The Chocolate Fondant or Molten Lava Chocolate cake is one of the most loved dessert items out there. This is probably the most asked about dessert from people to me, asking if I can make this. The excitement and anticipation of wondering if it will be perfectly molten inside is what draws in the audience. You can see the faces light up when they crack open the  fondant cake with there spoon and they see that thick, rich and decadent chocolate "lava" flow out from the core. (thus also know as the lava cake) Its like your first kiss, you will always remember where you had your first chocolate fondant and how amazing every bite was. For those who had a bad first experience and never had it again, I strongly advice that you give this a go. 
With this recipe I decided to add something a little different to all my dear friends who absolutely love caramel. You simply make a batch of Butter Scotch sauce and allow it to set. Once it has set is mostly firm, use a parisian scoop to make small balls and place onto a baking tray with silicon paper on. Place into your freezer and allow to become completely frozen. You can use this for many different sauces or filling to make your chocolate fondant your own. 

Ingredients 

• 125 g Butter
  
• 125 g Dark Chocolate
  
• 60 g Castor sugar
  
• 2 Whole eggs
  
• 2 Egg yolks
  
• 2 tsp Cake Flour
  
• 2 tbls Melted butter
  

Method: 
180C/356F for 6-7 minutes

1. Start off by weighing out all of your ingredients and making sure your oven is pre-heated and ready to go. 
2. Next you should shift all your dry ingredients separately  to ensure there are no lumps or impurities.
3. Now prepare your ramekins by brushing with butter and then dust with coco powder, making sure you remove all the excess coco powder. Place in the fridge until mixture is ready.    
4. Place a medium sized pot on the stove and fill it about 1/4 of the way with water and bring to the boil. Once it is boiling, turn down the heat so you have a light disturbance on the surface of the water. 
5. Now place your butter and chocolate in a heat prove mixing bowl and place it on top of the pot with simmering water. ( the water should never make direct contact with the water as this will cause the mixture to seize) 
6. Stir every now and then to allow for even melting though out the mixture. Once it is completely melted place to the side on top of a dish towel to keep it form cooling down too much. 
7. Now combine your eggs, yolks and sugar and whisk over the bain-marie till you reach ribbon stage. ( will be a light yellow color and you will be able to form a figure 8 on the surface of the mixture)   
8. Now that your two mixtures are ready, pour the chocolate into the egg mixture and fold gently until 50% incorporated. 
9. Now add your cake flour and continue to fold gently until completely incorporated. 
10. Remove your ramekins and fill 3/4 of the way fill and place directly into your pre-heated oven for 6-7 minutes. 
11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a minute and then gently remove from ramekin & wow your guest. 

Caramel Centered Chocolate Fondant

1. So for my caramel lovers out there, when you reach step 10, you will do the following.
2. Remove the frozen butter scotch ball from the freezer ( the balls should not be to big or heavy) 
3. Pour the ramekin 1/2 with the fondant mixture and then place you caramel ball in the middle and then pour till 3/4 filled.
4. You will have to immediately place your fondant in the oven to prevent the ball sinking completely to the bottom. 
5. Bake for the same amount of time and see the results once you break it open for the first time. 

What to expect for this coming week. I'll de demonstrating how to made your own home made fresh Pasta Dough from Scratch. I will be making a video for this to clearly demonstrate how it should be done and make it easier for you to do at home. We will also be uploading a amazing Chocolate Fondant (Chocolate Lava cake) recipe, and if I have the time I will also be making a video for this recipe. Last but not least there will also be the Double Chocolate Mousse recipe that I mentioned in my Japonaise recipe I posted a few days ago onhttp://www.chefdewet.co.za/blog/giving-the-french-japonaise-meringue-a-japanese-flare.
This might not be the only things you can expect to be posted this upcoming week as I might feel like doing some other new and interesting cutting and garnish techniques.
So keep posted and make sure to go and subscribe to my News letter to ensure you don't miss anything.

There are three different cakes I hold near and dear to my heart and Carrot Cake is one of them. And not to brag but I do think this is one of the best recipes for carrot cake out there. What makes it a little bit more decadent you ask? Well it's the banana I use in the recipe. I also like the texture this cake has, it being riddled with big chunks of pecan nuts. Then comes the sweet tangy cream cheese frosting, not too much and not too little but just the right amount. I finish it off with some fresh fruits and a sprinkle of pecan nuts. I feel it's truly everything you could want in a cake, but then again that's just me!

So as the title of this blog mentions, we have our very first featured baker on Chef Dewet Visser. He is no ordinary baker, neither is he a professional baker, but instead he is my best friend, Craig Woolfson. He baked a cake intending to make his gran's 80th birthday a memorable one. He asked me for some assistance with what cake to bake and we finally decided that he should do the Carrot Cake that I had in my Booklet. He went out and got all the ingredients he needed, followed my step by step instructions, and recorded the process. So today I decided to share this with my fellow bakers and followers of my website. This was his first time baking a Carrot cake of this size so keep that in mind when you see the final product. With that being said, anyone who would like to feature on my website simply email me at chef@chefdewet.co.za and you could have the spotlight on Chef Dewet Visser for the day. 

