souffle cheesecake and white chocolate passionfruit mousse entremet.

My first attempt at sliced cakes and while they certainly are pretty to look at, there's just too much wastage. You have to measure how much to cut to be able to fit them on those little rectangular gold plates you see there and it involves a lot of trimming. A slice here, a swipe there, and you've just wasted what can amount to be a slice of cake.

Plus, it takes skill to cut a clean straight line.

But you have to admit, they're stunning. I've received praises on just how they look, and they haven't even tried it yet! A tiny neat dessert always ends up being sophisticated, no matter the flavour. Another downside? It's way way too small to satisfy my appetite. I always have a separate stomach for sweets! If you want something light to end your dinner though, this is one cake to look for.

Japanese souffle cheesecake, white chocolate passionfruit mousse, passionfruit jelly, coconut macaroon

I was searching for something fruity to make and I chanced upon this recipe in one of my favourite blogs. I tweaked it, incorporating passionfruit into the mousse and did away with a few other components as well as adding my own.

She used a white chocolate mousse and I substituted half of the milk for passionfruit puree according to her suggestion. I also added a passionfruit jelly topping since I wasn't going to make chantilly cream. Besides, I love the crunch! And I topped it off with the coconut macaroons I made yesterday. It somewhat had a tropical feel to it.

The cake was so moist, it didn't need the soaking syrup in the first place. In fact, I omitted it as I was going to freeze the cake and I was worried the syrup would ruin the texture if they were frozen together. It was also lightly cheesy so the mousse overpowered it, to me. Considering that I don't like cheese and all, this cake you definitely have to try!

The white chocolate was kind of lost in all of the passionfruit's fruitiness, but it did lend a richness. I think I would either cut down the puree to a third or use just a passionfruit mousse next time. I need to say this again- I love the coconut macaroon!

It wasn't easy assembling this cake. The base was no problem, I just used a 7 inch square pan, intending to trim it down to a 6 inch square. Then the obstacle course began. I had no 6 inch square ring, so I had to use a 7 inch one to contain the mousse. (After trimming, the cake was slightly smaller than 7 inch so I could not just leave it as it was.) As a result, the mousse was shorter than what it was supposed to be and there was excess hanging over the edges of the cake. I had to steel my heart and cut them away. Tsk...  Wastage, wastage...


Next was the jelly topping. Since I had no cake ring, I decided to use those plastic thingys to put around the sides of cakes, hoping that it would at least serve as a working mold. That was not to be, when majority of the jelly flowed down the sides through the gaps when I poured it over. And so, after whatever little jelly set, I had to trim the cake again. 

Thank goodness all that effort was worth it!

Please refer to her blog for the original recipe!