The Great British Bake Off is one my favorite shows, inspiring new bakes, new flavors, and new techniques! Join me on my journey to bake through all the Season 13 Challenges.
Since replicating Season 8 of the Great British Bake Off wasn’t enough, I decided to try my hand at a different season! This time, I am working on season 13 which is the most recent season! This season had some great bake ideas as well as some not-so-great ones (but we’ll get there when we get there).
So, I figured, let’s do this all again! One of the big challenges I wanted to attempt this time around was coming up with original ideas for the signature and showstopper challenges instead of doing a recreation. On your mark… Get set… Bake!
The Showstopper challenge for dessert week is a hidden-design mousse cake! This is one challenge that I was really looking forward to as it has a lot of potential and a lot of possibilities. There were so many varying options in the show that I was excited to take a crack at this myself!
I decided I wanted to really focus on the hidden design and keeping the outside of the cake very simple. For the mousse, I wanted to create a sunset like design which a yellow (lemon), orange (orange), and red (raspberry) mousse. I wanted to use a honeycomb base and a hidden chocolate cake design.
Check out the Season 13 Great British Bake Off Page to see other bakes from this series or the Make section for more recipes! Leave a comment below and let me know what you think and how the recipe works for you!
Ingredients
This cake requires a lot of heavy whipping cream but not a lot of sugar (so that is a positive). I did end up making a chocolate cake with yogurt and a lot of eggs to give it a rich flavor.
I needed corn syrup to make the honeycomb, and lemons, oranges, and raspberries for making the mousses. All the remaining ingredients are ones that I believe to be common items that can be found in any home cook’s kitchen.
Process
The Chocolate Cake
The first component that I wanted to make was chocolate cake. The cake would end up in the center of the dessert and needed to be fully cooled before being set into the mousse. I wanted the cake to be cool since the mousse could melt is introduced to too much heat.
To make the cake, I first preheated the oven to three hundred- and fifty-degrees Fahrenheit. Then I creamed together the butter and the sugar. I like letting this mix go from about three to five minutes because it really helps incorporate the two together. The mix also becomes lighter and fluffier which, in turn, makes the cake lighter and fluffier. After the sugar and butter have been sufficiently creamed, I added in the eggs.
There are a lot of eggs that go into this cake. It is a very rich, velvety chocolate cake. I beat all of the eggs together before adding them into the main mixture. When adding them to the main mixture, I decided to add a little bit at a time (about what I thought one egg would be). I would let that bit combine into the mixture fully before adding the next egg.
In a bowl on the side, I whisked together the flour, chocolate powder, baking soda, and salt. I added about one third of the flour mixture into the main bowl and mixed until everything was combined. Then I added one half of the milk.
And then I repeated this process until all of the ingredients were in one bowl (another one-third, another one-half, and one last one-third). By alternatively adding dry ingredients and the wettest of ingredients, the batter really comes together without clumping.
Using this alternating method is especially good when making cake batter. Since cake batter is more liquid than other batters, keeping the batter closer to the final consistency helps the cake come together. It’s not fighting against being too wet or too dry at any point in time.
After the cake was baked and cooled, I used a cutter to cut the cake into hummingbird shaped slices. I didn’t really measure how many I needed to I just cur out a bunch in hopes that I would have enough (I did). One… difficult… thing about the cutter that I chose is that the beak was rather thin. This made it a prime breaking point, so I had to be very gentle during this process.
Honeycomb
The next step of making this cake is the bottom layer: the honeycomb! This was a new process to me, and I wasn’t really sure how it would work with the cake. All I knew was that it was a hard and crunchy layer. I thought having something crunchy on the base would provide a nice texture compared to the smoothness of the mousse and the crumb of the cake.
To make the honeycomb, I had to start by making caramel. I combined sugar, water, and corn syrup in a medium pan and had the mixture heat up over a low to medium heat.
The sugar must melt. This is a critical step that I have messed up before. If the sugar doesn’t melt, the final product will be gloppy and won’t solidify. Which is no good.
Once the sugar has dissolved, I boiled the sugar mix until it reached 300 degrees. This is a critical temperature to make sure the sugar will harden. I removed the mixture from the heat and then comes the fun part: adding the baking soda.
