Apple Caramel Moose Cake

I’m on a wonderful break in the South Island of New Zealand right now and I’m staying with my cousin at Lake Wanaka. It’s still winter and there is snow everywhere, but the weather hasn’t been good enough for skiing, so I’ve been keeping myself busy with some projects and requests!

The first and foremost request was to make a cake of some description in honour of Geoff’s and Julie’s Hungarian Vizsla, Moose. The only requirement was that I had to include caramel mousse somewhere because Moose is the most wonderful dark caramel colour!

The original Caramel Moose

The problem with caramel mousse is that it can be a bit overpowering in the sweetness department, so it’s often tempered with chocolate or coffee. But Moose isn’t chocolate or coffee – he’s just caramel, so salted caramel had to be the mousse flavour. Of course if you have to make salted caramel for the mousse, then reserving some to put on top is obvious.

For the cake part of my caramel mousse Cake, I went with a lovely light gluten free almond meal sponge – a good choice because it contains no butter; just eggs sugar and almonds go in there. You don’t want a heavy cake with all that silky caramelly goodness on top. People need to be able to (and want to) scoff it! (Or as Moose would have it: people need to Woof it down).

For the centre, I’d seen a caramel mousse cake from Brittany with caramel and apple which looked pretty tasty, and that inspired me to turn to Granny Smith apples for my flavour pairing, caramelised in butter and muscovado sugar with purple sage from the garden and a hint of ginger and cinnamon.

On top, chunks of roasted white chocolate!

I have to say, this Apple Salted Caramel Mousse Cake exceeded expectations. It looked just how I planned and tasted even better. The apples were just tart enough to break through the rich mousse and the three textures were wonderful. This is a seriously amazing piece of patisserie and would make an amazing finish to a celebration dinner. Only we are just eating it because we can, while Moose looks on a little wistfully and enjoys tidbits (he did get salted caramel to lick though! Woof!).

Apple Salted Caramel Mousse Cake (gluten free)

Serves 12-16

Gluten free Almond Sponge Cake

ingredients

4 eggs
200g sugar
300g almond meal
2 tsp baking powder

mixing

Line a 22cm springform pan with bake paper and spray the sides of the pan lightly with non-stick spray.
Beat the eggs and sugar until light and creamy – all the sugar should be dissolved and the mixture should have tripled in volume. Fold in the almond meal and baking powder. Spread into the prepared pan.
Bake at 180 for about 45-50 minutes.

Let cool, then slice the top off so that you have a cake round about 2cm high. Clean your cake pan and put the cut cake, cut side up back in the tin.

Use the discarded cake for something else…. I usually crumb it up and keep it in the freezer for when I need breadcrumbs for apple strudel.

While the cake is baking make the apples.

While the cake is cooling roast the white chocolate.

Roasted White Chocolate

50 g good quality white chocolate, melted

Spread the melted white chocolate on a baking sheet lined with bake paper to about a 4 mm thickness. Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 15-20 minutes. Let the chocolate cool, then break into pieces.

Sage Caramelised Apples

ingredients

1 kg Granny Smith apples
50g unsalted butter
1 tbsp sage (I used fresh purple sage), finely shredded
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup muscovado sugar

mixing

Peel the apples and cut them into quarters. Slice the cores out, then cut each apple into thirds. Melt the butter in a large, heavy based frying pan and add the sage, ginger and cinnamon. Let the mixture sizzle up a little, then add the apples. Cook the apples over a medium high heat. The apples will start to brown and soften. Add the muscovado sugar, and stir well until the sugar has melted. Continue to cook the apples to the point that some have collapsed. Cool.

While the apples are cooling, make the salted caramel.

Salted Caramel

ingredients

280g caster sugar
80 mL water
340mL cream (warm)
2 tsp salt

mixing

Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Heat over high heat, shaking the pan often, until the sugar starts to dissolve and the mixture starts to boil. Let the mixture boil, shaking the pan often, until the sugar syrup starts to caramelise. This will happen quite rapidly. Sugar syrup keeps cooking when you remove it from the heat, so take the pan off the heat as soon as a golden colour starts to form. You can always out it back on the heat for a few seconds to continue to caramelise the syrup.
Let the caramel syrup sit for a few seconds and then carefully add the cream in a thin stream, stirring constantly. The mixture will bubble up ferociously and a lot of steam will be generated so take care not to burn yourself! When all of the cream has been incorporated, return pan to the heat and stir constantly until the mixture is smooth and has thickened so that it coats the back of a spoon.

Add the salt. Let cool. Split into two portions; one about 250mL, the other about 200mL.

While the salted caramel is cooling, spread the apples over the cut cake in the springform pan, press down well and smooth the top, then refrigerate.

Salted Caramel Mousse

ingredients

300mL cream, whipped to soft peaks
250mL salted caramel, still very warm
6g gelatine leaves
1 egg
1 egg yolk
80g sugar
40mL water

mixing

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form, and chill until needed. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 10 minutes. Squeeze the water from the gelatine leaves and add to the warm salted caramel. Stir until the gelatine is dissolved.

Beat the egg and egg yolk until light and very foamy. Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture starts to boil. Continue to boil the mixture until it reaches 116°C. Pour the sugar syrup in a thin stream over the beaten egg, beating constantly. Beat the mixture until it has cooled slightly then beat in the gelatine mixture. Continue to beat the mixture until it is thick, creamy, and just warmer than blood temperature. Fold in the whipped cream.

Pour the mousse over the apple mixture in the prepared tin, smoother the surface and chill till set.

Final touches

Make sure your smaller portion of salted caramel is at room temperature. Unmould the cake by using a hair dryer to warm the outside walls of the cake pan, this allows the mousse to release (if you don’t have a hair dryer you can use a clean tea towel, soaked in very hot water, then wrung out- wrap around the tin). Gently ease the cake out of the tin and transfer to a serving dish. Be careful, the cake will be a bit flexible!

Be careful, the cake will be a bit flexible! Pour the salted caramel on top of the cake, and spread out with a palette knife, allowing the caramel to spill over the edges here and there.

Top with pieces of the roasted white chocolate.

Enjoy!xxx

Apple Caramel Moose Cake