cWhen I was shooting the famous chef Luca Marinelli, my on-camera flash just braked… It just stopped work without any reason. The photos were too dark and low-quality, and the Michelin-starred chef was standing in front of me, waiting… I was trying to do at list anything with that damn flash, but… unfortunately, I couldn’t. And then I told Luca, that we would do one last shot and, if it wouldn’t work, we would go outside.
And what’s a miracle! The chef made a funny face and the flash flushed for the last time and then rested in peace. I said Luca that we can continue outside, but he loved this final shot so much, that he refused my offer and said that it was his best portrait ever!
For your project Luca choose the recpe of cake from his childhood. That unusual fruit cake was baked by his Mom. She taught her son not only to cook, but to enjoy the taste too.
Ingredients
Method
- If using gelatin, soak the sheet in cold water for 5 minutes.
- Put the chopped chocolate in the heatproof bowl.
- Heat 75 ml of the cream in the small saucepan until steaming.
- Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a small bowl.
- Pour the hot cream onto the yolks, whisking, then pour everything back into the saucepan.
- Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the back of a spoon, 82°C (180°F); do not let it boil.
- Pour the custard through the sieve onto the chocolate, add the squeezed gelatin and stir until smooth and glossy.
- Let the mixture cool to lukewarm, about 35°C (95°F).
- Whip the remaining 150 ml of cream to soft peaks.
- Fold the cream into the chocolate in two additions until no streaks remain.
- Cover and refrigerate the mousse for at least 2 hours.
- Heat the oven to 160°C (325°F).
- Melt the butter with the honey for the cake and let it cool slightly.
- Mash the bananas with a fork until almost smooth.
- Whisk the eggs with the brown sugar for 1 minute, then whisk in the bananas and the butter and honey.
- In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and almonds.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ones until no streaks of flour remain.
- Pour the batter into the lined loaf tin.
- Bake for 40–45 minutes, until risen and a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean.
- Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, then on the rack until completely cold.
- Turn the oven down to 140°C (285°F).
- Rub the butter, sugar, flour and cocoa for the sand between your fingertips until it looks like coarse crumbs.
- Spread the crumbs on the lined baking sheet and bake for 15–20 minutes, stirring once, until dry; they crisp as they cool.
- Let the cocoa sand cool and break up any large lumps.
- Put the sugar and 50 ml of water for the bananas in the small heavy pan and boil without stirring for 8–10 minutes, until deep amber.
- Take the pan off the heat and stir in the butter; it will bubble up.
- Stir in 2 tbsp of hot water to keep the caramel runny as it cools.
- Add the banana slices, turn them gently in the caramel and let them cool.
- Trim the crusts off the cake and cut it into 2.5 cm cubes.
- Spoon a line of cocoa sand across each plate and set 5–6 cubes of cake along it.
- Add a few caramel bananas with a little of their sauce.
- Shape a quenelle of mousse with two spoons dipped in hot water and set it beside the cake.
- Add a scoop of ice cream, scatter with cocoa nibs and serve at once.
- For the Cocoa Sand:
- Mix all together and bake for around 15 mins at 140 degrees
- For the Chocolate Mousse:
- Mix all together, and melt chocolate gently in a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water, then add instant gelatin until it’s becomes a thick mousse
- For the Caramelized Bananas:
- Heat butter, add sugar then water in a saucepan until it become a caramel sauce take it off heat and finally add some banana slices to the sauce to caramelize it. Cool down.
- For the Banana Cake (served cut in cubes for this particular dessert):
- Mix dry ingredients together than add wet ingredients, until well mixed then place in a baking tray and bake at 160 degrees for 40 minutes.
What we changed for home
- All components halved; the banana cake baked in a loaf tin Half the chef's quantities serves six plates. A loaf tin gives a cake deep enough to cut into neat 2.5 cm cubes, and leftovers keep for days.
- Baking powder given as 1 tsp, almonds as 30 g chopped The list gives baking powder without an amount and '60 almonds', which we read as 60 g, halved.
- Mousse made from a cooked custard and whipped cream; gelatin cut from 12.5 g to one optional 2 g sheet The original simply mixes everything over hot water, which gives a dense cream rather than a mousse. 12.5 g of gelatin in the full batch sets it rubbery; whipped cream gives the air, and one sheet helps the quenelles hold their shape.
- Chocolate raised from 40 g (half of the chef's 80 g) to 100 g With the gelatin cut, the mousse needs more chocolate to set; it also tastes more clearly of chocolate.
- Caramel made from sugar and water first, with the butter added off the heat Adding water to hot butter and sugar, as written, spits dangerously. Cooking the syrup first is safer and gives an even colour.
- 'Cocoa beans' read as cocoa nibs for garnish Whole cocoa beans need roasting and shelling; nibs are sold ready to use.
The dish in the photograph was cooked by the restaurant for this story. Photo: Oleksandr Slyadnyev.
Screen stays on while you cook