This was a huge chemical reaction that I was not totally ready for. I added in the baking soda and immediately wished that I had a bigger pot. Because the ingredients exploded into a fiery, bubbly reaction. And the mixture grew and grew.
While I wanted to sit and watch it, I didn’t have time. I wanted to capture the bubbles in the final product (i.e., the name honeycomb). Which meant I needed to pour the mixture into the prepared tin. I smoothed out the top a little bit to help with the layer above it.
The Mousses
And now it’s time for the first of three mousses! Since I wanted to mimic a bird against the sunset, I figured the yellow should go on bottom, then orange in the middle, and red on top. So yellow (lemon) is the first mousse that needs to be made!
The first step was blooming the gelatin. I like to soak the gelatin in a little bit of water to let it become a squishy blob. Then I put some lemon juice into a pot with some sugar over medium heat. Again, I need the sugar to dissolve.
I then removed the pot from the heat but added the gelatin and stirred until it was fully dissolved. Then I added the remaining lemon juice and put the mixture aside to cool.
In a large mixing bowl, I whipped up some heavy whipping cream until it reached a soft peak. Then I folded in the juices into the heavy whipping cream to make the mousse. I put the mousse into a piping bag and piped it into the pan (I’ll talk about this more under assembly).
The process for the other two mousses is similar. Except replace the lemon juice with juices of other flavors. For the raspberry mousse, I did end up straining fresh raspberries to get the raspberry juice.
Order and Assembly
Now, I did assemble one mousse before making the next. I wanted to give each mousse a time to set. So, I first put the lemon mousse into the tin, and, before the mousse set, I placed a row of hummingbird shaped cake throughout the pan. Then I let the lemon mousse set.
While the lemon mousse was setting, I went on to make the orange mousse. I placed the orange mousse in a piping bag and then put the new layer of mousse on top of the set layer of mousse. I did my best to fill the gaps that had been made by the cake. This proved to be a little tricky to get all of the nooks and crannies.
And while I waited for the orange to set, I made the raspberry mousse. Again, I placed the mousse in a piping bag and layered it on top of the orange mousse / the top of the chocolate makes. Since this is the final layer. I tried to make the top as smooth as possible. Having a smooth surface to work with now will make it easier to work with later.
Whipped Frosting
The last step of this whole project is the icing on the outside. I didn’t want this frosting to be too heavy as I felt that would go well with such a light cake. Therefore, buttercream was out. It just felt too heavy. And I worried it would be too sweet and overpower the other flavors in the cake.
The thought that popped into my head (and stuck) was a whipped cream-based frosting. Which meant I was using even more heavy whipping cream! This cake is effectively just heavy whipping cream the cake if I’m being honest.
I dumped heavy whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract into a bowl and got to whipping. My goal was stiff peaks since it seemed like the best way to get the cake decorated. I tried to get a smooth layer on the top and sides which proved to be a little bit of a struggle.
I do wonder if I did not beat the whipped cream for long enough (or for two long…). The cream did cover the sides, but I did not have the coverage that I wanted, especially around the corners.
So, I decided to pivot. I put a fancy nozzle on the piping bag and added more details to hide these areas. Frosting hides a multitude of sins, as they say!
Reflections
While the frosting did not completely cover the colors of the layer hiding underneath it, the hidden design was still very much not visible. In fact, the cake seemed like quite the surprise when I put it in front of some unsuspecting victims 😉
This dessert was one of my bigger hits! It had a delicious natural flavor and wasn’t as sweet as I was expecting it to be. I felt like it was a pretty unique dessert for the area that I am from. We don’t typically deal with mousses that can stand by themselves.
The only “negative” for me was the honeycomb. Although it is delicious, it might not fit everyone’s tastebuds. The honeycomb brings a caramel flavor which was then paired with fruity flavors, and it did feel like an unusual combination.
Lessons
The Chemical Reaction of Sugar and Heat
When adding heat to sugar, it dissolves and eventually caramelizes. Why does it do this? The addition of heat breaks sugar from one compound back down into two: glucose and fructose. Continuing to heat the sugar will remove water from the pot and all for further reactions to occur.
