A delicious chocolate coffee cake for snack time for both kids and adults!
Tadaaaa! With this despacito cake, here is my recipe... for Easter ^^. It seems I'm returning to my bad timing habits. But in my defense, I was knocked out by a virus this weekend and couldn't get up to finish this cake. Since I opted for a fairly classic cake that can be made outside of Easter, I'm still giving you the recipe. Especially since it can totally fit into your CAP exam revisions since it's a sponge cake with chocolate and a chocolate mousse based on whipped cream.
The despacito is a Brazilian cake (simplified alternative to tiramisu) that apparently has attracted many followers on social networks recently. It seems to me that I missed out on it. But its success doesn't really surprise me because it's very simple to make and it looks pretty impressive.
I thought I wasn't going to really appreciate it since there's coffee in it but actually it stays very light. It's only in the soaking syrup and actually it enhances the chocolate well. So you can definitely serve it to your children.
The sponge cake
The sponge cake is a recipe that sometimes gives pastry chefs cold sweats because the whole challenge is to manage to have a nice foamy preparation that will rise (a lot during cooking). There are several schools: either you use the bain-marie technique (which is quite technical), or simply in the robot bowl (which is what I did).
Well, I'll still explain the "real" technique to you but if it's been proven that it's useless (but if you want to play the model student in the exam, I'm not the one to judge). We start by mixing the eggs and sugar in a mixing bowl that we put in a bain-marie. We beat regularly until the mixture reaches 40 degrees. Then, we pour the preparation into the robot bowl and beat until completely cooled. We then gently add the flour and mix to get a homogeneous preparation (in this recipe we also add cocoa).
Otherwise (and this is the method I use), you can put the eggs and sugar directly in the robot bowl and beat for about 15 minutes. The mixture will foam and double in volume. Then all that's left is to add the sifted flour and mix gently. You see it's much simpler.
For the sponge cake, the consistency should be this before adding the flour:
Once you have the flour (and cocoa), you have several options. You can either pipe the sponge cake directly onto sulfu paper (in a template drawn with a marker): this is called piping the sponge cake. Another option is to pour the sponge cake batter into a pastry ring (this is called "molded"). In this recipe we're going to assemble the cake in the ring anyway so we might as well mold the sponge cake.
Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C. The sponge cake is cooked when a knife inserted in the middle comes out slightly moist.
The chocolate whipped cream
While the sponge cake is baking, you can melt the 2 chocolates. You need to let it cool because it should be added to the whipped cream at a temperature between 25 and 30 degrees. You can also prepare the whipped cream, I refer you to my article on No-Bake After-Eight Cake for my whipped cream tips. A small tip: don't whip the cream too firm, it will be difficult to incorporate into the chocolate. Once the whipped cream is made, add a big spoonful of chocolate to the cream, then mix. Then pour the mixture obtained into the chocolate and mix until the preparation is homogeneous. If your chocolate is at the right temperature, it shouldn't become lumpy.
Chocolate coffee soaking syrup
For the syrup, nothing too complicated. Just put the water, milk, instant coffee, sugar and cocoa in a saucepan and simmer on low heat. Once the mixture is well homogeneous, remove from heat.
Assembling the despacito
Place the sponge cake in the bottom of the ring (the recipe is for a 20 cm ring, make it one and a half times if you have a 22 cm ring). Soak the sponge cake generously with soaking syrup (you can really go for it!). Cover with chocolate cream and fill up to the top of the ring. The simplest if you have a flat angled spatula is to smooth in one go using the top of the ring. Otherwise you can smooth with a small spatula or a spoon.
For the decoration, melt a little chocolate and fill a piping bag (or a spoon if the piping bag scares you). Draw parallel lines of chocolate (you need to be quite quick). Using a toothpick, draw lines perpendicular to the chocolate to trace the peaks. Your despacito is ready!
Despacito
