Durian Custard Mousse Cake

This cake was meant for dear husband's birthday which supposed to be in early Aug. Due to I was very sick during that week and following week, beside not fully recover, all my engery was also dedicated to my 1st bloggers gathering that I had delayed the cake making until the past weekend :p.

I didn't have to crack my mind on thinking what cake to prepare for dear husband. I remember he ever told me a few months ago that he had tasted the american carrot cake in one of the birthday celebration and he was impressed by the taste. Since he likes this cake and I never taste it before and it has been in my baking list, I decided probably I should bake one for him.

I was a little fickle, since now is still durian season and I always wanna make a durian cake, I was thinking I should take this opportunity to make durian cake. The causing of delay was simply because firstly, not in durian season so hard to locate durian and lastly, think of the smell that will be stuck in the fridge for many days, back me off. But if dear husband choose to have durian cake instead, then I will have all reasons to make one. So I checked with him and he was delightful to have durian cake.


I can't think of an idea to decorate the cake and I was so lazy that just want simple out of it so I copied the design from A Table for 2 or more. And my skill is really sucks, Wendy's looked so much neater and nicer than mine so I am just a lousy and failure copier hahaha...

For sponge cake recipe, I adapted from Happy Home Baker.
For Durian mousse, I adapted from Kitchen Corner.

Ingredients:
For Sponge Cake : (makes one 6" cake tin)
67g cake flour
2 eggs, room temperature
30g caster sugar
14g unsalted butter, melted
1 1/3 tbsp fresh milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

For Custard :
2 egg yolks
133ml milk
40g sugar (I reduced to 25g)
13g flour
1 tsp vanilla extract
6g butter
2 tsp rum (optional)

For Durian Mousse :
270g durian fresh (I increased to 450g)
200ml fresh cream (I used 180ml whipping cream)
1 tbsp gelatin
3-4 tbsp water

Method :
For Sponge Cake :
1. Sift cake flour, set aside. Line bottom and sides of 6” cake tin with parchment paper, set aside.
2. Pre-heat oven to 170degC. Position rack at the lower bottom of the oven.
3. With an electric mixer, whisk eggs and sugar on HIGH speed for about 5 to 7 mins, until the batter double in volume and is ribbon-like (the beater should leave a ribbon-like texture when the batter is lifted up). Turn to LOW speed and whisk for another 1 to 2 mins. Whisking at low speed helps to stabilise the air bubbles in the batter.
4. Add sifted cake flour into the batter. With a spatula, gently fold in the flour until well blended. Take care not to deflate the batter. (To ensure proper folding in of the flour, you can add the flour in three separate additions.)
5. Add the melted butter, fold with spatula until well blended
6. Add in fresh milk, vanilla extract and fold in gently with spatula.
7. Pour the batter into the pan and bake for 20~25 mins, or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Unmold and invert onto cooling rack, cool completely.

Recipe source: 点心达人, 轻松学 / 小川智美著

For Custard :
1. Mix the egg yolks with two teaspoon of milk in a bowl until well combined.
2. Then, mix in the flour and make sure there is no lumps.
3. Place the milk in a saucepan with vanilla extract and sugar, bring to the boil.
4. Once the sugar dissolve in the milk, gradually pour onto the eggs mixture and stir then pour back into the pan.
5. Return to the heat and using a whisk, lightly stir the mixture to thicken, do not boil. As the egg yolks warm, it will thicken to create custard. Keep stirring until it coats the back of the spoon.
6. Remove from the heat and keep stirring and add in the butter.
7. When the custard slightly warm add in rum.
8. Pour the custard into a shallow bowl and cover with cling wrap. Place it into the fridge when it completely cool down and ready to use.

For Durian Mousse :
1. Pour water into a bowl and sprinkle in the gelatin (without stirring with a spoon). Set aside to allow the gelatin grains to swell (10 mins) before setting the bowl over a pot of simmering hot water. Stir with a spoon and once the gelatin melts, remove the bowl from the pot and set aside to cool to room temperature.
2. Blend durian flesh and custard just to combine. Don't over blend the mixture.
3. Whip fresh cream and fold it into the durian mixture with gelatin solution and mix well

To assemble :
1. Trim the sponger cake to about 10-15cm smaller than the 6" removable base cake tin.
2. Slice the sponge cake into half horizontally and lay one slice on the cake tin as base.
3. Pour in half of the durian mousse on top of the cake then top up with another layer of the sponge cake.
4. Pour the balance mousse on top of the sponge cake and level it.
5. Leave the cake in the chiller to let it set for at least 3 hours. (I left it in the freezer as dear daughter requested for ice cream cake:P)
6. Remove the cake from the cake tin and deco as your desire.

Verdict?
The cake is rich, thick and creamy, very delicious indeed. All of us finished one big slice of it including my fil (he likes durian! He finished by himself the whole 2 big durian in the afternoon and at night, his serving plate for the durian mousse cake was totally clean). Dear husband praised on the cake but he commented that the layer sponge cake was a bit to hard since the durian mousse melted faster but sponge cake takes longer time to defreeze. I should have waited for 10 to 15 mins after removing the cake from freezer cos we had hard time slicing the cake as well :P. I didn't eat the cake immediately, I waited for another 5 mins as I find that the freezed durian mousse was a bit too icy for my liking. The sponge cake and durian mousse turned soft after 10 mins, yummy!