Carrot Cake
Ingredients

• 187.5 ml Oil
  
• 2 Eggs
  
• 187.5 ml Castor Sugar
  
• 100 ml Pecan Nuts (You can use any nut you prefer really, I still want to try it out with Pistachios) 
  
• 375 ml Plain Flour
  
• 5 ml Vanilla Extract
  
• 5 ml Baking Powder
  
• 5 ml Bicarbonate of Soda 
  
• 2 ml Salt
  
• 2 ml Mixed Spices
  
• 5 ml Cinnamon
  
• 2 ml Nutmeg
  
• 125 ml Banana
  
• 250 ml Fine Grated Carrots
  

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160oC/320oF.
2. Place the oil, eggs, and vanilla essence into a mixing bowl and mix well until you have a light, thick consistency.
3. Add in all your dry ingredients (Including the nuts) which you need to sift at least once.
4. Mix until everything is well incorporated.
5. Next add in your carrots and bananas, giving it another good mix.
5. Grease your cake pan, adding silicon paper to the bottom, and finally add your mixture. Place into your preheated oven of 160oC/320oF for 30-35 minutes. It should have a nice golden top once complete.
6. Once out of the oven, allow to cool and finally place into the fridge while you prepare your frosting.

White Chocolate & Cream Cheese Frosting

Ingredients

• 230 g Sugar
  
• 90 g Water
  
• 5 ml Lemon Juice
  
• 150 g Egg Whites
  
• 120 g Castor Sugar
  
• 250 g Soft Butter
  
• 250 g Cream Cheese (Unsalted) 
  
• 500 g White Chocolate
  
• Zest of 1 Orange
  

Method 

1. Place the larger amount of sugar, water and lemon juice into a pot and bring to the boil. Continue to boil until the syrup is at 114 - 116oC/237.5 - 240.8oF (This is known as soft ball stage).
2. Place your white chocolate over a bain-marie to melt. The water should not be boiling too rapidly but instead just simmering to create steam (If its too hot the chocolate can burn and you wont be able to use it! Also don't move it around too much just stir every now and then).
3. While waiting for your stock syrup to reach soft ball stage whip up your egg whites. When you reach medium peak stage start to add in the smaller amount of sugar (It must be castor sugar), adding it 1 teaspoon at a time while whisking until you reach stiff peak stage.
4. Once syrup is at soft ball stage start to pour at a slow steady rate into your mixing bowl with the meringues, whisking the entire time. The end result should be a glossy meringue with stiff peaks (This is known as a boiled meringue or Italian Meringue).
5. Remove the meringue from the mixing bowl and place soft butter and the zest into a bowl and mix until pale in colour.
6. Next add your cream cheese and follow by pouring your melted chocolate into the bowl with the butter. Whisk well (Your chocolate should not be straight off the bain-marie, it should rest for at least 1 minute before being added).
7. Now adding 1/3 at a time, fold the mixture into your Italian Meringue to create the final product.
8. Allow to rest in the fridge for 5 minutes and then you're ready to frost your cake!


Edited by
Monique Boaventura

Transfer paste is a paste consisting of four simple ingredients and the coloring or flavouring of your choice. You are able to either pipe different design onto silicon paper with a piping bag. Or you can simply spread the paste onto the whole piece of silicon paper and create patterns but removing the paste with a scraper. The only limitation this great paste has, is the limitations of your imagination and artistic ability. As you might have seen with my previous post of the Japoniase I created a green pattern on the outside of the meringue. The way I managed to do this was by simply spreading the paste on the silicon paper and then using the back of a spoon and scraped off the extra paste. I also used macha to not only flavour the paste but also give it that stunning green color. 

Each of these picture tell a story of my time in Kuwait up until this point. I will add more photos as they come along. I have put short description below some of the picture so you can get some sort of an idea what the mean. Only thing that could have possibly made this whole experience more rewording is if there was someone to enjoy them with me. Hope you enjoy having a look though all of these and keep an eye out for more post tonight. 

Japonaise, the first thing that might come to mind is whether its origins is based from Japan. It would be a good guess as "Japonaise" in French does mean "Japan" or "From Japan". But in this case there is no direct connection between this Meringue and Japan. So I decided to play around with this confusing yet interesting meringue and made it more Japanese. The way this idea come about was when I was asked to come up with new desserts for the menu at work. As I am working in a Japanese Restaurant I remembered this meringue from back in college. I think it stood out too me because I also first though it would have come from Japan or at least have some sort of Japanese history behind it. At first there was only one popular Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate, matcha. Matcha is the Japanese name for finely milled green tea leafs which have recently exploded into a huge hype, similar to that of Red Velvet. 

The taste of good quality macha for me would be similar to that of seaweed or rather you would pick up some sort of "ocean taste" or "fishy taste" as some people say. This is what we who believe in the term umami could call umami. The meaning of umami when all your taste sensations are stimulated at the same time. This includes sweet, sour, bitter and salt

The other truly Japanese ingredient I wanted to incorporate is know as Anko, which is Azuki beans (red beans) which have been cooked till soft and then pureed. It is then sweetened and used in many traditional Japanese pastries. The way I would incorporate this unique flavour into my dessert is simple. I would start by making my own anko, this way you can control the sweetness and don't have to worry about it being over or under the desired sweetness. I would then incorporate it into a Diplomat Cream. Diplomat cream is the combination of whipped cream and creme Pastissiere. This would give you a good smooth and light texture which would go well with the slightly crunchy meringue. I have yet to experiment with this as I have not yet had the opportunity. 
So now that you know a bit more about Japonaise and the two major ingredients in Japanese pastry world, Im now going to give you the Recipe for Japonaise. Once I have the chance to try the filling I will then also post that recipe, but for now I will just provide you with my first filling attempt.