Chocolate cake with raspberries and pistachios
Inspired by your praise after that birthday cake for my soul, I was thinking and trying to come up with a cake that my closest ones would love.
If you haven’t played around and made Pavlova cremeschnitte, I think it’s high time you did it. But I am not responsible for anyone’s gaining weight – because the taste is just like that.
components
- 400 gr dark chocolate
- 210 gr maskarpone cheese
- 230 ml heavy cream (double cream)
- 160 gr dehydrated raspberries
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 250 gr frozen or fresh raspberries
- 220 gr sugar
- lemon juice of 1/2 lemon
- 80 gr pistachios
- mint leaves
- 2 egg whites
- 40 gr white chocolate for decoration
Instruction
- Warm heavy cream (double cream) a little bit, but don't bring it to the boiling point
- While still warm, mix it with 300 gr of dark chocolate and stir until the entire chocolate melts. Then add (while everything is still warm) the remaining 100gr
- When everything cools down a bit (the temperature should be 30°) add mascarpone cheese, and then vanilla and at the end dehydrated raspberries. Mix slowly everything again in a smooth mixture.
- Put everything into silicone molds. Leave it for a few hours or overnight to tighten.
- For raspberry sauce put raspberries and sugar into a small pot and cook them for about 20-30 minutes on moderate temperature. The longer you cook, the thicker the sauce will be. At the end add the lemon juice of 1/4 lemon.
- Then filter to remove the crunchy parts of raspberries.
- Fill the jar with sauce and leave it to cool until serving.
- Meringues: egg whites should be blended and gradually adding sugar and only at the end, add the juice of 1/4 lemon.
- Fill the piping bag and leave aside until serving.
- For the decoration of the pistachio, they should be cleaned and chopped.
- White chocolate decoration, melt white chocolate insert in a piping bag cut a small hole in the corner of the bag and squeeze out the mixture on baking paper or foil. Allow to cool down in the freezer.
- Remove from the mold chocolate part, put on a small plate, decorate with meringue, sauce of raspberries, chopped pistachios and some mint leaves.
- I recommend putting chocolate cake before serving at room temperature (at least 2-3 hours)
- Enjoy in every bite!
Chocolate cake
The essence of this cake is in good chocolate, sweet cream, mascarpone cheese and dehydrated raspberries.
How did I come up with dehydrated raspberries?
I like to eat Premier chocolate dragées…You know those things with raisins, orange peel, and nuts…I mean, they have a lot more than that (just so you know, this is not a commercial).
And that’s how I tasting all those new flavours came across dark chocolate dragées with raspberry…the raspberry of a specific taste…pretty intense.
And since I like to sneak around the supermarket shelves, I stumbled upon something that could look like dehydrated raspberries…and the box looks like this:
I bought two packages…so that it could be lavish…
I used sweet cream and mascarpone to soften the bitterness of dark chocolate…
Beside these items, you’ll need a few more things and you’ll be able to find them in the recipe already prepared for printing.
How to make a unique chocolate cake?
The chocolate part
400 gr of good dark chocolate (I used Premier )
210 gr mascarpone cheese
230 ml heavy cream (double cream)
160 gr dehydrated raspberries
2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
The most important parts for the chocolate cake
You should warm heavy cream (double cream) a little bit, but don’t bring it to the boiling point. While still warm, mix it with 300 gr of dark chocolate and stir until the entire chocolate melts. Then add (while everything is still warm) the remaining 100 gr and then stir again, and stir…until you get a smooth glossy mixture that makes you lick your fingers 🙂
Mixed sweet cream
When everything cools down a bit (the temperature should be 30°), if you don’t have a thermometer put a finger in, that’s the right time to add mascarpone cheese, and then vanilla.
We’re adding mascarpone cheese
Now you need muscles to unite (mix) everything again in a smooth mixture…So stir, stir, stir…finaly add dehydrated raspberries.
