Chocolate Mousse aka Snickers Cake

New opportunity to bake a cake. :))

One of my dear colleagues, Eleftheria celebrated her birthday on Monday and I baked this Chocolate Mousse Cake a.k.a. Snickers Cake as she asked for a chocolate cake. 

The initial idea of this chocolate mousse cake came from another dear colleagues, Evi. After I heard that the wish is chocolate cake, I immediately thought of this recipe to start the thinking. I also had some left over (approx. 100 g) roasted peanuts from the Hazelnut Biscotti. Tadaaaam. Here comes the Drunken Snickers Cake with just a hint of rum. The cake has 4 parts:

Red Berries Frangipane Galette

Not that I cannot bake anything without an excuse. Moreover, according to my weight scale, I bake much more I should have. :))

However, we were invited to our friends to visit their new-born (3 months old) baby, I had my excuse. Before the baby has born in December we already had a baby shower, for which I baked danish tea biscuits. This time I was thinking of pies.

TWD 2 - Chocolate Truffle Tartlets

Here is the time for the second "Baking with Julia" recipe and as an introduction I should start with saying: 

WOW!!!!!!!

I loved it. It was a melted chocolate bomb with just a hint of almond taste. Both me and my husband loved it. It reminded us of chocolate lava cake or chocolate souffle. Due to lack of deep freezer, we missed a little vanilla ice cream. Maybe next time. :)))

Pear Frangipane Galette

Frangipane is for a long time now on my inspiration list. It went up on the list, when I tasted Galette des Rois for Epiphany. 
 
Galette des Rois is a puff pastry filled with frangipane cream. For some pic, click here. If you want a good recipe, visit Almond Corner. 
 
However, galette can be made also from Paté Brisée, which is kind of shortbread. You can use any kind of filling you want. All you have to know is that it should be flat, round and the sides should be made by hand. Very simple, very easy. 
 
Last week I came across "Tarte Bourdaloue", which is a typical French tart with frangipane cream and pears. So I got inspired.

Chocolate Tart with Mascarpone Chestnut Puree and Marzipan Trimmings

I wanted to try David Lebovitz’s chocolate tart since the beginning of October, but caramelizing the sugar was still very scary for me (see my previous experience). This weekend however, I gathered all my courage and gave it a go.

Chestnut puree and chocolate always amazed me and I have been wondering for a while now how would the famous Mozart-Kugeln taste with chestnut puree instead of truffle. As finally I chose a recipe with seasonal ingredients, there was no turning back.

Raspberry Mascarpone Cream

I love mascarpone. When I can, I always try to incorporate it in the recipe somehow. I think you can match mascarpone with everything. I know that it is not the season of fresh raspberries, but I caould not wait until next July. 

Ganache (Chocolate Banana Tarts)

What the hell is a ganache?

I thought that behind this French name there is a special chocolate cream. But I was wrong. It is one of the easiest chocolate cream I have ever seen.

Cinnamon Tarte Tatin

It was sooo hard to wait until the weekend. I have been thinking about Tarte Tartin for 5 days now.

I knew it is not the easiest "tart" in the world, but it must be one of the most delicious one. I read tons of recipes and watched hundreds of videos and on Saturday morning I took a deep breath and started. 

Mini Cream Tarts with Grapes

I had a lot of grapes, so I began thinking what to do with them. I searched on the internet, when I came across a delicious cream filling. 

The ingredients were mascarpone, heavy cream, honey and zest of lemon. 

French Apple Tart after Jane Price

Decorating is also important here, although I didn’t work with either marzipan or icing.

Baking this tart was very easy, although you have certain steps you cannot do parallel that makes it slower to make. 

I call it "French apple tart after Jane Price" as I adapted it from a recipe in her book of The Essential Dessert Cookbook.