In this case, water acts as a solvent which inhibits the reactions which is why it needs to be removed from the equation. With the sugar removed, the compounds are free to react which results in caramelization. Isn’t chemistry fascinating?
recipe
Hidden Design Mousse Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Cup Unsalted Butter softened
- 6 Eggs beaten
- 2 Cup All-Purpose Flour or cake Flour
- ½ Cup chocolate Powder
- 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
- ½ Teaspoon Salt
- 1 Cup Yogurt
Honeycomb
- 1 Cup Granulated sugar
- 1/3 Cup Light Corn Syrup
- 1/3 Cup Water
- 2 ½ Teaspoon Baking Soda
Lemon Mousse
- 2 Teaspoon Gelatin
- 3 Lemons juiced
- ¼ Cup Granulated Sugar
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
Orange Mousse
- 2 Teaspoon Gelatin
- 3 Oranges juiced
- 2 Tablespoon Granulated Sugar
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
Raspberry Mousse
- 2 Teaspoon Gelatin
- 2 ½ Cup Raspberries
- 2 Tablespoon Sugar
- 1 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
Whipped Cream Frosting
- 2 Cup Heavy Whipping Cream
- 1 Cup Powdered Sugar
- 1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Prepare a 9” by 13” pan.
- Combine the butter and sugar. Slowly add in the eggs, a little bit at a time.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, chocolate powder, baking soda, and salt.
- Add 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture and mix until combined. Add ½ of the yogurt and mix until combine. Repeat until all the ingredients have been mixed together.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s). Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick runs cleaning through the center.
- Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before turning out onto a flat surface. Let cool completely.
Honeycomb
- Measure out baking soda, set aside. Set aside a prepared pan lined with parchment.
- In a medium pan, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cook over medium heat. Make sure all of the sugar is dissolved and boil until the temperature of the mix is 300° Fahrenheit. Remove from heat.
- Stir in baking soda (this will cause the mixture to rapidly grow in size). Stir until the baking soda is combined. Immediately pour into prepared pan. Let cool until set.
Lemon Mousse
- Soak gelatin in 3 teaspoons of water until it reaches a viscous consistency. Squeeze out any remaining water.
- Put two thirds of the lemon juice into a medium size pot and add sugar. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove the pan from heat and stir in the gelatin until the gelatin has fully dissolved. Add in the remaining juice and leave to cool for 5 to 10 minutes. (Should still be warm but not hot, if left to cool too much it will congeal. If added to the whipping cream to early, the cream will melt).
- In a large bowl, whisk the heavy whipping cream until it comes to soft peaks. Fold the juice mixture into the whipped cream. Layer on top of the honeycomb and let set.
Orange Mousse
- Soak gelatin in 3 teaspoons of water until it reaches a viscous consistency. Squeeze out any remaining water.
- Put two thirds of the orange juice into a medium size pot and add sugar. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove the pan from heat and stir in the gelatin until the gelatin has fully dissolved. Add in the remaining juice and leave to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk the heavy whipping cream until it comes to soft peaks. Fold the juice mixture into the whipped cream.
- Layer half of the orange mousse on top of the lemon mousse. Using the cutter shape of your choice, cut out slices of cake and line them vertically in the pan. Use the remaining orange mousse to stabilize the cake and partially cover the cake. Let set.
Raspberry Mousse
- Soak gelatin in 3 teaspoons of water until it reaches a viscous consistency. Squeeze out any remaining water.
- Push the raspberries through a sieve to remove any seeds and create smooth juice.
- Put two thirds of the raspberry juice into a medium size pot and add sugar. Stir over low heat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Remove the pan from heat and stir in the gelatin until the gelatin has fully dissolved. Add in the remaining juice and leave to cool for 5 to 10 minutes.
- In a large bowl, whisk the heavy whipping cream until it comes to soft peaks. Fold the juice mixture into the whipped cream. Layer on top of the orange mousse and let set.
Whipped Cream Frosting
- Whip the cream until soft peaks are reached.
- Add vanilla extract and powdered sugar and whisk until you reach hard peaks.
- Demold the cake from the pan and decorate with whipped cream frosting.