Canele's Charlie Brown

It's christmas in a few days and I happened to pass by Canele. So I went in and this cake caught my eye. Canele named it the charlie brown, what a name. It was the thick layer of goody caramel on top that made me buy this cake. It wasn't cheap at $9 dollars. It's even more pricey that Canele's shiokness-10 star cake, the Le Royale. However, this cake wasn't a good cake. I wouldnt't like to say it was a bad cake, but I didnt finish it. My girl friend took 2 forkfulls and left it alone. I tried to get the staff to swap it for another cake but the manage said no. In my restaurant, if I had one, the answer would always be a yes. I would only be happy with a satisfied guest, and sell what I truly believe in.

To my brother, this cake would be perfectly fine, because he isn't a discerning eater and says nice to everything. But me, I demand perfection and look forward to michellin star meals. If I made this cake, I would be embarassed to serve it to pastry chef Sadaharu Aoki. The caramel on top had very poor flavour impact for its sweetness level. By comparison, Sadaharu's caramel eclair uses just a thin layer of caramel fondant, but the taste of the caramel is superbly strong and very pleasant. Canele's caramel on the Charlie Charlie brown, had barely detectably hint of butterscotch, with a weak tasting and mediocre flavour profile with some off-notes. It's not something I would like to eat plain. And, and, and, there was a whole lot if it on the cake! If only the chef that made this cake had tasted a Werther's original sweet, then he would know what a good caramel is like. With a really good flavour, only a thin layer would suffice, and the cloying sweetness that plagues this cake would have been resolved.




Then next, the ground nuts in the caramel layer were exeedingly soggy, and felt like they were "lao hong". They stuck to my teeth and made the eating experience very unpleasant. Then there was a ganache layer, a salted and very thick and crunchy peanut butter fuelletine layer, and a pretty ordinary chocolate sponge below.



Overall, the poorly done caramel and sticky-soggy peanuts made cake feel somewhat like a snickers bar, which I can get for a mere $1.50. What's worse is, I would rather eat the snickers bar, because the snickers bar is much much more shiok, and much much less sweet.



Canele, your chefs are ruining the luxury image of the brand! Send your chefs to paris, make them taste Pierre Herme's pieces, and show them whats the standard for a luxury brand!

Shiokness Verdict: 3/10

$10.60 after 10% service charge and 7%GST.

Laurent Bernard's Pure

This is cake is called Pure. Recommended by the waitress at Laurent's. Looks very chocolatey, and that shiny-matte ganache finish on top made me want to grab a slice.




Pure is actually quite simple. Only 3 kinds of textures - mousse, cake, and a thin coat of ganache glaze. The ganache was the same ganache found in Laurent's Chocolate Tart, with a slight acidity that was made juttingly noticable because of the pairing with the more gental mousse and tame sponge.




The mousse was moderately dense, and excellent in its flavour. The sponge had a very dense appearance, yet in the mouth it was light, but not pleasantly light because when chewed it broke into fine little gritty granules that marred the silkiness of the sponge. And there were 3 layers of it.




Pure is chocolatey, and also very huge. I'm afraid its not texturally refined enough for such a large serving to be eaten at one go. One slice of Pure could be a full meal if you like, but then you might tire of the textural monotony that sets in half way through. It's not lacking in textural variety if you eat half a slice. But it is if you take the full slice.



Nonetheless, I think that appearancewise, Pure is a beautiful cake. It's got natural beauty. Like a naturally beautiful girl, it doesn't need any makeup or fancy cake decor. The inner layers of the cake are such an allure onto itsef that one might find it hard to resist.. But thats only for looks. Pure's taste is ordinary, mostly because the sponge turns gritty after a while. And halfway through the cake, I got the 'Jelak' feeling.


Shiokness Verdict: 5/10

Laurent's Pure was $11.50 after 7% GST and 10% service charge. A terribly expensive price for a pretty ordinary tasting cake.

