Best Durian Cake - Don't take my word for it

It's so funny. This is the second time I made this cake and I have no idea what it tasted like. My Mother takes Chinese opera lessons and they like to have these little pot luck sessions after class. One day my Mother asked me to make durian cake for her classmates. That was the very 1st time I made this cake. Since the cake was for someone else, naturally I didn't get to taste it. But my mother came back with rave reviews, saying all the "aunties" at her class loved the cake.

Last week my mother came to me again and commissioned me to make a durian cake for her teacher's birthday. Apparently they loved my cake so much that they wanted me to make the cake again. Whao~ That was so flattering.. The cake must REALLY tasted good! So setting aside my giant inflated head, I went shopping at Phoon Huat and got to work.

This is not my recipe. The sponge cake recipe is from Ann Reardon from How To Cook That and the stabilized whipped cream recipe is from Gretchen's Bakery. Since they turned out so good, I thought I blog it down for my future reference. Maybe SOMEDAY I'll get to taste it myself.

NOTE!

1. I followed it quite closely, but I needed a 11" X 11" square cake instead of a 20cm round cake, so I poured everything into 1 big pan instead of splitting into 2 small pans.
2. The original recipe flips the cake upside down to cool off. I blindly followed instructions without using my brain and the cake was nearly destroyed! Don't forget that mine was in a bigger pan so naturally the weight would pull the cake down from the pan! Stupid! Luckily I flipped it back quickly, so it was only a large crack rather than a total destruction. Phew~ Covered up with whipped cream and pretended nothing happened.

Sponge Cake

2 cups plain all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups sugar (I reduced it)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 tsp gelatine (powdered)

1/2 cup vegetable oil
7 egg yolks
1 cup cold water

7 egg whites
1/2 tsp cream of tartar

1. Preheat the oven to 160C or 130C if using a fan forced oven. 
2. Place your flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and gelatin into a bowl and whisk it to incorporate air and get rid of any lumps. 
3. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture then pour in the oil, egg yolks and water in that order. Set that bowl to one side. 
4. Put your egg whites and cream of tartar into another bowl and whisk on high speed until you get soft peaks. 
5. Mix together the flour mixture for 30 seconds only or until just combined, don’t ovemix this. 
6. Using a spatula fold in your egg whites in three batches. 
7. Line but do not grease one 11 inches square cake tin and spread the mixture evenly in it.
8. