GUEST RECIPE: 3 layer overwatch mousse cake

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Kierpanda was foolish enough to give me control for a post…

So away with her easy-to-make, creative dishes – and in with this unnecessarily complicated, silly guest post!

This recipe creates two smooth, beautiful mousses that you can pipe into martini glasses, or put into a mold for a cake, or just eat it straight out of a bowl. No, I promise I didn’t do that… much.

Onto the recipe!

The cake is essentially 4 parts:

  1. Cake layer – use any cake you like. Store bought is okay, cakemix is okay, or brownies would be great too!
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    Making an orange sponge cake 😀
  2. White honey mousse
  3. Chocolate mousse
  4. Fondant decoration

The decoration on top is purely optional, so the steps for the logo is listed separately.

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Ingredients

Cake

  • 3 4inch round cakes, cut to about ½ in height each
    • For the purpose of this recipe we are omitting the details for the cake part. Just follow your favorite box mix recipe, brownie recipe, or use store-bought cake, anything works! The magic is in the mousse layers.

 

Honey Mousse

  • 4.5 (a little over 1/2 cup) oz White Chocolate Chips + 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
  • 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream (or 1 cup of coolwhip for the lazy)
  • Pinch Salt
  • 2 tablespoon Honey
  • 1 teaspoon Unvloared Powdered Gelatin (if you’re using the Knox package, it’s about 1/3 of one pouch)
  • 1 tablespoon Water
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Bean Paste or Extract

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Chocolate Mousse

  • 4.5 (a little over 1/2 cup) oz Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips + 1/4 Cup Heavy Cream
  • Pinch Salt
  • 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream (or 1 cup of coolwhip for the lazy)
  • 1 teaspoon Unvloared Powdered Gelatin (if you’re using the Knox package, it’s about 1/3 of one pouch)
  • 1 tablespoon water

 

Tools

  • 3 4inch spring loaded cake pans 
  • Parchment Paper – Cut long enough strips to line the sides of your pan/mold
  • You can use a larger mold or pan and have a bigger cake.
  • You can also forgo the cake and just put the mousse in any vessel of your choice, and enjoy it as a dessert after it sets!

 

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Directions

  • Cut stripes of parchment paper long enough to line the sides of your pan or mold and line the inside. We really recommend using a spring loaded pan with a removable bottom so it’s easier to slide the cake out when it’s done
  • Put the round disk of cake on the bottom of the pan
  • Make Honey Mousse
    • Microwave the white chocolate chips + cream mixture at 50% power for 30 seconds. Take it out, stir evenly, and return to the microwave 15 seconds at a time to completely melt the mixture
    • Whisk together the gelatin + water and set it aside for 5 minutes.
    • Meanwhile, whip the remaining ½ cup of heavy cream with either a stand mixer or hand mixer to form stiff peaks. And for the lazy, sub this for 1 cup of CoolWhip.
    • Microwave the gelatin mixture for 10 seconds to melt the mixture
    • Combine the melted chocolate, vanilla, and gelatin mixture
    • Mix in â…“ of the whip cream into the chocolate mixture  
    • Fold the rest of the whip cream into the chocolate mix gently
    • Distribute the mousse mixture evenly on top of the cakes in the pan and tap it on a hard surface to let out the air bubbles
    • Set the cakes in the fridge for 25 mins to set before putting on the chocolate layer

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Layer of honey mouse setting – Use parchment strips to line the pan for easy removal

 

  • Make Chocolate Mousse
    • Same steps as the honey mousse before
    • Microwave the semi sweet choco chips + cream mixture until melted
    • Whisk together gelatin + water
    • Make whip cream
    • Microwave gelatin for 10 seconds to completely dissolve the mixture
    • Combine the chocolate and gelatin
    • Incorporate whip cream into the chocolate base
    • Evenly distribute the chocolate mixture on top of the now set honey layer

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Folding in whipped cream into chocolate!

  • Refrigerate the entire cake for at least 4 hours or until set
  • After the mousse is completely set, pop the cakes out of the pan and decorate it to your heart’s desire!

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So airy, so light, cut side view!

