dailydelicious: Chicken Farm Baker's Project # 29 : Traditional Cake for Father's Day, CHO: Chocolate, Honey and Special Honey Orange cake!

The project of this month is very special, we will bake for our father because the 5th of this month is a father's day. So the host of this month "Beam" told us to bake a "Cake" with this event in mind and the most important thing for this project is we have to use Thai fruit or products.

At first, I really wanted about using the coconut, but after thinking about the flavor, well I didn't want to make the coconut mousse with coconut milk -*-. Because if I make for my dad, I want to make something more refreshing for this special event. There are a lot of Thai fruits or products, but using them in the cake is not easy, I really have to think about the taste of the fruit when combine with milk or butter.
As I think a lot of it, my project for this month comes so late, haha, but now after running in my own head, I choose this special fruit, the fruit that my dad love to eat fresh on hand: Special Honey Orange. This orange called Sai nam pueng (nam pueng, น้ำผึ้ง= Honey) in Thai, or Special Honey Orange. This orange has a thin peel and very sweet taste, it comes from Northern part of Thailand. Because this orange is very sweet, I don't have to use any sugar in my jelly at all ^^.
So, after I can choose the main ingredient for my cake, the next thing is what kind of cake that I want to make, and I have a mousse and jelly cake in my mind. Because I want the taste of the orange to be the main character, so the orange will be the jelly (real taste of orange without any addition). The mousse must be something that makes the cake soft and fragrance, the best base for the orange jelly, and when the name of this orange is honey, the honey mousse is a good idea. But the sweetness will be boring if there is nothing to cut it down a bit so for the cake I use the chocolate sponge cake, that will be soaked with the Grand Marnier syrup to make the cake go together with other flavor in the cake.
Anyway I never make the cake with the jelly over the sponge cake before, I almost shocked when I pour the jelly mixture over the cake to make the finish jelly layer, because the sponge soaked all my jelly mixture! I stand back and think about what should I do? At last I came up with the solution, I pour 1tbsp of the jelly mixture over the cake and let the cake firm up (by the jelly) in the fridge, before pour another layer of jelly over it. ^^
Finally I got my cake, nice and beautiful with 3 layers of chocolate cake, honey mousse and orange jelly, most of all my dad taste it and said "Delicious!" I think it's the most beautiful thing that I want to hear after having a lot of headache. I hope that you and your dad (or your children's dad ^^) will love this cake too.
Note: You can use any orange that you have on hand but if it's not very sweet add about 10-30g of sugar when boiling the orange juice.
Adaptation from: many books in my collection ^^", really can't tell you exactly.

CHO: Chocolate, Honey and Special Honey Orange cake

Makes 6 (7cm cake)

Chocolate sponge cake

70g .................................. Cake flour

15g .................................. Cocoa powder

3 ...................................... Eggs

90g ................................. Sugar

30g ................................. Unsalted butter (melted)

......................................... a pinch of salt

Simple Syrup

50g .................................. sugar

50cc ................................. water

Grand Marnier syrup

50g ................................. Simple syrup

1tbsp .............................. Grand marnier

Honey mousse

120ml ............................. Milk

3 ...................................... Egg yolks

20g ................................. Sugar

5g ................................... Gelatin sheet

50g ................................. Honey

140ml ............................ Whipping cream

Orange jelly

400ml ............................ Orange juice (from "Special Honey" orange)

6g ................................... Gelatin sheet

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Line 30x30 cm.pan with baking paper.

Using hand mixer, beat the eggs with sugar and salt (add the sugar gradually) until ribbon stage.

Sift the flour and cocoa powder into the bowl and fold to combine.

Pour the melted butter into the bowl, and fold lightly to combine, then pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 16 minutes or until the top is spring lightly when touch.

Let the cake cool on the wire rack.

Make the syrup:

Put the water and sugar into small saucepan and bring to boil, until all the sugar dissolved, take off the heat and let the syrup cool.

Make the honey mousse:

Bloom the gelatin in cold water.

In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks and sugar together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture thicken.

Squeeze the water out of the gelatin, put the gelatin into the hot mixture, stir to combine, then mix in the honey stir to combine.

Wait until it has completely cooled.

Whisk cream just to soft peaks.

Gently fold 1/3 of the cream into the honey cream base.

Gently fold back the the honey cream base and cream mixture into the cream. The mixture will be quite loose. Put the mixture into piping bag with large plain nozzle.

Cut the cake into 12 small rounds (7cm/rounds).
Mix simple syrup with Grand marnier
Place the cake round into the cake rings, and sprinkle with Grand marnier syrup.
Pipe honey mousse in the cake rings, and cover with another piece of cake round.
Refrigerate until ready to use (or at least 30 minutes).
Make orange jelly:

Bloom the gelatin in cold water.
Boil 100ml of orange juice, take of the heat, squeeze the water out of the gelatin and put the gelatin into the hot orange juice.
When the mixture cool, mix with the rest of the juice.

Sprinkle the syrup over the cake, pour about 1tbsp orange jelly over the cake, then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Pour the rest of the jelly over the cake and refrigerate until firm (about 12 hours).
Take out of the mold, decorate with chocolate pieces, and serve cool.