Citrus & coffee checkered loaf with coffee flavored chantilly cream, and snippets of Switzerland

Week before last was all about enjoying the start of spring in Herr Scherrer's home country, Switzerland.  White snow had given way to a beautiful mix of green, brown and red all around lake Zurich and nearby towns and cities.  The skies were clear blue for the entire time we were there.  It was lovely to enjoy the abundant nature and country side (something we don't get much of in Hong Kong).  We've been making regular trips to Switzerland for a number of years now, and its always something I look forward to very much.  Who knows maybe one day we'll decide to make it home? When there are kids to think of perhaps?

We went to our usual favorite food haunts, e.g. Brasserie Lipp, Schlüssel poulet, just to name a few.  There were of course the must-do visits to Sprüngli and Ladurée and Läderach. Yum yum!

We also spent a few days in Zermatt, where there were still plenty of snow for skiing on the slopes from the Klein Matterhorn and Gornegrat.  As you can see in the picture below, there was not a single cloud in the sky!  

We took lazy drives out to catch sights of the Rhine river, stopping for relaxing bites along the way and just simply enjoying the fresh air and good weather. 

And there were lazy strolls through old streets of Schaffhausen, admiring the intricate artwork on the external walls of buildings.

Upon returning to Hong Kong I made a citrus and coffee flavored checkered loaf cake using fatless whisked sponge.  There is no butter or oil in the sponge recipe.  I paired it with coffee flavored chantilly cream, topped with dried rose petals and crushed pistachios.  The resulting presentation makes it so suitable for Spring, don't you think?

Recipe below makes 2 mini checkered loaf measuring approximately 7" by 3.5" each

Fatless whisked sponge cake:

4 eggs

160g sugar

140g all-purpose flour

pinch of salt

1 tbls instant coffee powder

grated rind of 1 orange

Coffee flavoured creme chantilly:

320g whipping cream

75g granulated sugar

1 tsp instant coffee powder

Decoration:

dried rose petals

crushed pistachios

1. For the coffee flavored whisked sponge cake: Dissolve instant coffee powder in 1 tbls boiling water and set aside to cool slightly.  Whisk 2 eggs, 80g sugar and coffee mixture in heatproof bowl to mix in the ingredients.  Placing bowl over a pan of hot water and continue to whisk egg mixture till its turns pale and holds a clear trail of ribbon batter on surface.  Remove bowl from pan and continue to whisk till mixture cools.  Fold in 70g flour in 3 batches.  Pour into lined / greased pan (I used a 8" by 8" size square pan) and bake for 15 to 17 minutes in 170C preheated oven until sponge is firm but springy.  Transfer cooked sponge to cool on wire rack.  

2. For the citrus flavored whisked sponge cake: Follow the same procedure above with remaining 2 eggs and 80g sugar, except replacing coffee mixture with grated orange rind.

3. For the creme chantilly: Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl.  Whisk on medium speed till cream is thick enough to spread (slightly more than soft peak). 

4. Assembly: cut and trim each of the coffee and citrus sponge into 9 pieces of 1.5cm tall strips, i.e. 9 strips of coffee sponge and 9 strips of citrus sponge.  Arrange strips to form 2 checkered loaf, using 9 strips per loaf (strips are placed 3 by 3 with longer edge on the horizontal plane - see photos). Ensure the coffee and citrus strips alternate to create checkered effect and fill with creme chantilly between the strips to hold them together.  Using a spatula, frost top and sides of checkered loaf with remaining creme chantilly.  Finish with back of a spoon to create textured surface.  Top with dried rose petals & crushed pistachios (or any other decorative items u desire).

Coffee & caramel mousse cake

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:

Passion fruit & milk chocolate macarons

Ever since I tried a raspberry chocolate macaron from Jean-Paul Hévin a couple of weeks ago (they have outlets in HK), I've been reminising the complimentary taste of chocolate with tanginess of the raspberry.  It reminded me a lot of Pierre Hermé's Mogador macarons, which as most of you know is a mix of milk chocolate and passion fruit hence having some similarity in terms of taste from the blend of chocolate with tangy fruit.

