GBBO Week 8 - Mokatines

It was the quarter final this week on the Great British Bake Off, and the challenges were all about patisserie. The signature challenge were cream horns – puff pastry cones filled with a sweet concoction. – I’m surprised all the bakers were able to practice this one, as I imagine getting the cone moulds needed would have been a tricky task. I loved the sound of one of Nadiya’s horns – mocha hazelnut – if I ever get these moulds, these would be my cream horn of choice!

The showstoppers were even more crazy – puff pastry masterpieces that ended up looking vaguely like nuns (called religieuse a l’ancienne) – what was even crueller than this mammoth construction challenge (3 layers of puff pastry, held up only by circles of shortcrust pastry - no dowelling allowed!) was that after the challenge had finished, the constructs were left for 10 minutes to see if they collapsed…

The technical challenge, however, is what we decided to bake this weekend. Mokatines – airy genoise sponges filled with coffee icing, and decorated prettily with almonds and coffee buttercream. The only difficulty we had really was not having brown icing for the top of the cake (hence why it is red). Also we couldn’t find the coffee essence used in Mary Berry’s recipe, so used coffee instead.

These sponges pack a big punch of coffee flavour, and are perfect to serve to your friends and family to show off your baking skills.

Makes 9 mokatines

Ingredients:

For the genoise sponge:

• 3 eggs
• 40g butter
• 75g caster sugar
• 65g self-raising flour
• 1 tbsp cornflour

For the coffee icing:

• 50g butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 225g icing sugar
• Milk, to loosen the icing

For the crème beurre au moka (coffee buttercream)

• 40g caster sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 75g softened butter
• 1 tsp instant coffee mixed with 2 tsp hot water

To assemble:

• 4 tsbp apricot jam
• 100g chopped almonds, toasted
• 100g fondant icing (colour of your choice)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan/gas mark 4. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm square cake tin.

2. Make the genoise sponge. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until the ribbon stage – this is where a trail of mixture is visible when the whisk is lifted from the mixture. This takes between 5 and 8 minutes using an electric whisk.

3. Melt the butter in the microwave/in a saucepan. Sieve the flours together in a separate bowl. To the egg/sugar mixture, add half the flour around the sides of the bowl. Gently fold in using a metal spoon, being very careful not to knock the air out.

4. Add half the melted butter, again around the edge of the mixture. Gently fold in. Repeat with the remaining flour and butter.

5. Pour into the prepared tin, and bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Leave to cool.

Before baking

After baking

6. Make the coffee icing. Melt the butter in a microwave. In a large mixing bowl sieve the icing sugar and coffee together. Pour in the melted butter, and beat until smooth. If the mixture seems very dry/thick, add a teaspoon of milk at a time, until the mixture is a spreadable consistency.

7. Make the crème beurre au moka. Heat the sugar with 2 tsbp water gently in a pan, then boil steadily for 2-3 minutes.

8. Break the egg yolk in a small bowl using a whisk. Slowly pour in the molten sugar (careful, it is very hot!), whisking constantly. Keep whisking until the mixture is cool (I used a normal whisk for this, but I'd recommend using a stand mixer if you have one).

9. In a separate bowl, cream the butter so that it is very soft, then stir in the coffee. Beat in the egg yolk mixture until smooth. Pour into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle.

10. To assemble cut the cake horizontally. Carefully spread the coffee icing on one layer of the cake, and top with the other cake half.

Before slicing

After adding the icing

After adding the top cake layer

11. Trim the edges of the cake, and cut into 9 equal squares (this is easiest to do using a ruler).

12. Heat the apricot jam in the microwave for 30-60 seconds, until bubbling. Press through a sieve into a small bowl. Use a pastry brush to spread on the sides of each sponge square.

13. Pour the toasted almonds into a dish, and dip the sides of each mokatine into the almonds.

14. Pipe small rosettes of the crème beurre au moka in a square on top of the mokatine. If you have spare buttercream left, also pipe rosettes around the base of each mokatine.

15. Make the fondant icing. Soften the icing using your hands. Once pliable, add 4 tsbp water (1 tsbp at a time), and beat. When the icing is smooth, pour into a piping bag, and pipe the icing into the center of each mokatine. Leave to set.

16. Enjoy!

Note: We find the icing very sweet for the cake, so think that melting 100g plain chocolate and pouring this instead of the icing could be better. 

See my other GBBO inspired bakes! 

• Week 1 - Black Forest Gateau
• Week 2 - Arlette's and Orange, Almond, and Goji Berry Biscotti
• Week 3 - Chocolate and Pecan Quick Bread
• Week 4 - Spanische Windtorte
• Week 5 - Dairy Free Peanut Butter Ice Cream, and Gluten-Free Pitta Bread
• Week 6 - Pina Colada Frangipane Tart
• Week 7 - Raspberry and Mango Charlotte Russe and Game Pie