Heston's Popping Candy Chocolate Cake

A divine and luxurious concoction with the added surprise of a popping candy base - this is not just for children! Notice my added touch of some kitsch gold dust!

This is a recipe that I had been sitting on for about nine or ten years and had whipped out of a Sunday supplement and filed away to make as a special birthday cake for one of my children's birthdays. The main sticking point had been the inability to get hold of a large quantity of popping candy a few years ago, (in this instance 100 g worth), at a reasonable price. Specialist suppliers were selling it for about £15 a pack but I wasn't prepared to shell out that much at the time! Luckily, Tesco now sell it in their baking aisle for about £1.20 for 60 g so a couple of jars isn't going to break the bank.

Strictly speaking this recipe is not in any of the Heston Blumenthal books that I own so doesn't count towards my challenge but it is sooooo good it would be criminal of me not to draw your attention to it.  As I think it's rather wonderful, I'm planning on making some smaller individual cakes as part of a trio of retro-chocolate desserts for some entertaining I will be doing later on in the year; (for those interested, the other two puddings will be a Walnut Whip Whoopie pie and a homemade Waggon Wheel - I'll endeavour to share those recipes too).

A few points worth noting is that Heston recommends a 12 cm in diameter ring mould which is 5 cm deep, I found with the quantities stated below that this was going to be too small so I upgraded to a larger size vessel, however, I had bought the 12 cm ring mould specifically to make this cake so had to make do with a 15 cm loose bottomed cake tin, taking out the bottom as you obviously can't turn this cake upside down. See below:

The popping candy and hazelnut base chilling in the fridge.

Popping Candy Chocolate Cake by Heston Blumenthal

For the popping candy base
85 g hazelnuts
40g milk chocolate
2 tsp mixed spice
100 g popping candy

For the chocolate mousse
350 g plain chocolate e.g. Cadbury's Bourneville
400ml double cream
pinch of salt

For the chocolate glaze
20g plain chocolate same as above
120 ml water 8 whole coffee beans
couple pinches of salt
 30 g cocoa powder
 70 golden caster sugar

1. To make the base preheat the oven to 180 degrees and roast the hazelnuts for about 10 minutes until lightly coloured. Blend to a paste in a food processor, then set aside.
2. Melt the milk chocolate and stir in the mixed spice and popping candy. Fold in the hazelnut puree. Place the ring mould on a serving plate and gently press in the base mixture. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, until hard.

   

   Making up the base mixture.

3. To make the mousse, chop the chocolate in to small pieces and place in a bowl. Bring 150 ml of the cream to the boil in a small saucepan. Pour it over the chopped chocolate and stir very gently until all the chocolate has melted, watch it careful to ensure it doesn't take on a granular texture. Add the salt. Cool to room temperature.
4. Whip the remaining 250 ml of cream to soft peaks, don't overwhip. Fold in to the chocolate mixture and then pour over the base in the ring mould and leave e to set for at least 2 hours.

   

   Folding in the cream to the chocolate mixture

5. To make the glaze, chop up the chocolate and set aside. Place the water, coffee beans and salt in a pan, whisk in the cocoa powder then set over a medium heat ans simmer for about 3 minutes.
6. Meanwhile, put the sugar in a small pan and melt over a medium heat, watch it carefully as it will caramelise quite quickly. When completely melted pour over the coffee and cocoa mix - it will splutter and spit at you!. Beat in the chopped chocolate and when melted pass through a sieve.
7. When cool but still liquid, pour over the mousse and return to the fridge to set
8. To serve the cake it's important to run a hot knife around the inside of the ring before removing the cake. Also when slicing the cake it's a lot easier with a hot knife.

The mousse ready to chill in the fridge.

The chocolate glaze ready to pour over the mousse

The finished cake with a lovely set to the glaze

As mentioned before this cake will be appreciated by everyone. If you do want to make it more child-friendly ensure you use a chocolate with a lower cocoa content, hence Bourneville is more ideal than say a 70% chocolate. My children loved this as did myself, hubby and mum:  this is definitely a wow- factor cake for the taste buds!