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Copyright, 2015
May 1, 2015
Rob
Cakes, Featured
28

Recipe: Chocolate Royal cake (“Trianon”)

So yes, last month I celebrated my birthday. 29 years. For the third time.

rob-cake-31-birthday

For some, a birthday is a bit like New Year’s Eve: time of self-analysis, goal-setting and celebration. Personally, I only cared about the cake. 🙂

My only reflection could be that not much has happened in the last year: yes, I got a sort of promotion at work, I went to Brazil five times, met a very nice person, the started earning a bit with the blog etc… But what I meant is: I’m not a pastry chef yet. Yet sometimes I still feel like I should flip my desk, run away and open an ice cream shop somewhere fancy! 😛 One day…

Anyway, my birthday seemed like the perfect occasion to make me my favourite cake of all: the Chocolate Royal, also called “Trianon“.

Recipe-Chocolate-royal-Step05

I didn’t throw any big party like last year (you can see me below questionably dressed as a whitening Michael Jackson in last year’s 80’s themed birthday party), but the cake was the same: a chocolate mousse with two crunchy layers of dacquoise covered with chocolate, praline paste and crunchy feuillantine (Gavottes). All topped by a classy and super shiny chocolate mirror glaze.

illustration-chocolate-royal-cake

Note: Gavottes is a French brand of “crêpes dentelles”, a famous dessert that has probably no equivalent elsewhere: if you can’t find them, just know they are thin, buttery and super crunchy. If I were outside of France, I would probably replace them with corn flakes.

Photo by my friend Margherita Meani

Photos by my friend Margherita Meani

Don’t forget it is a “Royal” cake, so please treat yourself well when making this recipe: make your own praline paste, spend an almost-ridiculous amount of money on top-quality chocolate and make that glaze shine like there is no tomorrow!

Recipe-Chocolate-royal-Step06

And for you, what is the ideal birthday cake?

 

Chocolate Royal (Trianon)

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Ingredients

Dacquoise

60gEgg whites
35gGranulated sugar (for the egg whites)
55gGround almonds
40gGranulated sugar
15gPastry flour
Sliced almonds or chopped hazelnuts (optional)

Chocolate praline

80gCrunchy (or any other coarsely-chopped thin and crunchy product, such as corn flakes)
50gMilk chocolate
150gPraline paste

Chocolate mousse

120gEgg yolks
70gGranulated sugar
25gWater
200gDark couverture chocolate (66%)
400gHeavy cream, cold (30%-35% fat)

Chocolate mirror glaze

50gWater
140gGranulated sugar
45Cocoa powder
95gHeavy cream
6gSheet gelatin (= 3 x 2g sheets))

Decoration

Chocolate cutouts

Directions

Chocolate mirror glaze

1
Prepare the chocolate mirror glaze the day before using: soften the gelatin in cold water and in the meantime prepare a syrup by bringing the water and sugar to a boil on medium heat
2
Add the sifted cocoa powder and whisk
3
Brink the heavy cream to a boil
4
Incorporate the cream in the cocoa sugar syrup
5
Add the softened gelatin and whisk until it is dissolved. Store refrigerated in an airtight container overnight.

Dacquoise

6
Whip the room-temperature egg whites with half of the sugar at medium speed
7
When the egg whites form soft peaks, add the second half of the sugar and whip at high speed until the whites form stiff peaks
8
Sift (or mix for a few seconds) together the remaining sugar, almonds and flour and add to the whipped egg whites
9
Gently incorporate the powders with a spatula with an upward movement, making sure not to deflate the batter
10
Fill a piping bag fitted with a large plain tip and pipe two 16cm spirals on a parchment lined pan (tip: hold the piping bag vertical a few centimetres over the pan; move the bag while letting the batter fall continuously; you can also draw the desired shape with a pen on the back of the parchment paper)
11
Optional: add the sliced almonds (or any nuts you used, chopped) on top of the batter
12
Bake for 20 minutes at 180°C

Chocolate praline

13
Melt the chocolate over a bain marie
14
Crush all the Gavottes (or simply use corn flakes) then incorporate the melted chocolate and praline paste