We’re adding vanilla, too
Not your hips but a silicone spatula 🙂
Make it shiny like this
Then, put everything into silicone molds…whatever sizes you have…smaller are better…Leave it for a few hours or overnight to tighten (fridge is fine, too) so that you can take it out of the mold more easily.
Fill the molds and flat them out
It should look like this (you can use smaller molds, or fill only half of the bigger ones)
Raspberry sauce
We have already made raspberry sauce before, but you can also make this new combination:
How to make raspberry sauce?
250 gr of frozen raspberries
120 gr of sugar
1 tsp of lemon juice (from 1/4 lemon)
Put raspberries and sugar into a small pot and cook them for about 30 minutes on moderate temperature. The longer you cook, the thicker the sauce will be…and remember that after it cools down, it will thicken some more 🙂 .
The raspberry sauce is done, and filtered
When you’re almost done with cooking, add lemon…then filter to remove the crunchy parts of raspberries.
Let’s talk about decoration…
Decoration
Pistachios
Buy the finished product, you don’t have to grow them 🙂 Clean and chop them in a blender or with a knife. You need up to 80gr of untreated fruit 🙂
Mint leaves
From the garden or the supermarket.
Meringue without the drying in the oven
2 egg whites
100 gr of sugar
1 tsp of lemon juice (from 1/4 lemon)
It has to work 🙂 I licked all the whisks, pans and spatulas…it’s a pity I had to leave something for the decorating bag 🙂
Until yesterday I couldn’t stand whipped egg white cream and meringue, but today I ask myself where they have been all my life 🙂
Whipped egg white cream
We mastered the whisking lesson here, but repeating is the mother of wisdom.
First, whisk only egg whites for two minutes at medium speed.
Then gradually add sugar and whisk, whisk…for about 5 minutes, and then speed up a bit…and then, when you’re close to the end, add lemon juice and whisk for about 1-2 minutes.
And it’s done…the top of the tops…
White chocolate decoration
Just melt the white chocolate…about 40 gr…put it in a plastic bag for the freezer…cut an extra tiny hole and you can scribble on the baking paper or on the foil…
Foil or baking paper
Leave it to cool down at room temperature, and then put it in the freezer until it’s time for decoration.
White chocolate decorations
How do I know exactly for how long to whisk?
I haven’t reinvented the wheel now; someone else did it before me.
There are so many recipes where you whisk no longer than 3 minutes, then some others where you whisk 15 minutes and so on… how could I possibly know exactly… except by the rule of thumb …
My Breville
I don’t know if you have seen this, but now there are mixers with a display… and a stopwatch…well I have one of those…
Just so you know, it’s not expensive and it does the job more than well 🙂
What mustn’t you do?
- You must not overdo the sweet cream or bring it to the boiling point
- Put mascarpone cheese into the hot sweet cream or cook mascarpone and sweet cream at the same time…Milk fat separates then and starts floating across the chocolate…and when they cool down, they look terrible…
- Don’t keep the chocolate part of the cake in the fridge the whole time, because it is served at room temperature so that the chocolate is a bit softer (don’t worry, there won’t be any cake left for tomorrow).
The intense flavour of raspberry
What you can do that’s unusual
- When you take the cake out of the mold, put it in the microwave before serving it for about 5-6 seconds…it’s going to melt in your mouth…yummy…
There is so much more
And finally, the decoration
From the behind
Dark cake – white plate… opposites attract 🙂
From the front
Put the chocolate part, squeeze the whipped egg white cream from the decorating bag over or around the cake (I had the star shaped end), burn it lightly with a kitchen blowtorch (but this is not necessary), sprinkle with a little bit of pistachio… and add the raspberry sauce with mint leaves next to the cake…
With white chocolate
Another suggestion is to buy some icing and according to the directions on the packaging melt it and pour it over the chocolate part… You can dry the whipped egg white cream in the oven (before the drying you might add a bit of raspberry sauce and spread it spontaneously with a fork) and put it on the chocolate part… then sprinkle with pistachio.
All on one plate
The third suggestion will hopefully come from you 🙂
How did you decorate it eventually?
