Chocolate and orange mini cakes (vegan)

Hello! I keep refusing to accept that spring has been here for a while yet the weather in London doesn’t seem to follow the rules! So I keep brightening up my days with summery desserts. I shoot these on Saturday afternoon, it had been raining for a couple of hours and after that it was sunny and there was this lovely effect of the droplets of water on the window glass casting their shadows on the tiny plat table where I usually shoot my bakes. I really liked that effect. 

These mini cakes are composed of: 

-an almond brownie base

-a white chocolate and orange mousse 

-an orange glee with embedded edible flowers 

-tempered chocolate curved triangles, to go around the base

This was such a lovely bite, orange and chocolate are a perfect match, and using two different types of chocolate added complexity to the taste, and the orange zest and juice made this a very refreshing dessert. 

Ingredients and procedure:

Brownie base 

60g flour + 1 tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

25g almond flour

50g vegan block butter

80g brown sugar

30g cocoa powder

75g dark chocolate melted 

180g almond milk

Sift together flour and baking powder, then add salt and almond flour and set aside. In another bowl, beat together the butter and the sugar for 2’, then add the melted chocolate. 

With a balloon whisk incorporate in alternate batches the flour mix and the almond milk. 

Bake at 180C fan for 30’. I used a small baking tray and cut out with the cake rings the desired shape for the cakes. 

White chocolate and orange zest mousse

100g vegan whipping cream

50g almond milk

70g cocoa butter

20 soy powder

25 icing sugar

Zest of 1 orange

2g agar +10 cold water

Heat the almond milk in a pan, when it simmers add the agar agar and mix well. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

Melt the cocoa butter and blend it with the soy milk powder and the icing sugar. Pour the warm milk in this mix and blend. Let cool.

Whip the heavy cream and incorporate folding in 3 batches in the cocoa butter mixture. Pipe on top of the brownie and let set (30’ in the freezer). 

Orange gelee layer 

150g orange juice

25g lemon juice

20g caster sugar

2g pectin

2g agar agar + 5g water

Cook the citrus juices for a minute and then add the sugar and pectin mixture. Whisk the agar with water and let sit, then stir in and bring to a boil. Once cooled down, pipe in the ring mould on top of the set mousse layer. Let set 1h in the freezer before unmoulding and then enjoy ❤

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