for no reason 😉

You might wanna take a few deep breath if you intend to read the recipe and method. Hahaha. My instructions are quite brief. It’s gonna take a whole day if I go in very very detailed. If you have any queries on certain steps, just ask me.

L’Exotique

(makes a 6″ square)

Mango Compote Gelee
30ml orange juice
10ml lime juice
20g light brown sugar
90g pineapple
90g mango
50g banana
2 tsp powdered gelatin

Coconut Lime Dacquoise
94g egg white
30g caster sugar
16g almond meal
77g icing sugar
60g grated coconut *I used very freshly grated coconut*
16g flour
zest of 1 key lime
pinch of salt

Passionfruit Mango Bavarian Cream
2.5 tsp powdered gelatin
110g milk
35g caster sugar (A)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
40g egg yolk
35g caster sugar (B)
110g passionfruit pulp
60g mango puree
120g whipped cream

Lemongrass Bavarian Cream
1.5 tsp powdered gelatin
70ml milk
15g caster sugar (A)
20g yolk
15g caster sugar (B)
70g whipped cream
2 stalks lemongrass

White Chocolate Ganache
100ml cream
75g white chocolate, buttons or chopped

Method

1. Make mango compote gelee. Cover gelatin with 2 tsp cold water, let it bloom. Dice fruits with the dimension of 5mm x 5mm x 5mm if possible. In a pot, put in all the ingredients except for the gelatin and bring to a boil of 5-7 minutes. Make sure sugar has dissolved. Melt gelatin in a microwave for 30 secs twice. Add into the fruits, stir and pour out onto a lined pan. Chill in the fridge for 2-3 hours, or till it has set.

2. Make coconut lime dacquoise. If you can get freshly grated coconut, it’s good, but if you can’t, dessicated may work as well. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites till foamy. Gradually add in caster sugar and whisk till medium-stiff peaks. Fold in almond meal, icing sugar, grated coconut, lime zest, flour and salt into the meringue in a few batches. Pour onto a lined baking sheet or Silpat and bake for 20 minutes at 160 C. Remove and cut to desired size.

3. Make passionfruit mango bavarian cream. Soak gelatin with 3 tsp cold water and set aside. Puree passionfruit pulp and mango till smooth. Blending the seeds are optional. I absent-mindedly blended the passionfruit seeds, hence I had ALOT of black speckles. If you’re as silly as me, you’ll need to pass the puree through a sieve a few times to remove as much seeds as possible. Whip cream to medium peaks, set aside in the fridge. In a pot, put milk, sugar (A) and vanilla to a boil. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and caster sugar (B). When (A) comes to a boil, gradually pour into the egg yolk mixture and whisk while doing so. Return mixture to pot and cook for a further couple more minutes till mixture has thickened. Remove from heat, add in passionfruit and mango puree. Heat up / melt gelatin in the microwave for 30 seconds twice (or till gelatin has fully dissolved) and stir into the mixture. Strain the mixture and set over an ice bath to bring the temperature down. Fold in whipped cream.

4. Make lemongrass bavarian cream. Soak gelatin with 2 tsp cold water and set aside. Whip cream to medium peaks, set aside in the fridge. Bruise the white part of the lemongrass and cut in shorter lengths. In a pot, put milk, sugar (A) and lemongrass to a boil. Turn off heat. Cover and let it infuse for 15 minutes. In another bowl, whisk egg yolks and caster sugar (B). Bring the lemongrass mixture to a boil again, gradually pour into the egg yolk mixture and whisk while doing so. Return mixture to pot and cook for a further couple more minutes till mixture has thickened. Remove from heat. Heat up / melt gelatin in the microwave for 30 seconds twice (or till gelatin has fully dissolved) and stir into the mixture. Strain the mixture, discard leftover lemongrass and set over an ice bath to bring the temperature down. Fold in whipped cream.

5. After everything is assembled, make white chocolate ganache. Bring cream to a light boil. Pour into white chocolate, stir till ganache is completely smooth.

6. Assemble. Get a cake ring, cut dacquoise to required size. You need 3 pieces. of 6″ square. Lay 1st layer down, pour passionfruit and mango bavarian cream ontop. Add a layer of dacquoise, add passionfruit bavarian cream. Lay the mango compote gelee, then top with a layer of dacquoise. FInally, pour lemongrass cream, and let it set in the fridge for at least 3 hours. Make white chocolate ganache and pour over the top. Chill in the fridge for further 3-6 hours.

7. To decorate, cut cubes of mango and top with roasted shredded coconut flakes. Poke in 2 small lemongrass stalks to let the flavours infuse more.

Now, didn’t I saw it was a lengthy post? Haha Well, I guess the recipe and method took up most of it Lol. This is the revised recipe from the 1st version. The main problem with the entire cakes was the amount of gelatin used. I didn’t use enough of it hence it was quite wobbly. Portions have also been reduced to fit a 6″ square, but there may be a bit extra here n there that could make you a verrine or two, so you can taste test it first, before sending the whole cake out! HAHA

IT is indeed lacking a tad bit of sourness, hence I increased the amount of lime juice in the compote gelee. Everything else tasted well together, except that I got comments that the mango isn’t that obvious. I’m thinking maybe it isn’t mango season and the mangoes aren’t sweet. My favourite part of the cake was the flavour of the dacquoise. And gathering from the comments of those who ate, this cake is like a few courses of desserts in the mouth. When you first bite it, the obvious taste would be white chocolate, then goes on to some coconut bits, passionfruit, maybe some pineapple, lastly after you swallow the cake, the lemongrass flavour comes alive, giving it a refreshing after taste, which was what I was trying to achieve.

🙂

This was the cake that I did before in LCB.It’s a tropical based gateau made from a coconut mousse with poached fruits, hazelnut coconut sponge, mango jelly, joconde sponge and a passionfruit ganache. Quite similar..