Passion Fruit Chocolate Flower Cake

Passion Fruit Chocolate Flower Cake with layers of coconut cream and tangy curd wrapped in chocolate and topped with passion fruit chocolate flower.

This Passion Fruit Chocolate Flower Cake has been sitting in draft, waiting to go live on Mother's Day... 2019. We'll just pretend I am ahead of the game for 2020. K?

No need for you to wait that long, however. Or you can make one, or a bunch of these for any other special occasion that warrants cake wrapped in dark couverture. Just about any day of the week comes to mind!

Chocolate Flower Pots

The first flower pot cake I shared on here had three layers of perfectly-crumbed, carved, vanilla and chocolate cakes, separated by coconut Swiss Meringue Buttercream and finished in fondant. The crowning glory of that version were my hand-crafted sugar orchids. That was back in my early sugar flower days and I was so freaking proud of my efforts.

For this version, I molded dark chocolate flower pots using a cake pan I had kicking around. Once molded, I chilled the pots and treated each to a light coat of velvet - a blend of chocolate and cocoa butter, like this and this.

What's In The Pot?

I used my favourite chocolate cake that has appeared on the blog numerous times. The recipe is adapted from the Intro To Chocolate course material. It's a beautifully crumbed, one-bowl, delicious affair that comes together easily. You can get real fancy with the layers, but I wanted to keep it simple and less time-consuming.

I used the same flower pot mold to bake the cakes, which I then cut into layers to fit perfectly to the shape and size of the molded chocolate pots. You could also bake the cake in a sheet pan and use cookie cutters in three sizes to cut the layers.

I then built the cakes in the chocolate pots, layered between light, airy, passion fruit whipped coconut and a dollop of passion fruit curd. That touch of curd provided a little, extra pop to the overall dessert!

To pull it all together, I used chocolate flakes that I used here, to mimic soil, along with choco-rocks. Unlike the flowers from my flower pot cake from years past, these flowers were completely and deliciously edible.

Chocolate Flowers

This style flower was one of the first we made back in the Chocolate Showpieces course of the Chocolatier program. It's rather easy and can be built on a chocolate base as a stand-alone flower, as I did here, or by simply adding the petals to the cake as I've done here.

You may use any chocolate of your choosing - white, dark, milk - it just needs to be tempered for best results. I used Valrhona Passion Fruit Inspiration, staying on theme with the flavours already in the cake. It is so easy to work with and tastes pretty much like a fresh passion fruit - bright, tangy and smooth!

Here's a quick video showing how I pulled the whole thing together!

Passion Fruit Chocolate Flower Cake

Passion Fruit Chocolate Flower Cake with layers of coconut cream and tangy curd wrapped in chocolate and topped with passion fruit chocolate flower.

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Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Course: Dessert

Keyword: cake, caramelzed white chocolate, how-to, passion fruit

Servings: 6 cakes

Author: i sugar coat it!

Ingredients

For the flower pots:

• 500 grams dark chocolate
• 60/40 chocolate/cocoa butter mixture for spraying as needed

For the curd:

• 180 milliliters passion fruit pulp
• 155 grams granulated sugar
• 125 grams unsalted butter chilled and cubed
• 4 large egg yolks

For the cake:

• 360 grams granulated sugar
• 100 grams bread flour
• 100 grams cake/pastry flour
• 73 grams cocoa powder
• 7 grams baking powder
• 6 grams baking soda
• 2.5 grams salt
• 2 eggs
• 185 milliliters milk
• 93 milliliters coconut oil
• 8 grams vanilla bean paste
• 188 milliliters freshly brewed warm coffee or water

For the whipped cream:

• 1 can coconut cream chilled
• 125 grams passion fruit puree adjust to your taste
• 12 grams sugar adjust to taste
• 1 packet whipped cream stabilizer optional, but recommended especially if warm climate

Instructions

Cast the pots:

• Ensure your cake pan is clean. Temper the chocolate and add to as many cavities, as the amount of chocolate allows (you may need to do it in two batches reusing the drained chocolate from the first batch). Tap the pan lightly to remove any air bubbles. Invert the pan to drain chocolate, scrape any excess and allow to set. Chill.
• Melt chocolate and cocoa butter in a bain-marie to 40 ºC. Use a spatula to mix until smooth and fully combined. Allow to cool down to 35ºC. Transfer the chocolate spray to a good quality airbrush with a compressor and spray a thin coat on the chilled pots. Allow to dry and set aside.

Make the curd:

• Fill a heavy-duty pot or heat-proof container with warm tap water. Attach the immersion cooker and set the temperature to 73.9ºC/165ºF. Cover to speed up heating.
• Combine all the ingredients, except the zest, using a hand whisk, immersion blender or blender. Pour the mixture into a sous vide safe bag or jars, add the zest and seal partially and add the bag to the heated water bath using the displacement method. If using jars, screw the cap on finger-tip tight, or attach cap and clips. Cook for 45 minutes, up to 1 hour.

  OR 

  Simply add all the ingredients, including zest, to a sous vide safe bag, seal and cook, as above. You will need to agitate the bag a couple times throughout the cook and blend post cook, in this scenario.
• Prepare an ice bath close to the end of the cook. Once cooked, remove the curd from the water bath and shake the contents. If you prefer a smoother texture, strain off the zest. Place the cooked curd in the prepared ice bath to cool down for about 20 minutes. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate for at least 6 hours. Best when consumed within 2 weeks.
• Stove-top Option:

  If you don't cook sous vide, add all the ingredients to a medium saucepan and cook the mixture, while stirring, over medium heat until it thickens. Transfer to a clean jar, allow to cool, then seal and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks.

Bake the cake:

• Preheat oven to 350ºGrease pan and place on a cookie sheet. Set aside.
• Sift all the dry ingredients into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
• In a separate bowl, lightly whisk together all the wet ingredients, except coffee.
• Add the wet mixture to the dry ingredients and use a whisk to stir the batter. It will be thick.
• Add the warm coffee and continue to stir with the whisk until fully combined.
• Divide the batter evenly into prepared cavities of the cake pan.
• Bake for 25-30 minutes on the cookie sheet on the middle rack of the oven. Rotate cookie sheet halfway
• through baking.
• Test for doneness, remove from oven and allow to cool for about 15 minutes on a cooling rack.
• Place a cooling rack over pan and invert to release cakes. Allow to cool completely.

Whip the cream:

• Chill a stainless steel bowl and whisks. Add the chilled coconut cream to the chilled bowl along with the sugar and stabilizer, if using. Whip to soft peaks then add the passion fruit puree while whipping. Whip to stiff peaks, cover and chill until ready to use.

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