Chocolate mousse

15
Bring the water and sugar to a boil then start whipping the egg yolks at maximum speed
16
When the syrup reaches 115°C, pour it slowly but steadily over the egg yolks while mixing at medium speed. Finish whipping at high speed for 10-15 minutes until the mixture forms thick ribbons (this is called "pâte à bombe")
17
Whip the cold cream to soft peaks at high speed, in a chilled bowl if possible. Stopping at the good moment before the cream forms stiff peaks is very important for the final texture of the mousse. Set aside and keep refrigerated.
18
Melt the chocolate over a bain marie
19
Incorporate the pâte à bombe gently into the cream and chocolate mixture
20
Finally incorporate the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture in 3 times with an upward movement, making sure not to deflate the mousse

Assembling the cake

21
Place an 18cm cake ring on a serving plate (with a paperboard round as base, if you can). Cover the inner side of the cake ring with a strip of clear acetate to facilitate unmolding
22
Trim the dacquoise rounds if necessary so that they are 16cm and place the first one in the ring
23
Cover the dacquoise round with the chocolate praline (you can save a handful of praline chunks for decoration)
24
Pour (or better pipe) the chocolate mousse inside the ring until halfway up the edge. Use a spatula to evenly coat the ring all the way up.
25
Place the second round of dacquoise in the middle and fill the ring with the remaining mousse
26
With a long spatula, remove the excess mousse so that the top surface is perfectly smooth and flat. Let the cake set for a couple of hours in the fridge. Then freeze for at least one hour before glazing.
27
Melt the mirror glaze over a bain marie until it reaches 37°C (not more!). You can pour the glaze on a cake starting from the centre towards the sides with a circular movement. It is advisable to place the cake on a wire-rack over a pan, so to collect the excess glaze, or just keep the cake ring in place if you only want to glaze the top.
28
Decorate the cake with the rest of the chocolate praline chunks, caramelized hazelnuts and chocolate cutouts (chocolate-covered hazelnuts will work divinely too)

Note

  • The cake can be frozen before glazing for several weeks or just refrigerated for up to 4-5 days.

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Birthday cakeCakeChocolateChocolate mirror glazeChocolate mousseChocolate RoyalCrêpes feuillantinesDacquoiseGavottesModern cakeModern torteMoussePralinéPraline paste
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28 Comments General

28 Comments

  • Tihp
    May 2, 2015 9:08 am

    Happy Birthday sexy mate!!

    Keep up the great work!!

    Reply
  • Yasmin
    May 2, 2015 10:49 am

    Happy birthday!! And thank you so much for the recipe – it looks divine!!! X Yasmin

    Reply
    • Rich
      November 12, 2019 12:02 am

      Making this right now, all the component parts have come out perfectly, especially the praline paste (I didn’t know if the crystallized sugar was going to melt again, bit like magic, it did). I’m just waiting a bit to assemble, but I expect that to go swimmingly. Thanks for the great recipe.

      Reply
  • Rob
    May 2, 2015 11:06 am

    Thank you everyone! 🙂

    Reply
  • sarah
    December 29, 2015 6:15 am

    Hi, how can I substitute if I use gelatin powder instead of a gelatin sheet?

    Reply
    • Rob
      December 29, 2015 9:22 am

      Hello Sarah, you can substitute granulated and sheet gelatin weight by weight. Nevertheless, for granulated gelatin, you should add a bit of water to bloom it (the quantity should be specified in the package instructions).

      Reply
  • Idalia Salazar
    May 15, 2016 7:02 am

    Can you tell me how much cups you used for every ingridient

    Reply
    • Rob
      May 19, 2016 10:39 am

      Hi Idalia, sorry but I am fighting my personal battle against cups and volume measurements! 🙁 As I wrote at the beginning of the blog here, cups and other volume measurements are approximative so I tend to avoid them. If you don’t have a scale (but I suggest you buy one, it’s cheap), you can find a conversion table here.

      Reply
  • Kat
    August 25, 2016 9:39 pm

    just finished! looks amazing! thanks for the great recipe. one question – can I freeze it after glazing? I will have an hour-long drive with it to its destination and afraid it might run

    Reply
    • Rob
      August 25, 2016 11:30 pm

      Hi Kat! It’s great to read that! Honestly I’ve never tried to freeze a glazed cake, but I’ve always read that “you can freeze it before glazing”. I guess you can probably freeze the cake for just one hour so that it is cold enough to remain in one piece during the drive (but I decline any responsibility for damage hehe).

      Reply
  • Taty
    October 25, 2016 9:21 am

    Great recipe and a great explanation..thank you so much.

    Reply
    • Rob
      October 26, 2016 7:26 pm

      Thank you Taty 🙂 Glad you liked it!

      Reply
  • Nhat Ha
    January 10, 2018 5:42 am

    Love your drawing of the various layers, so helpful!

