Unless you live on another planet, you can’t have missed the current trend on food blogs and social media: the “number cake”.
So yes, you might think there’s nothing very original about it, but honestly, I find the concept really nice. It’s pretty, visual, fairly simple to make and adaptable to whatever we fancy at the time. Here, the “one” takes centre stage, as I made this cake for the 1st birthday of a little boy, Tom, my son’s friend.
You see vanilla ones decorated with red berries; I’m offering you a chocolate number cake with a milk chocolate whipped ganache, a gianduja crémeux and a hazelnut sponge. Very indulgent, then.
Usually, it’s a pâte sucrée base that makes up this cake, but in all honesty, I struggle to imagine a clean cut with a “hard” part on top of a cream. I may be wrong… I didn’t want to try it and I went for a soft hazelnut sponge. If you like pâte sucrée, go ahead, treat yourself (and come back and tell me how the cutting goes, I’m interested).
I used Cyril Lignac’s recipe for the milk chocolate whipped ganache and La poche à douille‘s for the gianduja crémeux. Glucose brings softness to recipes, but if you don’t have any, leave it out.
Ingredients & method
5 components · Full recipe
Whipped Milk Chocolate Ganache (make the day before)
Ingredients
- 87 g (3.1 oz) milk chocolate
- 52 g (1.8 oz) full-fat double cream
- 7.5 g (0.3 oz) glucose
- 150 g (5.3 oz) full-fat double cream, very cold
- 1 sheet of gelatine (optional)
Method
1
Soak the gelatine sheet in very cold water.
2
Break the milk chocolate into pieces in a bowl and melt in a bain-marie or microwave.
3
Heat the 52 g (1.8 oz) of double cream with the glucose in a saucepan.
4
As soon as the cream starts to simmer, pour one third over the chocolate and mix with a spatula to create an emulsion. Then pour in a second third, then a third, to obtain a smooth, homogeneous mixture.
5
Add the well-squeezed gelatine (this is optional and not normally needed in a whipped ganache, but I preferred to be safe…).
6
Add the very cold double cream and emulsify with a hand blender until the ganache is perfectly smooth, taking care not to incorporate any air bubbles.
7
Pour the ganache into a dish and cover with cling film pressed directly onto the surface. Refrigerate overnight.
Crème Anglaise (for the gianduja crémeux)
Ingredients
- 125 g (4.4 oz) full-fat double cream
- 125 g (4.4 oz) whole milk
- 50 g (1.8 oz) egg yolks
- 25 g (0.9 oz) sugar
- 2 g (0.1 oz) gelatine
Method
1
Soak the gelatine in cold water.
2
In a small saucepan, heat the milk and cream together.
3
In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar.
4
Pour the hot milk-cream mixture over the yolk-sugar mixture, mix well with a whisk, and return to the heat.
5
Cook to 83°C / 181°F, stirring constantly with a spatula. Draw small figures-of-eight in the cream to mix evenly. Be careful not to let it boil (which would cause the eggs to curdle).
6
Remove from the heat and add the well-drained gelatine. Pass the crème anglaise through a fine sieve and set aside. To prevent a skin from forming, stir it from time to time.
Gianduja Crémeux
Ingredients
- 125 g (4.4 oz) milk gianduja
- 125 g (4.4 oz) crème anglaise (recipe above)
Method
1
Cut the gianduja into pieces and melt in a bain-marie or microwave.
2
Pour the hot crème anglaise over the melted gianduja in 3 additions, as you would for a ganache, using a spatula.
3
Emulsify with a hand blender.
4
Pour into a dish and cover with cling film pressed directly onto the surface. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
Soft Hazelnut Sponge
Ingredients
- 130 g (4.6 oz) eggs
- 50 g (1.8 oz) egg yolks
- 140 g (4.9 oz) sugar
- 220 g (7.8 oz) ground hazelnuts
- 50 g (1.8 oz) plain flour
- 110 g (3.9 oz) butter
- 80 g (2.8 oz) egg whites
- 60 g (2.1 oz) sugar
Method
1
Preheat the oven to 160°C / 325°F.
2
Melt the butter in the microwave and leave to cool.
3
In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a mixing bowl, combine the whole eggs, egg yolks and sugar and whisk together.
4
Fold in the sifted ground hazelnuts and flour.
5
Add the slightly cooled melted butter and mix.
6
Whisk the 80 g (2.8 oz) of egg whites to stiff peaks with the 60 g (2.1 oz) of sugar until you have a meringue consistency.
7
Gently fold the meringue into the first mixture using a spatula.
8
Divide the batter in two (I used scales for precision). Pour one half onto a baking tray lined with baking parchment and spread evenly with an offset spatula. Repeat with the other half on a second tray.
9
Bake for approximately 15–20 minutes. Leave to cool on a wire rack. Then cut out the two « 1 » shapes using a template. For the baking, I preferred to bake both trays at the same time on fan setting, swapping them halfway through.
Assembly
Ingredients
- chocolate meringues
- chocolate macarons (I bought mine — for such a small amount it seemed pointless to make them…)
- various treats
Method
1
Place the whipped milk chocolate ganache in a bowl and gradually whip until it thickens and becomes creamy and firm. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a plain 14 mm nozzle.
2
Place the gianduja crémeux in a piping bag fitted with a fluted 14 mm nozzle.
3
Prepare all the decoration elements: meringues, macarons and other treats.
4
Begin by piping the whipped ganache around the entire edge of the first « 1 ». Then pipe the crémeux in the centre. Carefully place the second « 1 » on top and repeat: whipped ganache on the outside, crémeux in the middle. Decorate to your taste.
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