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Optional Overwatch Logo Decoration

Directions

  1. Knead the fondant until soft & pliable – roll it out to an â…› thick sheet
  2. Use the round 4 inch cutter to cut out a circle
  3. Use the slightly smaller cutter (I used a 3 ½) to cut out the middle of the 4 inch circle, leaving you with a ring shape
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    Use 2 round cutters to make the ring
  4. Use a knife to trim out the top orange part of the logo and the angled pieces in the middle. Print out a picture of the logo as a guide if you want it to be more perfect, or have the logo handy as a reference
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    Cut out shapes using a knife. Use a print out as guide if you need!
  5. Lay the bottom parts of the logo on foil or parchment, and spray paint it with the silver spray – set aside till dry
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    If you can find the spray – you can make it silver!
  6. Re-roll the rest of your fondant and color it with the orange food coloring
  7. Roll the orange fondant just like before and cut out the top part
  8. Let the fondant sit out for a bit till it dries, then top your amazing cake with it!

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Ta-daaaa! :) You know, the world could always use more heroes!

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This was a special guest recipe by Meru. She’s an amazing baker, a spectacular chef and a ferocious Brightwing! You can follow her delicious adventures here on Twitter.

survival burger [veggie burger with tarragon mayonnaise]

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Living the life of a farmer in Stardew Valley must be incredibly difficult. You started out working a 9 to 5 job at Joja Corp and suddenly, you ditch everything to start a brand new life in this quaint little town.

I personally struggled my first few days of being a fresh new farmer. I spent a lot of days chopping down trees in my yard and wandering aimlessly through the valley. I would pick up random things and eat them or throw them into my hastily made wooden chest. Eventually, I picked up enough random things to reach Forager level 2. At the time, I had no idea what the heck that meant, I just knew that I magically learned how to make a burger because of it. Hype! 

Once I got my farm going, I started making Survival Burgers all the time. It eventually replaced my old staple food of Fried Eggs.

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HOORAY BURGER

I personally like to enjoy my delicious burger in the depths of the mines:

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Hey skeleton bro, do you want a bite or nah?

Since the Survival Burger has become such a necessary part of my adventuring routine, I had to recreate it in real life.

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The actual ingredients to the recipe are incredibly simple: “bread”, “cave carrot” and “eggplant”. Easy! …sort of. I didn’t know what the heck a cave carrot was, so I got the next best thing: Rainbow Carrots!

 UNIT COMPOSITION

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  1. salt
  2. pepper
  3. 3 – 4 sprigs of fresh tarragon (dried OK too!)
  4. 3 cloves of garlic
  5. 1 shallot, diced
  6. 2 tablespoons of dijon mustard
  7. 1/2 cup of mayonnaise
  8. 1/2 eggplant, chopped
  9. 2 rainbow carrots (preferably in purple or yellow), chopped
  10. 1 tomato
  11. green leaf lettuce
  12. hamburger buns

BUILD ORDER

This recipe takes about 20 minutes to prep. Cook time is about 35 minutes. This makes 4 servings.

OPENING

  1. In a food processor, combine your garlic, shallots and 2 chopped carrots.
  2. Add in your chopped egg plant and process. Season with salt and pepper. Remove your mixture from the food processor. The mixture will be fairly watery due to the water content of the carrots and eggplant.
  3. Line a baking dish with parchment paper. Divide your mixture into 4 sections. Form each section into a patty and place it on the baking dish. You may want to smooth out the patties with a butter knife.
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  4. Preheat your oven to 375°. Bake the patties for about 35 minutes or until golden brown.
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MID GAME

  1. While the patties are baking, create your tarragon mayonnaise. Remove the stems from the tarragon and roughly chop the leaves.
  2. In a bowl, combine your dijon mustard with your mayonnaise.
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  3. Stir in your tarragon and season with a little salt.

LATE GAME

  1. Assemble your burger! Place one lettuce leaf on the bottom portion of the hamburger bun.
  2. Place your veggie patty on top of the lettuce leaf.
  3. Place a generous amount of tarragon mayonnaise on top of the patty.blog_survivalburger_spread
  4. Top that with a tomato slice and then the top of the bun.
  5. Eat!

Hooray, and now you’re done! GG WP, Farmer. :)

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Now you have a tasty and nutritious meal that will keep you energized to forage all day long!

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