Now that I've gotten my own copy of PH's Macarons book, I thought its time I tried recreating these Mogador macarons.  Its probably one of the easier recipes in the book when it comes to sourcing for ingredients.  Passion fruits are much much easier to find compared to exotic stuff like Tuber Melanosporum black truffles or Aceto Balsamico Di Modena, listed as ingredients for some of the more unusual macarons...What can i say, its PH afterall...

I had a little problem with the food colouring though - if you've already noticed from the pictures, my macarons turned out a little more orange than yellow.  I guess I might have over did it a little on the red food colouring =P.  Still, its such a joy churning out bright coloured macarons, just looking at them makes me happy!  And they taste sooo yummy too! 

Recipe below makes about 36 macarons, adapted from Pierre Hermé's "Macarons"

Macaron shells:
150g ground almonds
150g icing sugar
55g aged egg whites (first portion)

approximately 2.5g yellow food colouring
approximately 1/4 tsp red food colouring (adjust this according to how strong the food colouring you're using is, or you could get orange instead of yellow macarons like me!)

For the italian meringue:
- 150g caster sugar
- 37.5g mineral water
- 55g aged egg whites (second portion)
- 1.5 tsp egg white powder (added to second portion of egg whites.  PH doesn't use egg white powder in his recipes in the book but he recommends using egg whites that have been aged for at least a few days.  I tend to add egg white powder to my egg whites if I didn't have the chance to age them enough.  It helps to strengthen the protein bonds that form when you whisk the whites and gives the same effect as using aged egg whites.)

Finish: cocoa powder

Sift together icing sugar & ground almonds in a large bowl. Stir food colouring into first portion of egg whites, then pour mixture into icing sugar & ground almonds but do not stir.

To make italian meringue, bring water & caster sugar to boil at 118C.  At 115C, start whisking second portion of egg whites (with egg white powder).  When sugar syrup reaches 118C, pour it over egg whites, whisking continuously till meringue to cools to 50C, then fold into ground almond-icing sugar mixture.  Spoon batter into piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.

Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5cm in diameter, spacing them 2cm apart on lined baking trays.  Rap baking trays on work surface covered with kitchen cloth.  Using a sieve, sprinkle cocoa powder lightly over shells.  

PH's instructions are to leave shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin, then bake them in fan oven for 12 minutes at 180C.  From past experience this doesn't always work for me under Hong Kong's weather conditions, so instead I dry the piped batter for 15 minutes in the oven at 65C, then without removing the macarons, increase the temperature to 150C and bake for 14 minutes.  Either way, during the last 4 minutes of baking open and close the oven door twice to let out steam.  Once out of the oven, slide shells on to cooling rack and allow to cool completely before removing from silicon mat / parchment.

Passion fruit & milk chocolate ganache:
50g "La Viette" butter (or your preferred unsalted butter), at room temperature
275g Valrhona Jivara chocolate or milk chocolate, 40% cocoa solids
125g passion fruit juice

Cut butter into pieces and chop up chocolate.  Halve passion fruits and scoop seeds out with a spoon.  Strain to obtain juice.  Bring juice to boil.

Partially melt chopped chocolate bain marie.  Pour hot juice over chocolate a third at a time.

When temperature reaches 60C, add pieces of butter a few at a time.  Stir to obtain a smooth ganache.  

Pour ganache into gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of ganache.  Set aside in fridge for ganache to thicken.

Assembly: 

Spoon ganache into piping bag fitted with plain nozzle.  Pipe a generous mould on half of the shells and top with remaining half.  Store macarons for 24 hours in fridge and bring out 2 hours before serving.

 

Lavender macarons

Pierre Hermé's "Macaron" book in English finally arrived a couple of weeks ago.  It was a looonnng wait!  I eagerly sat down the minute I had time to flip through the pages, admiring not just the innovative (& sometimes legendary, if I may say) pairing of flavours but also the many beautiful photographs of macarons presented in the book.

