About Marshmallows, Chocolates and Everything in Between

 

The finished product, with freshly drizzled molten dark chocolate.

A closer look.

Removed from the cake tin.

View from the side.

Look at all that layers!  Mission Accomplished!

(Now that you have finished drooling over the pictures, I shall begin my post proper)

I baked this baby in January.  I was feeling particularly generous during my birthday week, so I decided to bake this over the weekend, then share it with my colleagues on Monday during contact time.  It is essentially a 3-layered cake: the base layer is the brownie; the middle layer is the mousse, topped with marshmallows; and the top layer is the chocolate cream, then topped with more marshmallows and drizzle with molten dark chocolate.  Sounds sinful?  Wait till you taste it!

I made both the brownie and the mousse on Saturday cos I need to chill both of them overnight in the fridge to let the mousse stand before I can apply the final layer.  As I said, it was a MAMMOTH 2-day effort!

Baking the brownie:
Nut-chopping frenzy!  Like my Christmas Cupcakes, the walnuts I bought had to be chopped up in order to spread out well in the brownie paste.  The brownie itself was relatively easy to bake, which is quite an accomplishment for me.  I once baked a brownie using those ‘instant brownie mix’, and it was disappointing.  Come to think of it, that was my FIRST baking experience!  Things sure have come full circle.  The current version was a rather thin brownie (to make way for the other layers), but it was a smooth, smooth preparation process.

Pouring the mousse:
Once the brownie had cooled down, I popped the brownie out of the 10-inch cake tin into a 10-inch loose bottom cake tin.  Then, I poured the mousse onto the brownie, then arranged the marshmallows on top.  The tricky thing was to keep the marshmallows in their places while I continued pouring the mousse over them.  The whole thing at this point looked like something I stole from the sewers but hey, gotta have faith in the end product, right?

Spreading the cream:
On Sunday afternoon, the mousse has firmed up, so it’s time to spread the chocolate cream on top.  I followed the cookbook’s instructions to a tee: melt the chocolate, then mix it with cream.  However, when the mixture became thicker and thicker, I knew an ‘uh-oh’ was not far behind.  Nonetheless, I decided to spread the thick mixture over my mousse.  So, the supposed chocolate cream had become chocolate crust.  Oh well.  Can’t win them, can we?

After that little mishap, I decorated the top with more marshmallows, and drizzle them with molten dark chocolate.  As you can see from the pictures, I did a pretty convincing job   Even my dear wife gave a long whoooooooooooooooooooooooooaaaaaa when she saw my work!

The moment of truth:
On Monday morning, I pushed out the cake from the bottom with much effort, and my ‘baby’ was born!  My colleagues were mighty impressed (a couple of them complained that I spoilt their appetite for dinner after eating their 2.5 inch x 2.5 inch slices). The whole thing turned out better than I had expected.  Now I know I can recommend my cookbook to any budding bakers out there!