Laurent Bernard Chocolatier
80 Mohamed Sultan Road, 239013
Tel:6235 9007 ‎

Laurent Bernard's Chocolate Tart

In the local food blogosphere there's lots of mention about Laurent Bernard's Chocolate souffle. Some say its the best you can get in Singapore. I went down today to Laurent's in Mohammed Sultan, specially with the aim of trying it, but unfortunately was told that their kitchen was 'not ready yet'. The souffle wasn't for sale. I went in at about 2 pm, and still have no idea when their kitchen will be 'ready'. Nonetheless, theres a prominent blogger who loves the chocolate tarts there, and so with his online recomendation I made the improvised order. "One chocolate tart first please".



The tart was served alongside coin-sized puddles of drizzeled rasberry sauce, slightly tart, with just the right sweetness. See those interesting vein-like bifurcations on the ganache edge above? This pattern is caused the Marangoni effect. When sliced with a hot knife, the heated and exposed ganache melts, and the liquified emulsion with its high surface tensional forces pulls onto itsef. Notice how the branches get finer as we move lower down the ganache. The extent of melting could have lessened as the knife cools as it made its way down. I don't think many pasty chefs know things like this. But if they do, they certainly will qualify in the area of molecular gastronomy. This vein pattern can be easily prevented by using a cold knife, but you need a very sharp one for a clean cut.



The tart crust was good. Crunchy, with good flavour. Just sitting above the crust was a layer of hazelnut praline with cripsy feuilletine flakes splashed around within the layer here and there. This layer was actually better than nutella, with its more intense hazelnut flavour. Then we have a silky smooth ganache filling up the rest of the tart. The ganache was quite unique in that its top notes - those first flavours that come to the nose upon tasting the ganache - was that of indian spice, not any one in particular, but possibly some combination of it. It was only much layer that I tasted the chocolatey notes. I felt that the flavours of the ganache were not well blended together, seperated by time gaps of distinctly foreign flavours. Then the ganache was also slightly acidic, sourish in nature. But I tasted milk in there in the ganache, likely from the cream. Sour, and milk. What do you get? When milk turns sour... its usually past the expiry date. You get the idea... Laurent should aim for a cleaner flavour profile for the ganache without off notes that run against the primary flavour of chocolate (and also hazelnut) for his tart. But what can be done, if ganache is made this way traditionally?



On the whole, it was a pleasant chocolate tart. A little tweaking here and there should make it better.



Shiokness Verdict: 7/10

This tart was $9.20 after 7% GST and 10% service charge. A scary price for ordinary students like me.

Laurent Bernard Chocolatier
80 Mohamed Sultan Road, 239013
Tel:6235 9007 ‎

My Attempt at Chocolate Cake Perfection - Nut Butter

Don't you just love Nutella? I remember eating it directly out of the jar, in those days when the Nutella jar was made of real glass, not the plastic that we get today. And in those days, cocoa butter was in the ingredients list, which has since been replaced by palm oil. Tastewise, I don't think palm oil gives any significant change in the flavour, but theres something at the back of my mind telling me that I'm not getting the real deal.

And so I started a mini quest to make my own nut butter that I can turn into Nutella, or a praline, or a smooth nut-sugar layer that I can incorporate into my chocolate cake. I tried once long ago to make almond butter but it never turned into butter, only a grain-powder like consistency, like what is sold as almond flour. I was wrong, because the internet says that almonds can be turned into a smooth butter without the addition of any oils or sugar. You just have to blend them long enough. Do pulsed blending, and take your time, because I melted my old Braun food processor when I left it to blend almonds continously for 5 minutes. Now I'm using a Tefal 1000Watt food processor.



After 15 minutes of slow, pulsed blending, the oil seperates from nuts. Almonds have less oil, so a pure almond butter will take a longer time before you start to see oil. Hazelnuts on the otherhand have up 50% oil content, and turn into butter more readily. The tiny darker brown specs you see below come from the almond skins, so if you remove them first, or buy almonds without skin, then you won't taste their grit on the roof of your mouth.



This is pure nut butter, without any oil or sugar or salt. I'm using it as a hydrophobic canvas to insulate my water sensitive feuilletine flakes - and get praline fueilletine.

Almonds raw and almonds toasted have very different flavour profiles. Same goes for other nuts. Its up to you to choose what flavour you like. After several years of nut eating, I think the best toasted almonds are made by Camel, sold in metallic red packets. The best tasting pistachios are the green fleshed california pistachios by Tai Sun, and come in blue packets.



This almond-hazelnut butter above was the product of 20 minutes of pulsed blending. Even so, it's not silky smooth, probably because of the almonds. The toothpaste industry discovered long ago, so long as you have particles larger than 40 microns, you feel the graininess. I felt the graininess. A food processor isn't the machine that will deliver the super smooth texture that is ubiquitously availiable with commercial peanut butter. Nonetheless, my Camel brand toasted almond butter gives such an intensely pleasurable punch that I'm glad I'm having it =)

Forward march to having the best chocolate cake in Singapore!!

My Attempt at Chocolate Cake Perfection - Feuilletine

Feuilletine is something I find very pleasing in chocolate cakes. They are crunchy inclusions that create what I call the 'crunchy berry' effect that will make any cake significantly more appealing to the human brain. As I mentioned in some previous post, a long time ago during the course of our evolution, when we were still monkeys, an innate inclination towards crunchy foods with soft centers developed, and this predilection aided in our stuggle for survival by helping us pick the ripest and juciest berries. Like monkeys when we bite into a ripe thompson grape, we feel the resounding pop as the turgid skin bursts, releasing loads of flavour from the grape interior. This floods our brains with dopamine and gives a pleasurable eating experience. Feuilletine when incorporated into my cake will mimic this effect. I will use lots of it =)



In Singapore, you can hardly get feuilletine because it is a french product and not naturally found here. Cocoa Barry sells their ready to use Pailleté feuilletine, which according to forums has been spray coated with cocoa butter for insulation against moisture, so that the tiny bits maintain their crunch for long hours. It is very expensive, and this tiny amount I bought from Sun Lik costs about $6. Many would think of using corn flakes instead, but the difference is that feuilletine gives a very delicate crunch, breaking and releasing sound at the slighted contact with your molars. Cornflakes on the other hand, are glassy and hard, and require considerable molar pressure to crack. They also aren't pre-coated with any form of fat, so you will have to do it yourself. Otherwise, you'll end up with soggy cornflakes.



One think I noted was that the texture of this feuilletine was highly similar to our local loveletters. They're like loveletters with minimal sugar and a faint vanilla flavour in place of the coconut flavour. So you can technically get a simlar textural result with love letters, which I may try using in the future.

Now that I have successfully obtained feuilletine after scouring the internet for locations to buy it, I have to wait until my exams are over before I continue my chocolate cake R&D.

Bakerzin's Chocolate Amer

Bakerzin's Chocolate Amer. Looks simple - 2 layers of mousse with 2 layers of sponge.



The cake was soft, fluffy, and light. The moist dark cake layers were of similar textural density to the mousse and were an excellent match for it. However, because they blended so well together, the overall perceived texture lacked variation and was somewhat monotonous.

Nonetheless, the flavour of these layers were superb, highly enriched in chocolate of a special brand which I presume is Valrhona. Unlike many other cakes around, the chocolate was very clean tasting without undesirable side flavours.



Overall, the cake was good, robust in flavour, but will certainly do better with the introduction of some textural variation, such as those which have made Canele's Le Royale a pure success.

Shiokness Verdict: 7/10

This cake costs $6.95 after GST. Will you skip 2 lunches at school so that you can save enough money to buy Bakerzin's Etiole?