I have a handful of macaron books at home and none of them has the sort of facinating recipes presented by this talented chef.  I'm truly in awe! 

A few months ago I purchased a bag of lavender buds and the idea of lavender flavored macarons have been swirling in my head ever since.  I was hoping to find a lavender related macaron recipe in Pierre Hermé's book, but unfortunately none of the 57 macaron recipes in the book used lavender. : ( 

Not one to give up so easily, I decided to reference PH's macaron recipes to put together a lavender flavoured macaron.  I followed one of his instructions for basic macaron shells, but used purple food colouring instead of the colour that was stated in the original recipe.  For the filling I thought of lavender infused white chocolate ganache and thankfully PH had an earl grey tea ganache that I could use as a close reference.

I'm pretty happy with my humble PH inspired Lavender macarons, if I could call them that.  The taste of lavender is distinct but not overpowering.  In the book PH shares that he finds white chocolate has "splendid flavour-carrying properties" and "has the advantage of receding into the background and bringing out the taste of ingredients that are added to it".  A great tip!!  PH has clearly illustrated that a macaron is a french cookie with endless possibilities.  As I often see written in articles about macarons: "Ladureé reintroduced macarons and made them world famous, Pierre Hermé reinvented them"...  I bought some passionfruit on my way home today - I can't wait to try out PH's famous Mogador macaron next!

Simple & quick oat cinnamon cookies

For a couple of weeks now we've been having a bit of a oat and bran craze at home.  Mostly due to my better half's strong desire to lower his cholesterol level (oats are supposedly good for that). 

One morning he sweetly asked me if I could make him some oat cookies.  It was such a simple request, I couldn't possibly refuse... also, its not as if I need a strong reason to head into the kitchen to bake...

This is a really simple & quick to make recipe - good if you simply want to enjoy the taste of oats and with a bit of cinnamon. I baked 1/3 of it and froze the other 2/3 in the freezer for future yum yum!

 

Recipe below makes about 30 cookies

115g butter, chopped & softened

95g granulated sugar

95g brown sugar

1 egg

1/2 tsp vanilla essence

130g self raising flour, sifted

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

120g instant oats

Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar together with electric mixer until creamy.  Beat in egg then stir in vanilla.  Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon.  Mix into butter mixture until dry and wet ingredients are well incorporated.  Stir in oats.  

Roll flat tablespoon quantity of dough into balls.  Place 5cm apart on greased baking sheet.  Flatten dough balls slightly with spoon.  Bake for 9 to 10 minutes in 190C preheated oven.  

Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely (cookies will initially be too soft to transfer to wire rack but will harden as it cools).  

(If dough appears too soft / butter begins melting while you are working on it, just cover dough with plastic and chill in fridge for about 15 minutes before working on it again.)

Azuki mousse & matcha genoise cake

I had another Japanese themed inspiration following one of my recent post here of sesame chiffon cake and Niseko, Japan. 

This time, its azuki beans.  I've always had something for azuki bean flavored desserts.  My dad loves those asian style azuki bean ice popsicles and as a kid I would often find some in the freezer at home.  It was a memorable cold treat after a hot sunny day in Singapore.

I wanted to recreate the childhood memory, and an important part of it is using whole beans (sweetened from a can) instead of azuki bean puree, so that one could enjoy the munch of whole beans, resembling the taste of whole azuki beans in the ice popsicles my dad used to buy.

Everthing else was kept simple to ensure the taste of azuki beans were clearly distinct.  The azuki bean mousse was paired with matcha génoise. 

Recipe below makes about 4 mini cakes

Matcha génoise:

2 egg

40g granulated sugar

35g plain flour, sifted

7g matcha powder (sifted together with flour)

20g butter

(There will be left over génoise but I find its easier to work with these quantities than something smaller.  You could half the ingredients and there would still be enough génoise for about 4 mini cakes.  Extra génoise can be wrapped in plastic and kept in the fridge for other uses.)

