My Chocolate friends are waiting
I’m always the last dressed and ready!
All Dressed Up
Since every year my Oscar invitation seems to get lost in the mail, rather then sitting around and sulking I implemented my own Oscar bash about 10 years ago! I am sure Leonardo DiCaprio, Natalie Portman, and Jeff Bridges felt badly they were unable to attend Bobbie’s Oscar Party, but they did have another engagement!
Walking the White Carpet
The 73rd Academy Awards, in 2001, was the debut of my wonderful Oscar Party, it started with four families and all their children. That year just to have a flash to the past Gladiator won best picture, as did Russell Crowe for best actor as Maximus the Gladiator. Julia Roberts was best actress for Erin Brockovich, and Marcia Gay Harden won best supporting actress for Pollock. I believe Steve Martin hosted the Oscars that year, and that is the plethora of information I remember.
This year the stars aligned; everyone including the children of my friends were able to participate. I was so surprised, in the past ten years these cute little “munchkins” have grown up, some are in college, earned their driver licensee, graduated from both high school, and one of them college. To have everyone be able to celebrate in one house was shocking and exhilarating. The menu had to be one for the “A list”, especially the desserts.
Just begin to prepare, Oh No my tag is showing!
A week prior the to the Oscars Sydney began to plan the menu, we decided on:
Stuffed mushrooms with crab and avocado (recipe to be in a later blog), Palmiers, and a nice cheese plater for the red carpet walk.
Shrimp with a subtle white wine garlic sauce and fillet mignon with pink peppercorns while James Franco and Anne Hathaway began their “Inception.”
Crème Brûlée and of course my Tuxedo Mousse Cake for the finale.
The Tuxedo Mousse Cake consists of Framboise white chocolate mousse, dark chocolate crème mousse in the middle with Raspberry Gelée and joconde cake. The entire mousse is airbrushed; the top half with white velvet spray and the bottom with bittersweet velvet spray. The Kitchen was a cloud of white and brown!
Tuxedo Mousse Cake:
Makes 15- 6cm diameter mousse 5cm/2-inches high.
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/ 355ºF and prepare your mise en place.
Joconde:
9 large egg whites, at room temperature
30 grams/ 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
225 grams/ 2-cups blanched almonds
225 grams/ 2-cup toasted hazelnuts
450 grams/3 3/4-cups icing sugar, sifted
6 large egg yolk
6 large eggs
156 grams/ 1 1/2cup cake flour
56 grams/ 4-Tablespoons clarified beurre noisette
56 grams/4-Tablespoons melted butter
Preheat the oven to 218ºC/ 425◦F. Line two 15½ by 12½ inch sheet pans (½ sheet jelly roll pans) with parchment paper and brush with melted butter.
Using a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade, process the almonds and hazelnuts to a very fine cornmeal-like texture.
In a bowl of you standing mixer with the paddle attachment, on low speed mix the almond/ hazelnut flour, icing sugar, and cake flour, just until combined. Increase the mixer to medium-low speed, beat 1 egg yolk at a time making sure each egg is beaten for a couple minutes, occasionally scraping down the sides, then beat in each whole egg one at a time. It is imperative that each egg is added and beaten for a couple of minutes. Once all six eggs are incorporated continue to beat, on medium speed for 4 minutes insuring that as much air as possible has been incorporated. The mixture should be pale yellow in color and voluminous. Set the batter aside, or if you do not have another mixer bowl scrape the batter into different bowl.
In a very clean bowl of your standing mixer fitted with the whisk attachment beat the egg whites and egg white powder on medium speed to aerate. When the egg whites begin to form soft peaks slowly add the granulated sugar and whisk until the peaks are stiff and glossy. Keep a careful eye on the egg whites they can very quickly turn from satin shiny glossy peaks to gloomy dry and an over mixed nightmare. (If this happens don’t panic, however you will need to repeat the process with six more egg whites).
Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the meringue into the almond /hazelnut mixture, in two batches. Take about ½ cup of the batter and fold into the melted butter, this method keeps the butter from falling to the bottom of the bowl, and then fold the melted butter back into the batter (making sure it is completely incorporated into the batter).
Pour the batter into flexipats or 2 half sheet jellyroll pans lined with a silpat bake for 12-15 minutes. Allow to cool and cut into a 6cm/ 2 1/2-inch circle, or the size of mousse ring you are using.
White Chocolate Mousse:
250 grams/1 ¼ -cup cream
413 grams/ 1 2/3 white chocolate
8 grams gelatine/ about 4 sheets
500 grams/2 ½-cup heavy cream
1-vanilla pod
Place the chocolate in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until very finely chopped.
Place 250 grams/ 1 ¼ -cup cream in a small saucepan, and bring just to a boil over medium-high heat. Add gelatin, and stir for 30 seconds to dissolve completely. Pour into food processor with the motor running, and process until chocolate mixture is smooth.
Transfer to a medium bowl and chill until mixture is thick enough to fall from a spoon in ribbons. The mixture should be at room temperature.
Incorporate 500 grams/2 ½-cup heavy cream to soft peaks, add vanilla seeds and add icing sugar.
Fold into chocolate mixture.
Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse:
125 gram/ ¾-cup cream
125 grams/ ¾ cup liquid crème fraîche
375 grams/13 ounces bittersweet chocolate
8 grams/ about 4 sheets gelatine
170 grams/ 3/4-cup crème fraiche
230 grams/ 1-cup heavy cream
Place the chocolate in the bowl of a food processor, and pulse until very finely chopped.
Place crème fraîche and cream in a small saucepan, and bring just to a boil over medium-high heat. Add gelatin, and stir for 30 seconds to dissolve completely. Pour into food processor with the motor running, and process until chocolate mixture is smooth.
Transfer to a medium bowl and chill until mixture is thick enough to fall from a spoon in ribbons. Once again the mixture should be at room temperature.
Incorporate whipped heavy cream and crème fraîche to soft peaks and add icing sugar.
Fold into chocolate mixture.
Assembly:
Place 6mm stainless steel rings on the upside down flexipan half-spheres; line the rings with food safe acetate. Fill each half way up with chocolate mousse, try to prevent any air bubbles forming. Freeze while preparing bittersweet mousse.
Remove from freezer and fill with the bittersweet mousse almost to the top leaving about 1cm/ 1/4-inch space from the top.
Add the Raspberry Gelée and finish with a joconds sponge.
Freeze till solid.
Final:
When the mousse is completely frozen spray with white velvet and bittersweet velvet.
The Velvet Sprays:
White velvet:
250 grams white cocoa butter heated to 34 degreesC/93 degreesF this is very important the temperature must be precise!
Bittersweet Velvet:
250 grams/8.82 grams cocoa butter, heated to 34 degreesC/ 93 degrees F
230 grams/8.11 ounces melted dark chocolate, tempered to the same temperature as the cocoa butter.
Whisk both components together until completely homogenized .
Spray the top with the white velvet and the bottom with with the bittersweet velvet. For the tuxedo design contact me at my blog and I will send you the template with complete instructions.
Decorate the center with Framboise Purée.
Your tuxedo mousse cake is outstanding! The tuxedo airbrush is so unique and beautiful and I am sure the cake is divine in taste! How do you come up with these wonderful delights!
What a great idea, an oscar party! I love your little mousse cakes, they are gorgeous, they certainly look all dressed for the party! Maybe next year one of the big stars will be able to attend! Great Job Bobbie. I will be back.
Just saw your blog, I really believe this is one of the great blogs I have stumbled upon. Its not too often that you find a baking blog that is humorous while incorporating recipes. I love it! Your tuxedo mousses are elegant and divine looking. Look forward to reading more posts.
This is a grand idea Bobbie. Through your blogs I feel like I know you, the way your writing is so personal makes you feel like your not reading the same old blogs. Your blog has style, personal, and elegance. Keep up the great work!