Bakerzin
Vivocity #01-207
Tel: 64558885
http://www.bakerzin.com/

Bengawan Solo's Chocolate Gateau

Bengawan Solo is famous for their pandan cake. Its been a long standing recognition in my family that they make best pandan cake in the country. I remember one of my aunties telling me that their chocolate cake was also nice, a memory that suddenly resurfaced from the hidden recesses of my brain as I thought about the chocolate cakes for this blog. So, I specially made a trip down to Bengawan Solo and acquired this neat little piece - the Chocolate Gateau. Gateau is french ley... how come Bengawan solo is has got french influence one?



This cake was quite simple, only 3 kinds of layers. A very moist and light chocolate sponge, whipped cream, and a tempered chocolate glaze that had a hint of hazenut or nut flavour. Does this cake stand alongside Bengawan Solo's pandan cake in terms of shiokness?

The chocolate sponge itself was flawless. Its an ideal moist sponge that can be set as the industry benchmark when comparing chocolate sponges across various other cakes. It was very pleasant, something I wouldn't mind munching on plain.



The whipped cream on the other hand, was somewhat a failure. Once eaten it would melt and turn into oil that coats the entire surface of the mouth, giving an uncomfortable oily mouthfeel to the whole cake. When it comes to whipped cream, I demand the real thing, meaning I demand whipped cream made from genuine cow's milk and not the vegetable oil kind. The reality is that there isn't enough real whipping cream to go round the world, so substitutes are manufactured from vegetable oil, emulsifiers, and stabilisers that can keep the whipped product as a stable foam for days. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that that long lasting oily mouthfeel from their whipped cream had a negative impact on the shiokness of this cake.



The chocolate glaze and chopped peanuts were fine.



It seems my auntie who recommended this cake has different tastes from me. Or maybe she just hasn't tried the other cakes I've tried.

Shiokness Verdict: 2/10

This cake costs $2.50, the equivalent of 1 canteen meal from school. Would you skip a canteen meal in exchange for this?

Juntion 8 Shopping Centre
9 Bishan Place #B1-K1
Tel : 62582066
bengawansolo.com.sg

Canele's Gateaux Chocolat

My girlfriend bought me this beautiful cake today from Canele after school. Full marks for the presentation. It was so georgeous that I forgot all about not finishing the questions in my chemistry test today. The moment the cake came to our table, my girlfriend kept hurrying me to faster snap my photos so that she could start attacking the cakes :P

There was a description of this cake at the counter, "64% darl chocolate mousse, almond succes hazelnut feullitine, chocolate genouse with rum." Wow. What's 'succes'? Nonetheless, it makes the cake sound high class.

The roof of this cake was a square tile of tempered chocolate, ingenously embossed on one side with the surface texture of handbag leather. I think it was the reason why we chose this cake.

Naturally, the first thing we did was taste that shiny black droplet atop the entire cake. Unlike its attractive appearance, this thick black fluid was acrid, and thoughts of industrial tar came to my mind. My girlfriend even said out, apparently without careful thought: " Very terrible leh, not nice!" The chef who did this should be punished by making himself eat 5 whole tablespoons of that black stuff. What an introduction this posh looking cake!

Then we took off the leather patterned chocolate tile and tasted it alone. Chocolate, but with the subtle flavour of mothballs! I remember clearly what mothball vapour smells like because as a kid, they used to fill my auntie's cupboard. If I'm not wrong, the molecule that causes the characteristic smell of mothballs is napthalene, and whatever is in that chocolate could be having similar olfactory properties to the reagent. We didn't finish the whole leather chocolate roof. I think that as a luxury chocolate brand, Canele should seriously start benchmarking their chocolate aganst other good brands like Valrhona. Certain off-tasting notes are just not acceptable for the flavour profile of chocolate, a problem which has also plagued the cakes of Chocz.


Trying to forget the eyebrow twitching introduction that the cake gave us, we moved on to the body below. It was like a 3 storey flat, with 3 layers of cake alternated with 3 layers of ganache. The ganache was quite thick and dense in texture. The flourless cake too was on the dense side, such that the whole cake when eaten toghether was thick and dense, and also smooth and chocolatey. But chocolatey in a heldback sense because somehow the ganache was slow to melt, giving a percieved texture quite akin to soft candle wax. It tasted like lots of chocolate went into the cake, but the flavours of which were kept captive within the ganache and not released during the chewing process.