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Hand-whisk eggs and sugar over bain marie till mixture reaches 40 C.  Using an electrical whisk, beat eggs and sugar on high speed till fluffy and peaks form.  Melt butter over bain marie.  Fold flour & matcha into egg mixture in 3 batches.  Be careful not to overmix. Add a scoop of egg & flour mixture into melted butter and mix well.  Fold butter mixture back into remaining egg & flour mixture and fold gently till batter surface is uniformly shiny.  Pour & spread evenly into approximately 8 by 11 inch lined cake tin and bake for about 16 to 18 mins (if you are using half the quantity, use a smaller cake tin so your génoise would still have sufficient thickness).  Invert cake onto a wire rack and let cool before cutting out pieces of génoise rounds (or squares depending on your cake ring) that is slightly smaller than the cake ring you are using.  Place génoise rounds at the bottom of lined cake rings.  Set aside.

Azuki mousse:

2 gelatin sheets

180g azuki beans, sweetened (from a can)

180g whipping cream

Soak gelatin sheets in cold water till bloomed. Melt gelatin over bain marie and stir into azuki beans.  Whisk cream on medium speed till soft peak forms.  Fold cream into azuki beans mixture.  Pour over matcha génoise in cake rings and leave it fridge until set.

Finish:

Remove mousse from cake ring (using hot towel or flame torch on external of ring to loosen mousse).  Wrap with dark chcolate and top with fruits and sprinkle of crushed pistachios as desired.

Apple & cinnamon tartlets (tartelettes)

Its great to be working from home.  I've been doing that the past week as the office is closed for renovations and its been fantastic!  I can enjoy my morning coffee and breakfast without having to rush out of the house to catch the bus.  I make conference calls, check emails and work on materials in between a little bit of bloomberg tv time (keeping in touch with market news) and kitchen time (making myself lunch & snacks).  

The only downside is my meal times gets a little mixed up.  Lunch time is bascially "whenever I feel hungry" instead of the usual 12.30pm at the office.  And one evening when Herr Scherrer had a night out with the guys while I stayed in, on a strange whim I had apple & cinnamon tartelettes for dinner. =P

Given it was an impromptu decision I was glad to have some leftover pâte brisée in the fridge which was just nice for a couple of tartelettes.  I sliced up some apples while resting the rolled out dough in mini tart pans in the fridge for 30 minutes.  Tossed the apples in some lemon juice, sprinkled over sugar and cinnamon and it was good to go!

Recipe below makes 4 tartelettes

For the pâte brisée:

250g cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp sugar

125g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

65ml cold water

For the filling:

4 small to medium size apples

sugar & ground cinnamon (to taste)

2 tsp lemon juice

Sift flour, salt and sugar together into large bowl.  Add butter to sifted flour mixture and cut it into the flour with a pastry scraper, until pieces of butter are the size of peas.  Form a well in the center of the butter & flour mixture and pour water into it.  Quickly incorporate the water into the butter & flour mixture until the dough holds together, adding additional water if required.  Gather dough into a disc / ball and wrap it in plastic and refridgerate for at least 30 minutes.

Roll out dough on floured surface until about 3mm thick.  Cut out 4 circles 2 inches wider in diameter than the tartlet pans.  Lift circles into the tartlet pans, gently pushing the dough into the bottom and against the edges, cut off any excess around the edges to neaten. Chill in refridgerator for at least 30 minutes.

Slice apples thinly, toss in  lemon juice, sugar and ground cinnamon.  Arrange apples neatly on top of rested dough.  Sprinkle additional sugar and cinnamon to your taste.

Bake in preheated 190C oven for 30 to 40 minutes.

Sesame chiffon cake with vanilla frosting and a trip to Niseko

We spent the week before the Chinese New Year snowboarding for 6 days in the powder paradise of Niseko in Hokkaido, Japan.  Niseko gets an average annual snowfall of around 15m and everywhere we looked it was meters tall of white, giving new meaning to the term "winter wonderland".  Its our second trip to Niseko and it's almost certain that we'll visit again during the winter of 2013.

