Explosive Start đ§¨
The recipe and story behind one of my most popular cake creations at B&P Sweet Studio... the Explosive Milk Chocolate & Raspberry Cake.
The BeginningâŚ
Letâs just start right?
What should I post first? Which recipe will resonate? Will anybody read it? Lots of questions swirl through your mind when you first set out to write, but I guess the Chinese analogy âA journey of a thousand miles, starts with a single stepâ springs to mind.
Not that I see this publication as a long arduous trip, no⌠not at all - in fact, I see the upcoming journey as a sort of sight seeing tour of my life in food. A stroll through my experiences in the kitchen and running business, yes a scenic stroll through my work and it would be a great pleasure to have you on this journey.
Milk Chocolate Explosive Raspberry Cake
One of Darrenâs most celebrated creations, this cake has been the centrepiece for countless celebrations and the most popular cake at B&P for over a decade.
This explosive cake by renowned pastry chef Darren Purchese is a classic that has been front and centre for countless celebrations.
Not just a treat for the tastebuds, this show stopping cake is a feast for the eyes as well. With layers of chocolate chip cookie and smooth raspberry cream, tangy compote and fluffy marshmallow all encased in the most luxurious chocolate mousse, this dessert is sure to impress on any occasion.
A beautiful shiny glaze finishes the cake and thatâs adorned with gold coated popping candy, jellies, marshmallows, and raspberries. With its combination of flavours and textures, our explosive raspberry cake is a dessert experience like no other. Let the legacy of this cake live on in your celebrations and plan for an explosive celebration.
Explosive Raspberry Cake - A History
I thought long and hard about the first post and decided to dissect and discuss one of my most popular creations. After closing the doors to my previous business B&P Sweet Studio almost two years ago now, I still get lots emails from our amazing former customer base* asking if I can make a one off birthday cake. All of the requests are people asking for the Explosive Raspberry cake or the Raspberry Explosion as most people seemed to call it!
* a lot of our extremely enthusiastic and loyal customers are now FREE members of Studio Kitchen.
This cake was by far the most popular of all the cakes and desserts we produced in the studio. More than the Basque Cheesecake, more than our first ever creation the Coconut, Passionfruit, Ginger & Mint cake and more than our Chocolate, Mandarin & Salted Caramel Cake.
It looks impressive and celebratory with that vibrant shiny red glaze and as soon as we put it on the menu, it quite literally went off⌠like a bombđĽ! I guess the name was apt, and the explosive part was actually a reference to the popping candy on top of the cake, as well as the burst of raspberry flavour!
The cake quickly became a hit, (social media was new) and was popular for weddings* (we specialised in non traditional), birthdays and other celebrations. My cakes were designed to be dessert experiences after my working experience as a restaurant pastry chef, this meant lots of surprises and contrasts in texture and technique. The Explosive Raspberry had all of that, as well as the fun name and striking presentation, this meant it was an obvious hit in my dessert repertoire.
* The flavour was named as one of Melbourneâs best cake flavours in 2016 - see the Good Food article here.
We had customers who came to the shop and ordered the cake for their wedding or engagement and eventually those same customers would return to order the cake for their childrenâs birthdays!
Whatâs Inside It?
The components and composition of the cake are as follows:
Milk & dark chocolate chip cookie base
Raspberry marshmallow - inside layer and garnish outside
Raspberry compote
Raspberry cream - inside layer and garnished outside
Milk chocolate & raspberry mousse
Red coloured glaze
Milk chocolate coated popping candy
Chocolate garnish
We will go through all components further down in this post but the cake cross section diagram looks like this.
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