I first heard about Hidemi Sugino's book "Le goût authentique retrouvé" in 2005 from Keiko, on her blog. This was before I knew about his shop in Tokyo. Keiko is such a talented baker and I've been so inspired reading about Keiko's many creations from Le goût authentique retrouvé. I've always had a special spot for these pretty multi-layered/textured pretty french-style mousse cakes (or simply entrements as some may call it). Unfortunately, Hidemi Sugino's book is in Japanese and given he hasn't release an English version since the book was first commissioned in 1998, it is unlikely he will ever do so.
So fast forward seven years to 2012, a few months ago I was researching into a coffee and caramel mousse cake combination and couldn't really find anything good among all the cookbooks and materials I've gathered over the years (unbelievable as it may sound for the number of cookbooks I have). I knew Hidemi Sugino had one in his book as Keiko blogged about it before. Its one called Brésilienne that he still offers it in his patisserie shop. Japanese-literate or not, I decided I'll get the book first and think more later. I knew from Keiko that the ingredients were also listed in French, so at the minimum I would be able to understand that bit.
The book arrived 3 days later and I was so elated to find it containing many recipes for different mousse cakes and they all look so delicious. There is so much in the book I can't wait to try. Although its all in Japanese, there are step by step photos accompanying the recipes. True I couldn't understand the methodology written in Japanese, but based on the ingredients, it wasn't that difficult figuring out on my own what to do with the ingredients. The step-by-step photos also help.
So I finally got to try a coffee and caramel mousse combination thanks to Hidemi Sugino. And I was truly impressed! The coffee mousse tasted a little bitter on its own, but when paired with the sweet caramel mouse, it was a surprise burst of flavor on the palate. The coffee biscuit joconde was also very moist given all the cognac syrup that was added to it, and complimented both mousses well.
The cake ring that Hidemi Sugino uses is almost impossible to find - I had to settle on an oval shaped one which made the cake look like a fat version of his tall & slim model. I could have also done better on the proportion of coffee to caramel mousse so that the 2 layers are of equal height. Lastly, I believe Hidemi Sugino uses very little gelatin in his recipes so his mousses are very soft and lovely, which was indeed the case when I tried this recipe, but the downside is it may not last a trip out of the house, especially in more hot & humid weathers. I will most likely increase the proportion of gelatin next time, especially if I know the cake will need to do some travelling.
Its been nothing but gloomy cloudy days in Hong Kong the past week and I was really frustrated trying to find enough natural light to take some of these photos... hopefully they don't look too gloomy to you.
Continue for recipe:
