Daring Baker's Challenge January 2011: Biscuit Joconde Imprime

The January 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Astheroshe of the blog accro. She chose to challenge everyone to make a Biscuit Joconde Imprime to wrap around an Entremets dessert.

I made this dessert during the first week of January and it feels like it was months ago. It has been a chaotic month. We're in the middle of moving to another town and it's taking up soo much time and energy. We literaly don't have enough time to get more than  5 hours of sleep or have something to eat, other than sandwiches and junk in general. I feel like  a zombie and look like I've been run over by a train. Just to make things more interesting, my  husband caught some sort of a stomack flu and is feeling pretty bad. I suppose I'm next. So, yeah. It's been hectic around here. 

 I did, however, know well in advance that chaos awaits, so I decided to be proactive and decided to finish the cake on time for a change, especially because it seemed quite complicated to make. But it  turned out to be a piece of cake (no pun intended). I don't think I'll ever finish another challenge so early in the month.

We really enjoyed this dessert. The sponge was a bit on the sweet side and I think my choice of fillings complimented it perfectly. I wanted something light, fluffy and fruity since we were still recovering from holiday binging. I decided to go with Ricotta and white chocolate mousse and a mixed berry mousse, topped with a white chocolate cream cheese frosting which I tinted with some berry puree. I made a small cake, 18cm in diameter, and the two of us ate it surprisingly fast. 

I'm not particulary happy with how the colors of the decor paste turned out.  The decor paste and the pattern itself were not supposed to be as green as they eventually turned out, but I somehow made peace with it. 

I hope you'll forgive me for not giving you the recpes for my fillings. I have no idea where that piece of paper is right now. If I stumble upon it, I'll type the recipes afterwards, although, I wouldn't keep my hopes up if I were you. 

 I'm never moving again. Ever.

Biscuit Joconde Imprime

Joconde Sponge

85g almond flour/meal
75g icing sugar
25g cake flour
3 large eggs (about 150g)
3 large egg whites ( about 90g)
10g white granulated sugar or superfine (caster) sugar
30g unsalted butter, melted

In a clean mixing bowl whip the egg whites and white granulated sugar to firm, glossy peeks. Reserve in a separate clean bowl to use later. Sift almond flour, confectioner’s sugar, cake flour. On medium speed, add the eggs a little at a time. Mix well after each addition. Mix until smooth and light. (If using a stand mixer use blade attachment. If hand held a whisk attachment is fine, or by hand. ) Fold in one third reserved whipped egg whites to almond mixture to lighten the batter. Fold in remaining whipped egg whites. Do not over mix. Fold in melted butter. Reserve batter to be used later.

Patterned Joconde-Décor Paste
200g unsalted butter, softened
200g icing sugar
7 large egg whites (about 200g)
220g cake flour
Food coloring gel, paste or liquid

Cocoa Décor Paste Variation: Reduce cake flour to 170g. Add 60 g cocoa powder. Sift the flour and cocoa powder together before adding to creamed mixture.

Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (use stand mixer with blade, hand held mixer, or by hand) Gradually add egg whites. Beat continuously.Fold in sifted flour.Tint batter with coloring to desired color, if not making cocoa variation.

Preparing the Joconde and making the pattern
Spread a thin even layer of décor paste approximately 5 millimeter thick onto silicone baking mat with a spatula, or flat knife. Place mat on an upside down baking sheet. The upside down sheet makes spreading easier with no lip from the pan. Pattern the décor paste – Here is where you can be creative. Make horizontal /vertical lines (you can use a knife, spatula, cake/pastry comb). Squiggles with your fingers, zig zags, wood grains. Be creative whatever you have at home to make a design can be used. OR use a piping bag. Pipe letters, or polka dots, or a piped design. If you do not have a piping bag. Fill a ziplock bag and snip off corner for a homemade version of one. Slide the baking sheet with paste into the freezer. Freeze hard. Approx 15 minutes.

Remove from freezer. Quickly pour the Joconde batter over the design. Spread evenly to completely cover the pattern of the Décor paste. Bake at 475ºF /250ºC until the joconde bounces back when slightly pressed, approx. 15 minutes. You can bake it as is on the upside down pan. Yes, it is a very quick bake, so watch carefully. Cool. Do not leave too long, or you will have difficulty removing it from mat. Flip cooled cake on to a powdered sugared parchment paper. Remove silpat. Cake should be right side up, and pattern showing! (The powdered sugar helps the cake from sticking when cutting.)

Preparing the mold for entremets
You can use any type of mold. Start with a large piece of parchment paper laid on a very flat baking sheet. Then a large piece of cling wrap over the parchment paper. Place a spring form pan ring, with the base removed, over the cling wrap and pull the cling wrap tightly up on the outside of the mold. Line the inside of the ring with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping top edge by ½ inch. Cut the parchment paper to the top of the mold. It will be easier to smooth the top of the cake. A biscuit cutter/ cookie cutter- using cling wrap pulled tightly as the base and the cling covering the outside of the mold, placed on a parchment lined very flat baking sheet. Line the inside with a curled piece of parchment paper overlapping.

Preparing the Jaconde for Molding 
Trim the cake of any dark crispy edges. You should have a nice rectangle shape.Decide how thick you want your “Joconde wrapper”. Traditionally, it is ½ the height of your mold. This is done so more layers of the plated dessert can be shown. However, you can make it the full height.Once your height is measured, then you can cut the cake into equal strips, of height and length. (Use a very sharp paring knife and ruler.) 

Make sure your strips are cut cleanly and ends are cut perfectly straight. Press the cake strips inside of the mold, decorative side facing out. Once wrapped inside the mold, overlap your ends slightly. You want your Joconde to fit very tightly pressed up to the sides of the mold. Then gently push and press the ends to meet together to make a seamless cake. The cake is very flexible so you can push it into place. You can use more than one piece to “wrap “your mold, if one cut piece is not long enough.

The mold is done, and ready to fill.

*Note: If not ready to use. Lay cake kept whole or already cut into strips, on a flat surface, wrap in parchment and several layers of cling wrap and freeze.

Filling Options and Suggestions
Fill with anything you desire. Layers of different flavors and textures! However, it needs to be something cold that will not fall apart when unmolded.

The fillings that work best are mousses, pastry creams, Bavarian creams, cheesecakes, puddings, curds, jams, cookie bases, more cake (bake off the remaining sponge and cut to layer inside), nuts, Dacquoise, fresh fruit, chocolates, gelee.