The leather chocolate tile did not go well with the ganache and cake layers because hard chunks of it remained in the mouth long after the ganache had melted and the cake chewed to pulp.



Despite the reserved comments on certain aspects of this cake, it was still quite chocolatey overall and will give you dopamine.

Shiokness Verdict: 6/10

$7.15 after GST ($7.55 after service charge)
Will you skip 3 meals at the school canteen to gather enough cash to buy the Gateaux Chocolat?

Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road
Tel: 67389020
http://www.canele.com.sg/

Canele's Le Royale

In today's outing with my girlfriend, I chanced upon Canele's Le Royale. This cake had a stunning resemblence to the reknowned long cakes produced by Sadaharu Aoki. I can imagine Sadaharu Aoki frowning at the boss of Canele after seeing this cake, and saying: "kore watashi no design jia nai ka!?" :P In Singlish, "isn't this my design!?" Anyway, that long black streak stretching across the cake looks like one of those from the bamboo.


I was terribly hungry when the cake came to our table, so immediately after taking these photos I whisked out my fork and began attacking the cake.

Naturally, the first thing that I tried to taste was that reddish brown powdery stuff on top. Alamak, it had a medicinal taste, somewhat artificial in nature. But then, if you eat it with the other layers, it doesn't really affect the overall flavour because its only a small part of the cake. I think Canele should cut this unpleasant tasting powder coating and replace it with something else. Usually, pastry chefs use a fine spray of warm chocolate droplets to cover a cake surface with this powdery texture. Or they can simply dust the cake in cocoa powder for a similar look.



Canele's description of the cake was " 64% dark choc mousse, almond succes hazelnut feullitine, chocolate ganache."

This cake melted nicely in the mouth, had the perfect density, a wide array of textural variation, and very strong and pleasant chocolate and caramel notes. Hidden somewhere inside the feulletine layer in the middle was the unique flavour of caramel, the kind that you can only get when you heat sucrose above 180C for a brief moment. It was pure shiokness. Very very very shiok. If you need to fly to heaven for a few minutes, this cake has enough power to provide you the wings.



Crunchy in the middle, smooth on either side, this cake was packed with the intense flavour of chocolate. Its designed to release a torrent of flavour molecules with every bite you take. To create such a sensation, you need to craft layers that weakly bind to the flavour molecules such that they get desorbed from the cake surface upon slight agitation. I'm guessing the brilliant chef that came up with this cake must have had some insight into the chemical interactions taking place at the molecular level within the cake. He deserves a promotion!

The crunchy feuilletine brought a new dimension to the smooth and rich chocolate layers, adding lots of extra shiokness. We humans have evolved to appreciate crunchy textures in foods, especially when the crunchiness comes alongside soft and smooth textures. When we were still monkeys, this innate sense had helped us pick the ripest berries, crunchy on the outside, and soft and juicy on the inside. The Le Royale has successfully mimicked this 'crunchy berry' effect so it will naturally appeal to the brains of all humans. You will smile with your very first mouthful of this cake.


So, this is pure chocolate goodness with a hint of burnt caramel. I think it beats many of Sadahu Aoki's own pastries, and even many of those found at Le Maison du Chocolat. Perfect, except maybe for that wierd tasting powder on top.

Shiokness Verdict: 10/10

Very very shiok. Possibly the best chocolate cake in Singapore!

$7.70 after GST ($8.20 after service charge). It's totally worth it skipping 3 canteen meals in exchange for the Le Royale!!


Canele Patisserie Chocolaterie
Shaw Centre
1 Scotts Road
Tel: 67389020
www.canele.com.sg

Chocz Sacher

Unfortunately, I had bought this cake together with the Chocolate Truffle from Chocz at marine parade on the same day. That cake was dissapointment. What about this one? This is the Sacher, as says the letters inscribed in glaze atop the cake.