P.S Your pictures looks wonderful, love the first one!
Spectacular idea! I love the way you made these into a tuxedo, they look like little people! I have yet to see someone manage to come up with a tuxedo mousse. You mentioned that you used an airbrush, what kind of airbrush are you using?
Tuxedo mousse…. they look so tasty. I must try one!
Lovely photos! This post kept me laughing even after I read it. You did it again, the mousses look divine!
Cake stop included catching the end of Paris-Nice.
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What the heck?! My invitation gets lost in the mail every year too. They need to work on that, because two important glamour-girls like us should not be left out. Especially with those fabulous gift baskets.
I loved Gladiator and Russell Crowe that year! Anyways, this mousse looks Oscar worthy. I would totally vote for it. Delicious!
Wow. That is a really large chocolate treat. Cant wait to get my mouth around that big guy!
Beautiful mousse cakes, and a great post…Sorry about your invitation!
Super blog post, have bookmarked it 😉
I love chocolate mousse and these mousse cakes look very tasty! I can’t wait to try this recipe!
I read this post before work and could not stop laughing, I had to share this with everyone at Sur La Table, that’s were I work. We all thought it was an awesome post. The mousse is amazing by the way, maybe next year the mousse will receive an invitation.
Thank you for making my day Obsessed Baker!
outstanding !!! gorgious !! such a beautiful idea
Oh my word! This looks so yummy! I love how shiny your chocolate frostings and marshmallow frosting great idea. That’s my type of cake!
I am offically dubbing you as the queen of desserts! these are beautiful!! … your an awesome writer, the post was adorable!
Outstanding article once again! Thumbs up
Came across your blog-WOW! Beautiful pics and lots of drooling recopes. I need to print out each one of them and try it out. One recipe that that struck me is the TuxedoMousse Cake. BTW you think that invitation will show up next year?
I’m impressed, I must say. Really rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you have hit the nail on the head. Your ideas is outstanding; like tying the Oscars to you dressed up mousse way impressive. I am very happy that I stumbled across this in my search for white chocolate mousse.
I happened to find out your post by accident in Google.Where by did you got all the information from? I mean WOW, you got rocking information for your article. I like it really educational.Can’t wait for your future publishbest student loan consolidation companies
This looks positively sinful. Perfect! Love the post…. Still smiling!
Very beautifully done. The tuxedo mousses are wonderful, the composition is nice and the post is hilarious!
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My brother suggested I might like this web site. He was entirely right. This post truly made my day, you have a wonder knack to teach with humor. You can not imagine just how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
I’m impressed, Not only does this cake sound delicious, but it looks spectacular! I am a huge fan of chocolate! The white layer looks so velvety atop that luscious chocolate mousse.
Beautiful blog! I love your your food stying and writing style, glad I dropped by ^_^
Chocolate mousse has been one of my favorite desserts since I was a little girl. This recipe is absolutely over the top! I can’t wait to try it.
Wow!!!! these look delicious!!! sorry about your invitation, your articled me in stitches!y.
I am still Laughing Thank you! Can’t wait to try this recipe 🙂 🙂 🙂
I really enjoyed the site. It’s always nice when you read something that is not only informative but entertaining.
These look amazingly appetising in fact I may have to make them myself, btw great writing. 🙂
I’m impressed, What a beautiful result! That must have felt really fabulous to have it turn out so good:)
Excellent post. I like the way you expose your writing talent! Keep up good work.
Thanks for the recipe. I’m always excited when you post a recipe here. It’s like an early christmas present!
These look fantastic! Really elegant!
How can make a effect like that in airbrush i have airbrush but different effect compare to your mousse and other?….
My airbrush airmaster C3500… Do you have any advise to use my airbrush wisely and creatively?…. i like the effect you do i try many time i use same ingredient it just like smooth it doesn’t have texture… i like that have some texture on it not simple smooth…
Hoping for your advise….
Please send template with complete instructions for tuxedo mousse