Other than plenty of powder snow on the ski slopes, we loved being in Niseko due to the great variety of amazing good food, all within the small town of Niseko Hirafu.  We had so many good meals that I didn't lose any weight despite 6 consecutive days of physical exercise on the ski slopes.

One afternoon we explored the little adjacent village of Izumikyo and found a lovely cosy cafe called "Mozart".  Run by a Japanese lady, Akiko Shimono, it is the sweetest cafe I've been in and truly reminded me a little of Vienna.  She served us some really good coffee and a yummy apple crumble with Hokkaido milk ice cream.

Going with the Japanese theme, upon returning home I got round to trying a sesame chiffon cake recipe from a book by Keiko Ishida.  I'm usually not into frosting but this vanilla frosting surprised me with how nicely it paired with the sesame chiffon which is mildly sweet and taste strongly of sesame.  There are also whole sesame seeds embedded within the soft chiffon adding a surprise crunch when one munches into it.

Unfortunately I'm still not too good with frosting cakes and made a bit of a mess with the uneven layer of frosting over the top and sides.  I also think an 8 inch pan would have produced a taller, prettier cake but I only have a 9 inch pan at home.

Recipe below makes 1 cake, adapted from "Okashi" by Keiko Ishida

(I used a 9 inch round tube pan.  Using a 8 inch pan would produce a taller cake)

70g plain flour
5 egg yolks
20g brown sugar
20g black sesame paste
60g water
40g canola oil
20g sesame seeds (optional)
90g granulated sugar
10g cornstarch
180g egg whites (about 5 to 6 eggs)

For the vanilla frosting:

200g whipping cream
15g granulated sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence

Sift flour.  Whisk egg yolks, brown sugar, black sesame paste, water and canola oil in bowl till well mixed.  Fold in flour into egg yolk mixture till its properly incorporated - flour may appear lumpy at first but keep folding till smooth.  Don't be afraid to stir the flour in if necessary.  Set aside.
Place egg whites in bowl of electric mixer and beat on high speed till foamy.  Add granulated sugar and cornstarch in 2 batches while continuing to beat till glossy meringue forms with stiff peaks.  Gently fold meringue into egg yolk & flour mixture one-third at a time.  Be careful not to overmix.
Pour batter into round tube pan and bake in 160C preheated oven for 45 minutes.  Leave cake to cool in pan inverted (this is important).  Remove cake from pan only when it has completely cooled.  Coat with vanilla frosting and decorate as desired. 

Vanilla frosting: Place whipping cream, granulated sugar and vanilla essence into mixer bowl and whisk on medium speed till stiff peaks form. 

Raspberry mousse & vanilla cream cake

We couldn't get enough of the Christmas and New Year celebrations.  Two long weekends in a row was a luxury.  Dragging myself back to work on 3 January was not a pleasant experience.  Thankfully, I have the Chinese New Year holidays towards the end of January to look forward to - that will be another 5 consecutive days of holidays.

I made these raspberry mousse and vanilla cream mini cakes for New Year's Day for some friends who came over for dinner.  We had a little make-your-own-pizza party.  I had the dough prepared in advance, but each pair had to roll it out and decide on the toppings.  It was a lot of hands-on fun and laughs, especially when the last pizza was improvised into a calzone.  A great way to celebrate the start of 2012.

 

I served these mini cakes at the end of the evening while we sat around the table for some green tea and black fruity tea.  It may not be quite the expected dessert after some home-made pizza, but the raspberry mousse and vanilla cream are both light to the palate and not heavy at all.  It was also not overly sweet so one could really taste the raspberry and vanilla flavour separately.  I also added mini crunchy chocolate balls into the vanilla cream layer for additional texture.

Wishing all of you a good 2012 ahead!

