Blessed

BENEDICT

Each of our creations carries a piece of us; what we create becomes a gift for every friend, client or stranger, who receives a “slice” of our life.

The Benedict cake was made for a special person, it doesn't have much innovation in the sector, but I wanted to include in this project a "slice" of my daily life, hoping that it can inspire you as it inspires me.

I wish you a good life,

Marco DeDonno

Blessed

Composition:

• Crispy Pralianto with Aurum White Chocolate
• Soft Almond Cake with Wild Strawberries
• Fresh Strawberry Jelly
• Light Yogurt Mousse
• Mirror glaze with organic white chocolate and vanilla

Soft Almond Cake with Wild Strawberries

Ingredients	Dosage for 1 cake Ø 18	Dosage per 1kg	Dosage for 3 cakes Ø 18
Butter	18g	115g	56g
Granulated sugar	28g	180g	85g
Whole eggs	7g	45g	22g
Yolk	10g	70g	32g
Almond flour	35g	220g	106g
Shortcrust pastry flour w140	6g	40g	20g
egg whites	13g	85g	40g
Sugar	13g	85g	40g
Wild strawberries	13g	85g	40g
Dark chocolate drops	10g	70g	32g

Reduce the butter to a paste, add the sugar and mix. Once homogenized, add the egg yolks and eggs and mix well. Then add the flour and almond flour and set aside. Whip the egg whites and sugar in equal parts. Combine the two mixtures and pour 160g of product into 16Ø rings, placing the wild strawberries evenly on the cake and then bake in a fan oven at 170° for about 12-14 minutes. The cake, if cooked correctly, does not require soaking as it is very light and soft, but if necessary I recommend a gin and limoncello soak. (500g 30° Bome syrup, 250g water, 125g gin at 40°, 50g limoncello at 70°).

Fresh Strawberry Jelly

Ingredients	Dosage for 1 cake Ø 18	Dosage per 1kg	Dosage for 3 cakes Ø 18
Fresh strawberries	70g	580g	210g
Granulated sugar	17g	145g	52g
Pectin 325 Nh 95	2g	20g	6g
Granulated sugar	5g	40g	14g
Waterfall	4g	35g	13g
Gelatin sheets	20g	175g	65g

Pour the fresh fruit into a pan and bring to around 60°, emulsify and bring to the boil, then pour in the premixed sugar and pectin mixture and make sure no lumps form. Bring back to the boil and leave to cook. The result should be similar to a jam. You can make sure the product is ready by trying to take a little with a teaspoon and pouring a drop on the table to see the state of gelation. Once cooked, add the limoncello and pour 120g of finished product on our Soft Strawberry Cake and blast chill.

Aurum White Chocolate Crunchy Praline

Ingredients	Dosage per 1kg
Almond praline	588g
Aurum White Chocolate	338g
Crunchy flakes	74g

Temper the chocolate in a bowl. Refine the crunchy flakes in flour. Mix the tempered chocolate, the almond praline and the flakes. Insert toothpicks into our insert (cake + jelly) and dip it halfway. Clean the base on baking paper and place in a pan.

Light Yogurt and Vanilla Mousse

Ingredients	Dose for 1 cake	Dosage per 1kg	Dosage for 3 cakes Ø 18
Greek Yogurt	90g	375g	270g
Inverted sugar	10g	40g	30g
Vanilla beans	qb	qb	qb
Gelatin sheets	2g	10g	7g
Waterfall	10g	50g	35g
Cream	90g	375g	270g
Italian Meringue	35g	150g	110g

Combine the yogurt with the inverted sugar and insert a vanilla bean. Take a portion of our mixture and heat it, so as to combine the gelatine without forming lumps from thermal shock. Semi-whip the cream and combine the two mixtures. Pour 240g of mousse into 18Ø circles and insert the insert. Blast chill and store in a cell at -20° until use.

Blue Mirror Glaze

Ingredients	Dosage per 1 kg	White Chocolate Variant	Dark Chocolate Variant
Waterfall	150g	150g	150g
Granulated sugar	300g	300g	300g
Glucose 42de	300g	300g	300g
Concentrated milk	200g	200g	200g
Waterfall	125g	140g	100g
Gelatin sheets	25g	28g	20g
Light Milk Chocolate	100g	-	-
Chocolate White Edelweiss	300g	400g	-
Diamond Dark Chocolate	-	-	300g

Bring water, sugar and glucose to around 60°. Add the white food coloring and mix. Bring to the boil for 1-2 minutes and pour in the concentrated milk. Bring the mixture back to the boil and let it “foam”. Add the gelatin sheets and pour over the chocolate. Leave to rest overnight in the refrigerator and use the following day. The preparation method is the same for all 3 variations. Use the glaze between 31°-41°, so never above the maximum processing temperature of the chocolate used.

 

Decoration

Prepare a baking tray with cling film and place a grill on top. Heat our icings (or our icing depending on the chosen decoration) in a Brick. A small effective trick to not bring our icing above 40° is to start it for 1 minute and a half in the microwave, at this point you will notice that on the walls of the brick the icing will be melted unlike the center which will have remained solid. The center of our icing is an excellent natural thermometer to understand when we can move on to the emulsion phase without obtaining an icing that is too hot. When the center occupies about 3/5 of the diameter of the brick we can move on to the emulsion (this is obviously the classic "eye" measurement that is obtained with experience and after several tests of the product). Now we can place our cake on the grill and move on to the icing (*). First pour the blue icing starting from the center of the cake until it covers the sides. At this point pour a tip of white icing on the side from which we start to spatulate. The technique to obtain this split or trail effect is very simple, just spread the cake starting from the peak so as to drag the white icing, once you get to the end of the cake, just carefully lift the spatula and go back, so you will create this "return effect".

For the edge of our cake instead I used colored cocoa butter (precisely gold, blue and white) the method of use is very simple: temper the colors between 29.8 ° - 31.4 ° and brush the 4cm acetate cake band in this order and giving each color stroke time to dry slightly: splashes of gold, blue brush stroke, white brush stroke. Between the blue and white brush stroke, with a toothpick just draw some waves to give an even more particular design to the decoration.

For the flower instead I used a classic drop mold for pralines, each flower needs about 14 petals. In order the flower is assembled with: 2 petals joined central, 3 petals, 3 petals, 6 petals. For the assembly use tempered chocolate to join each petal and a heated plate to shape the base of the petals so that they can be joined to the base of the flower more easily. The last treat before the final assembly of the decoration, is always with the slightly out of temper gold cocoa butter to give splashes, with a brush or with the fingers themselves, on the cake to give a final touch of light and contrast.

* Please note: I recommend that iced cakes be taken from a negative refrigerator that does not go below -20°, beyond which we risk that our icing, if too cold, will make the chocolate "pull" too quickly, causing problems when we go to spatulate the excess icing; on the contrary, if the cake is at more than -20°, for example -12° and the icing has been overheated, when we go to spatulate we will probably notice a transparency on the edges of our cake, or even a "slipping" of the icing.

Article written by: Benedetta Sticchi
Recipes and photos: Marco De Donno