- Who's ready for some
chocolate cardamom space cake?
(laughing)
- I'm so stoned.
Those just put me to sleep.
- Chad, I want to vomit just so
I can taste your food again, man.
- (laughing) Okay that's gross.
- Yeah, that's a weird thing.
I'm going to go.
I said a weird thing.
That's okay.
- Hey, what's up guys.
Welcome back to Binging with Babish,
where this week we're taking a look
at the chocolate cardamom space cake
from one of my favorite shows,
High Maintenance.
Whoops who left all this oregano out here?
That was careless.
They might get in-school suspended,
like I did in ninth grade.
Anyway, I have no idea what space cake
could possibly mean.
So I'm going to take a crack
at a chocolate cardamom cake
with a galaxy mirror glaze.
First up the chocolate cardamom cake.
In the bowl of a stand mixer
goes four large eggs
along with one teaspoon of vanilla extract.
Go ahead and beat that up on medium speed
until it is light and frothy.
Then in a separate bowl,
we are tiny whisking together
150 grams of granulated sugar
with a half teaspoon of kosher salt
before slowly streaming it into the stand mixer
while it runs.
Then we're going to beat everybody together
on medium high speed for three to four minutes
until it is light and fluffy.
And you can easily make a figure
of eight with the whisk attachment.
Then onto a piece of parchment paper
we are sifting together
75 grams of all purpose flour
with 60 grams of high quality cocoa powder.
About half of which we're going to tip
into our wet ingredients along
with one teaspoon of the titular ingredient,
ground cardamom.
Go ahead and gently fold this together
until mostly combined.
Add the rest of the dry stuff
and continue gently folding together
until thoroughly combined.
Then in another small bowl,
We are combining 85 grams of milk
with 50 grams of vegetable oil.
And that's funny,
my vegetable oil's green.
Why on today, April 20th,
would my vegetable oil be green?
Maybe they changed Saint Patty's day,
I don't know.
Add that to the milk,
tiny whisk until thoroughly combined
and add to our main cake batter.
And once again,
fold gently until thoroughly combined.
Then we're preheating our oven
to 350 degrees Fahrenheit
and prepping a rimmed baking sheet.
Spraying an X through the center and
around the corners with non-stick spray
lining with a sheet of parchment paper
and pouring in our cake batter.
Now, if you're anything like me,
this is unfortunately going to be the point where
you realize that you left out the baking powder.
You're going to wonder
if you can still pull it off
and then resignedly shrug your shoulders
and start all over again.
Taking extra care to make sure you sift in
the one and one half teaspoons of baking powder
along with the other dry ingredients.
Now this guy's finally ready to get baked.
(chuckles)
So to speak.
12 to 14 minutes at 350,
until the surface of the cake
no longer looks wet
and it bounces back when poked.
Allow it to cool completely about 30 minutes
before cutting it into rounds.
Using a six inch pastry ring
and then that's all we need.
So the rest of this cake becomes snacks.
Next up the filling.
And for this we're going to make
a chocolate cremeux.
Into a medium bowl goes 50 grams
each egg yolks and sugar
that we're going to beat together with vigor.
And over on the side we're going to hydrate
one teaspoon of unflavored gelatin
and two tablespoons of cold water.
Then over at the stove top,
we are combining 125 grams each
whole milk and heavy cream
and bringing to a bare simmer
over medium heat before slowly streaming
about half of it into our
egg yolks and sugar mixture while whisking
constantly to temper the eggs.
Otherwise you're going to end up with
scrambled egg frosting.
Once tempered,
we're going to slowly pour it back
into the milk mixture.
Once again whisking constantly.
Bring it back over to the stove top
and cook over medium low heat
until it reaches 185 degrees Fahrenheit.
At that point we're going to kill the heat
and add the hydrated gelatin.
This is going to help stabilize our filling even
after a stint in the freezer.
Once the gelatin is fully melted,
we're going to bring this guy
back over to the prep station
where we have 110 grams of finely chopped chocolate
awaiting underneath a fine meshed sieve.
Through which we're going to pour our custard
to catch any bits of coagulated egg.
Then we're pacing around anxiously for about 30 seconds
before whisking everybody together
until completely smooth
and no errant chunks of chocolate remain.
Then this guy's headed onto an ice bath
where we're going to whisk and mix every
once in a while about every three or four minutes.
Until it's thick and creamy
and registers 40 degrees Fahrenheit.
Then we're going to beat
in 60 grams of softened butter.
Oh, this butter's green too.
What a curious thing.
That's probably fine.
A little bit at a time.
We're going to beat in the butter
using a hand mixer,
making sure that the butter is fully emulsified
into the cremeux before adding another dollop.
The great thing about using a green butter
in frosting is that it never gets heated.
So the strength of the butters butteriness
it doesn't get, you know,
deactivated in the oven.
Any who, it's time to assemble our cake insert.
First goes a layer of our chocolate cardamom cake
followed by a generous layer of chocolate cremeux
Making sure it's all nice and even
and smoothed out before adding
the second layer of cake.
Then this guy's ready for a
trip to the deep freeze.
At least six hours ideally overnight.
Then just before assembly,
we're going to make ourselves a blackberry mousse
for which we're going to need about
160 grams of blackberry puree.
So give about two pints of blackberries
of blitz in a food processor
before passing through a fine mesh sieve,
weighing out 160 grams
and setting aside because once again
we're busting out the gelatin.
Two teaspoons worth hydrated
in 75 grams of water.