    Reply
    • Rob
      January 14, 2018 12:12 am

      Thank you 🙂

      Reply
  • Julia
    February 18, 2018 11:40 am

    Do you have any tricks for making the mousse a little more firm? I thought I did everything right but as soon as the cake was out of the fridge for 5 minutes it started collapsing slowly. Delicious and gorgeous nonetheless. Thanks for the recipe!!

    Reply
    • Rob
      February 18, 2018 7:52 pm

      Hello Julia, thanks! 🙂 With this recipe the mousse should be quite firm and definitely not collapse, since it contains gelatin and the chocolate becomes firm at low temperatures. If the cake collapses, perhaps the mousse was overmixed: it means the whipped cream became liquid and lost all the air to make the mousse airy and structured. What I do to incorporate the cream is use a rubber spatula and move it from the bottom of the bowl on the side towards the top and the center, then rotate the bowl of 90° and repeat… it’s quite hard to write down, hope it makes sense! 🙂

      Reply
      • Julia
        February 18, 2018 10:08 pm

        Gelatin I did fold the cream in very gently but think I may have actually under-whipped it… But I can’t find any gelatin in your recipe? Could you explain where in the process gelatin is mixed into the mousse and how much?
        Thank you again 🙂

        Reply
        • Julia
          February 18, 2018 10:09 pm

          I just realized my panic eye emoji after the Gelatin didn’t go through haha

          Reply
  • Tati
    October 4, 2019 3:56 pm

    MY FAVORITE CAKE OF ALL TIME!!! Thank you for the great recipe and photos.

    I have made this probably more times than I should admit. Sometimes to impress others, but mostly to eat like a starving hyaena when nobody is looking.

    If you’re not experienced with this method, look up some videos on making mousse with ‘pate a bomb’ first, as there are a few parts to that process that can affect the consistency (and potential success) of your mousse.

    Also, I often just skip making chocolate praline and mix my crunchy of choice (Gavottes if I’m in France or Almond Thins from Trader Joe’s if I’m in the US) with Nutella. It may not sound as gourmet, but it never disappoints! Tee-hee =D

    Reply
  • Kash
    January 4, 2020 2:19 pm

    How long does it take for this cake to come back to serving temperature after taking it out of the freezer?

    Reply
    • Rob
      January 4, 2020 3:10 pm

      Hi, I’d say it is safe to keep the cake for at least 5-6 hours in the fridge before eating

      Reply
      • kash
        January 17, 2020 5:41 pm

        Thanks, very helpful.
        One more thing, what if it has cake in it? like a sponge, should i still freeze it and will the sponge also come back to normal once at a serving temperature?
        Thanks once again on the first point, really helpful!

        Reply
  • Kash
    January 19, 2020 11:00 am

    Thanks, very helpful.
    One more thing, what if it has cake in it? like a sponge, should i still freeze it and will the sponge also come back to normal once at a serving temperature?
    Thanks once again on the first point, really helpful!

    Reply
    • Rob
      January 20, 2020 10:29 pm

      Hi Kash, yes, cakes can be frozen without problems!

      Reply
  • Kenneth
    January 19, 2020 10:33 pm

    I assume the mousse should have gelatin, since it seems to be missing from the ingredients list. How much should be added, and do you have any idea for the conversions between the sheet gelatin you use and powdered gelatin? E.g. is 1g sheet gelatin = 1g powder (assuming powder is Knox brand, 225 bloom)?

    Reply
    • Rob
      January 20, 2020 11:03 pm

      Hi Kenneth, I confirm there is no gelatin in this cake… the chocolate makes the mousse solid enough to hold the shape 🙂

      Reply
  • yashwant singh
    August 8, 2020 1:53 pm

    I saw your videos and blogs and just fan of your style of presenting and writtings, these are my blogs please go through with this and give me your some valuable suggestions and comments to improve my blogs.
    https://pastrywala.in/blog/royal-chocolate-cake-trianon/

    thankyou very much.

    Reply
  • yashwant singh
    August 8, 2020 1:54 pm

    I saw your videos and blogs and just fan of your style of presenting and writing skills, these are my blogs please go through with this and give me your some valuable suggestions and comments to improve my blogs.
    https://pastrywala.in/blog/royal-chocolate-cake-trianon/

    thankyou very much.

    Reply

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Hi, my name is Rob, I work in IT but I love baking and I also got a pastry diploma. I created this blog to keep track of my journey from complete beginner to world pastry champion (I'm not there yet).

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