Baking with Marianne

Although I like chocolate (mousse) cakes at any time of the year, I tend to eat less of it in the summer time because of the heat; and in general, I prefer "lighter" food when it is boiling hot outside. For a long time, a coconut and passion fruit mousse cake idea was buzzing in my head and two weeks ago, I finally implemented my cake idea in the kitchen. Et voilà, my idea resulted into this delicious light summer mousse cake.
Passion fruit has a very distinctive and strong flavor itself and combing the passion fruit flavor with another flavor can be tricky. Back in January, I shared a passion fruit mousse cake which had a subtle passion fruit flavor conbined with chocolate and I like this cake a lot. But for my passion fruit coconut creation - I think is a very classic combination - I wanted a stronger passion fruit flavor but at the same time not overwhelming, so that the coconut flavor would be present, too. I think I succeded quite well in balancing the passion fruit and the coconut flavor.
The coconut bottom of the cake is on the sweeter side which I like since the sweetness balances out the slightly tart passion fruit mousse. The coconut mousse did not a lot of sugar and such a wonderful coconutty flavor which I really really like and now I want to play more around with different coconut flavors and textures.
If you try this recipe out, let me know how you like the cakes. I am very pleased with this recipe; and if I had a pastry store, I would offer these petit gâteaux every single day.



NOTES:

Passion Fruit Purée

I recommend using a 100 % passion fruit purée for this recipe. In my passion fruit cake recipe, that I shared with you in January, I used a passion fruit juice but I cannot recommend it for this recipe because is does not have enough flavor and you won't be able to get a the yellow mousse color.
Since 100 % passion fruit purée is very strong and tart, I add mango purée to the passion fruit mousse in order to balance out the tartness.
In my experience, it is hard to find passion fruit purée in groccery stores. I always order it here online. I am using a passion fruit purée from the French brand Les vergers Boiron. The purée comes frozen which I think is very convenient because you do not have to use the entire purée at once.

Creamed Coconut 

If you cannot find creamed coconut (made of 100% pure coconut) in your groccery store, you can find it creamed coconut in an Asian groccery store. I use this brand which I get at an Asian store.

Equipment

You need hemisphere moulds that are 7 cm / 2.75 inches in diameter. I use silicon moulds.
You also need little silicon muffin moulds for the coconut core. The size of the muffin moulds are 7 cm / 2.75 inches in height and 3,5 cm / 1.8 inches in diameter. The muffin moulds will be filled 1/3, so if you have smaller moulds, you can use them instead of my recommended moulds.



Makes hemisphere 8 to 10 cakes ( 7 cm / 2.75 inches in diameter)

Coconut Mousse

• 55 g / 4 tablespoons coconut milk
• 10 g / 3/4 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 15 g egg yolk / equals egg yolk of a medium sized egg
• 1.5 g / 1 sheet gelatin, soaked
• 20 g / 1 1/2 tablespoons creamed coconut (100% pure coconut)
• 65 g / 1/4 cup heavy cream
• Place the coconut milk and the sugar in a small pot and bring the mixture almost to a boil. 
• Place the egg yolk in a small bowl and pour the hot coconut mixture to the egg yolk. Mix well and pour the mixture back into the pot. Cook the mixture - stir continiously - until it has reached 84 °C / 183 °F. You will notice that the mixture has thickened. 
• Remove the pot from the heat and add the coconut cream; stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the gelatin and mix well again until the gelatin is completely melted. Pour the coconut mixture into a small sized bowl and let it cool to room temperature.
• Whip heavy cream until creamy. 
• Fold the heavy cream into the coconut mixture. Distribute the coconut mousse into ten small moulds. Do not fill the moulds more than 1/3. See my notes above regarding the size of the moulds. 
• Freeze the moulds for at least 2 hours. 

Coconut Bottom

• 90 g egg white / equals egg white of 3 medium sized egg
• 35 g / 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 65 g / 2/3 cup shredded coconuts
• 35 g / 6 tablespoons almond flour
• 65 g / 8 tablespoons powdered sugar, sifted
• Preheat the oven to 175 °C / 374 °F.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
• Whisk the egg white almost stiff, then gradually add the granulated sugar and whisk until the egg white is completely stiff. 
• Mix shredded coconuts, almond flour and 45 g / 6 tablespoons of the powdered sugar in a seperate bowl. Fold the mixture into the beaten egg white. 
• Spread the batter onto the lined baking sheet, to a 22 cm x 22 cm / 8.5 inches x 8.5 inches square. Sprinkle the top with the remaining 20 g / 2 tablespoons powdered sugar.
• Bake the coconut bottom for 12 to 15 minutes. Let the bottom cool completely. Cut out circles, with a round cookie cutter, in the size of your hemisphere moulds (mine are 7 cm / 2.75 inches in diameter).

Passionfruit Mousse

• 65 g / 1/4 cup passion fruit purée
• 65 g / 1/4 cup mango purée
• 4.5 g / 3 sheets of gelatin, soaked
• 35 g egg white / equals egg white of one large egg
• 25 g / 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 100 g / 1/3 cup and 1 tabelspoon heavy cream
• Place the mango and passion fruit puree in a small saucepan and heat the mixture. Set the pot aside and add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely melted. Pour the mixture into a medium sized bowl. Let it cool to room temperature. 
• Whisk the egg white almost stiff, gradually add the granulated sugar and whisk until the egg whites is completely stiff. 
• Whip heavy cream unil creamy. 
• Add the beaten egg white to the mixture, stir well and fold in the whipped cream. 
• Pour the mousse 2/3 into hemisphere (silicone) moulds. 
• Unmould the frozen coconut cores and gently press each core into the passion fruit mousse. 
• Place one top of each mould a coconut bottom. 
• Freeze the moulds for at least 6 hours or overnight. You can also leave the mousse cake in the freezer up to two weeks. 

Passionfruit Glaze

• 180 g / 3/4 cup passion fruit purée
• 20 g / 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 100 g / 7 tablespoons simple syrup *
• 7.5 g / 5 sheets gelatin, soaked
• Place the passion fruit puree, granulated sugar and simple syrup in a medium sized pot and bring it almost to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat. Add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour the mixture into a flat bowl or plate and let the glaze cool completely and until the glaze thickens up a little bit. 

* This is how you make a simple syrup: Place 100 g / 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 100 ml / 1/3 cup and 1 tablespoon water in a pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil until the granulated sugar is completely dissolved. Let it cool down to room temperature.
Store the simple syrup in the fridge up to two weeks (it in a sealed jar).

Assembling