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