Woosh, the plastic wrap peels off under my nose, taking off a chunk of glaze with it. Usually at the shop the reflection from transparent plastic prevents us from getting an accurate picture of the surface texture of the cake. Now without the clothes, we can see properly :P

The internal appearance is that of a very dense cake, filled with lots of nuts chocolatey goodness. There was a description for the cake at the counter, "Swiss Chocolate with Hazelnut Sponge, Apricot Compote and Almond Cookies." I gave the cake a sniff and inhaled lots of splendid chocolate molecules.

Once more, I *chomp chomp chomped* into the cake and the first thing that greeted my tongue was that very same acidic, acrid, tobacco-like glaze. Its the exact same glaze from its brother cake, the Chocolate Truffle. And hidden beneath this layer again is that very same ganache layer from the Chocolate Truffle which had an unpleasantly raw peanut oil flavour. These 2 layers only make up 0.5mm of the cake, but their flavour dominates the entire cake. They caused discord among the cells of my olfactory bulb which immediately released fantic impulses that generated a frown upon my face.


And so I scrapped off the ganache and the glaze, leaving just the plain cake and biscuit crust below for a second chance. The cake itself was moderately moist, quite generous in nuts, but had the lingering flavour of benzaldehyde. Benzaldehyde is naturally found in almonds but once you cross a certain threshold, it doesn't taste like natural anymore. I think there was also a hint of cherry in the flavour. Then squeezed below the cake was thin lining of apricot compote - a pleasant addition that and went quite well with the crunchy buttery base.

Nonetheless, the dark chocolate glaze and ganache were horrible, potent enough to stauch all supply of dopamine. Not shiok. I think stress hormones were released instead.
Shiokness Score: 0/10
I wonder, if there's an apple that was good on one side, but had a huge bruise on the other, would you still buy it? This cake costs $7.00.

Chocz
#B1-83P Parkway Parade
Tel: 6345 0181
http://www.chocz.com.sg/

Chocz Chocolate Truffle

Chocz's main line of products is chocolates and so I thought since they do chocolates they would naturally be good at chocolate cakes. I must say I have never tried chocz before today, and this is their first chocolate product I'm trying. Anyhow, there was a description for the cake, which went "Swiss Chocolate Ganache with chocolate sponge".

Off goes the wrap, and we see 3 layers of airy chocolate sponge, and also 3 layers of ganache. The topmost layer of ganache is actually hidden beneath the shiny dark chocolate glaze.


And then perched right on top was a ball of tempered chocolate, sealed at the middle from 2 smaller halves. I thought there might be a surprise inside, but it turned out to be hollow. The ball was chocolate but had cardboardy notes that were a mismatch for the flavour profile of chocolate.

So *munch* *munch* down layer by layer before *munching* the cake as a whole. It was a huge major major major dissapointment. The dark chocolate glaze was acidic, mildly acrid, with an unpleasant cigarette-water kind of flavour. Then the ganache tasted of cooking oil, either canola or peanut, but more likely peanut. It was the raw kind of vegetable oil flavour that I tasted before in oil that has not yet been cooked. Both the glaze and the ganache acted in synchrony and destroyed the entire cake. The sponge, on the borderline between being moist and dry, crumbled into tiny granules in the mouth that disrupted the smooth texture of the chocolate. When all the layers were eaten together as one, the acridness from the glaze and the raw oil note from the ganache took over and I somehow found my eyebrows twitching uncontrollably. I didn't finish the Chocolate Truffle. Not more than 1/4 of the slice.



I don't know what to say. Isn't chocz supposed to specialise in chocolates? The cardboardy taste of the hollow chocolate ball is still in my head.



Shiokness Verdict: 0/10

This cake cost $6.00. I don't think I'll be touching it again.

Chocz
#B1-83P Parkway Parade
Tel: 6345 0181
http://www.chocz.com.sg/