 Recipe below makes 12 pieces using 6-cm round cake rings

Butter génoise:

2 eggs

40g granulated sugar

40g plain flour, sifted

20g unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 180 C.  Hand-whisk eggs and sugar over bain marie till mixture reaches 40 C.  Using an electrical whisk, beat eggs and sugar on high speed till fluffy and peaks form.  Melt butter over bain marie.  Fold flour into egg mixture in 3 batches.  Be careful not to overmix. Add a scoop of egg & flour mixture into melted butter and mix well.  Fold butter mixture back into remaining egg & flour mixture and fold gently till batter surface is uniformly shiny.  Pour into 9-inch lined round cake tin and bake for 18 mins.  Invert cake onto a wire rack and let cool before cutting out 12 pieces of 5-cm génoise rounds.  Place génoise rounds at the bottom of 12 lined 6-cm round cake rings.  Set aside.

Vanilla cream layer:

6 tbls milk

2 vanilla beans

2 tbls sugar

2 egg yolks

1 tsp cornstarch

1 tsp custard powder

4.5 gelatin sheets

90g heavy cream

70g granulated sugar (for the italian meringue)

13g water (for the italian meringue)

45g egg white (for the italian meringue)

around 100 pieces of mini crunchy chocolate balls (optional)

Soak gelatin leaves for a few minutes in cold water till bloomed.  Split vanilla beans lengthwise and scrape the seeds into milk.  Heat milk in a small saucepan but do not bring to boil.  Whisk yolks, sugar, cornstarch and custard powder together, then mix in a little of the heated milk, mixing till well blend.  Pour mixture back into saucepan with remaining milk and simmer slightly, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add gelatin, mix well.  Set aside to cool.

Whip heavy cream till soft peaks form.  Set aside in fridge, covered.

Prepare the italian meringue: Whisk egg whites using an electric mixer till soft peaks form.  At the same time, heat sugar and water in a small saucepan over medium to high heat.  Use a thermometer to measure the syrup, cooking the sugar syrup till it reaches 118C.  Carefully pour the sugar syup into the mixer bowl with egg whites while running the whisk.  Continue whisking till stiff peaks form and the meringue has cooled down and is glossy.  

Fold italian meringue into milk mixture, then fold in the whipped cream to finish the vanilla cream.

Pour vanilla cream over génoise rounds placed at the bottom of 12 lined 6-cm round cake rings.  The vanilla cream should properly cover the sides and top of the génoise rounds.  Optional: divide the mini crunchy chocolate balls evenly between the cake rings, pressing them into the vanilla cream.  

Leave cake rings to chill in fridge till the vanilla cream has set before removing them from the cake rings (using hot towel or flame torch). 

Raspberry mousse dome:

1 1/2 pieces gelatin sheet

135g raspberry puree

140g heavy cream

55g sugar

25g corn syrup

20g water

50g egg whites

Soak gelatin leaves for a few minutes in cold water till bloomed.  Heat half of raspberry puree in a small saucepan, stirring.  Do not bring to boil.  Remove puree from heat and add gelatin, stirring to dissolve.  Add remaining puree and mix well.  Set aside to cool.

Whip heavy cream till soft peaks form.  Set aside in fridge, covered.

Whisk egg whites using an electric mixer on high speed till soft peak forms.  At the same time, heat sugar, corn syrup and water in a small saucepan over medium to high heat.  Use a thermometer to measure the syrup, cooking the sugar syrup till it reaches 118C.  Carefully pour the sugar syup into the mixer bowl with egg whites while running the whisk.  Continue whisking till stiff peaks form and the meringue has cooled down and is glossy. 

Pour cooled puree over meringue and fold in using a spatula. When the puree has been incorporated, fold in the whipped cream till mousse is just blended evenly.

Pour mousse into 12 pieces of 6-cm dome molds and leave in fridge till set. 

Assembly:  

Gently remove raspberry mousse from dome molds one at a time (by carefully dipping bottom of molds in hot water, taking care not to allow water into the mousse, and rotating the mousse out of the molds), and immediately place mousse dome on top of the vanilla cream layer.  Repeat for remaining 11 pieces.  Wrap exterior of individual mini cakes with dark chocolate decoration and top with pistachios if desired, as shown in photos.