This likewise is going to stabilize our mousse
and help it survive the freezer.
To melt it into the blackberry puree,
we're going to dump about half of the puree
into a small saucepan along with the gelatin
stirring over medium, low heat until melted
and adding back into the remaining puree.
Now set that aside because the basis
of our moose is going to be
an Italian merengue.
For which we're going to need
85 grams of egg whites separated
in the bowl of a stand mixer,
beaten together with an eighth teaspoon
of cream of tartar until light and frothy.
Then over on the stove top,
we are combining 50 grams of water
with 125 grams of sugar.
Cooking over medium heat
until it reaches 240 Fahrenheit,
the softball stage.
Then with the mixer running on medium high speed
we're going to very carefully stream it right
between the whisk and the bowl.
Then continuing to beat on high speed
for anywhere from seven to 10 minutes
until it reaches the soft peak stage.
Then we're going to take our Italian merengue
and put it in a large bowl
for easier working and fold in
about half of our Blackberry gelatin puree,
folding gently so as to not deflate.
Then pouring in the other half and folding
until mostly combined.
Then we're going to add 200 grams of heavy cream.
Likewise beaten to soft peaks.
And then so we don't dilute the already pretty
lavender looking color,
We're going to add a little bit
of food coloring before likewise folding it
into the blackberry mousse in stages.
The end result should be a soft but flowy mousse.
And with that, it's finally time to assemble.
Go ahead and grab your fully frozen cake insert
place it on top of a thing
and gently heat the ring using a torch.
From a distance and moving quickly
until all the frost has disappeared from the steel.
At that point
your cake insert should pop right out.
Then to assemble,
we're going to dump our mousse
into a silicone entremets mold,
pushing it all the way up the sides
to make sure that there are no bubbles or gaps
before dropping in our cake insert
and pressing down,
squishing out any excess mousse
and getting the cake flush with the mold.
Use an offset spatch to clean off
any excess mousse,
wipe the damn thing clean
and plop it in the freezer.
once again for six to 24 hours.
And then it's time for one last gelatin thing.
The galaxy mirror glaze.
Three teaspoons of gelatin are going
into 225 grams of water.
And then in a small saucepan,
We are combining 250 grams of sugar.
100 grams glucose.
And 150 grams of sweetened condensed milk.
Set it over the stove top,
where we're going to bring the mixture
to a simmer.
Remove it from the heat
and add the hydrated gelatin.
stirring to ensure
that it has been melted.
Then we're using this mixture to melt
300 grams of white chocolate.
Pour it over top.
Let it sit for 10, 15 seconds
and immersion blend on high speed
for about 30 seconds or until completely smooth.
Pour it through a fine mesh sieve
to catch any errant bits
and subdivide about three quarters
of a cup into different spouted containers.
Then using ample food coloring
we're going to color the largest container
an almost purplish black.
And the rest of them,
various hues of purple, pink and blue.
Also lots and lots of holographic edible glitter.
Once all the glazes are
between 90 to 95 degrees Fahrenheit,
we're ready to glaze.
Let's go ahead and grab our cake out the freezer
gently retrieving it from its silicone mold
and place it a top, a tall narrow thing.
Then in our largest container of our
darkest glaze,
we're going to swirl
our different colors over top.
As I discovered you really cannot overdo this.
So go crazy.
Once you get some nice patterns in there
it's time for the highlight of my week.
Behold the birth of a galaxy.
About the closest any of us are going to
come to playing God.
As you can see,
I wasn't happy with the
amount of color in my galaxy.
So luckily you get a couple
of cracks at this before it starts to set.
You really can't overdo it.
So just keep trying until you got it
where you like it once.
Once you're happy with your infinite worlds
you may rest for about 15 minutes
because once everything has stopped dripping
we're going to add some more stars
by virtue of some white food coloring
and a food grade paintbrush.
Just flick it at your cake
from all directions until it is bespeckled
with unquantifiable star systems,
quasars and future potential homes for humanity.
Then we're going to plop her onto a cake ring
and put it in the fridge for about four hours,
So the cake can defrost and the glaze can set.
Once that's all set and ready to transfer,
Very, very, very carefully to a cake stand,
try to pretend like you can't
feel Paul Hollywood's eyes burning
into your back.
Give her a playful spin,
maybe pop at the phone,
get a few pictures for the socials and then
comes the surprisingly difficult act of slicing.
After about three days of work,
I've never been so scared to cut something
open in my life.
I want to make sure that I get it right.
Eventually it just got to nut up,
take a deep breath,
and plunge your knife in.
Wiping it down between slices to
make sure that your cuts are clean.
Then moment of truth time.
How's it going to look?
Beautiful, clean, distinct layers
ensconced in an other worldly, orb of mousse
and unexplored star systems.
But how's it taste?
And the answer there is kind of a mixed bag.
The cremeux is creamy.
The cake is dreamy and neither taste of green.
But using fresh blackberries made
the mousse taste a little earthy.
And I might recommend to use
strained Blackberry jam instead,
but in the end,
massive success.
Thanks in large part to kitchen producer,
Kendall Beach.
Whose incredible knowledge of patisserie
made this cake possible.
And thanks to my personal hero,
The Guy, from High Maintenance.
Someone who we can all take a page
out of his book, you know what I mean?
Like we could all stand to be
a little bit more patient,
a little bit more accepting,
a little bit more like
roll with the punches, man.
Especially today when you know,
like I,
(beep) I forgot what I was
talking about.
(trippy music playing)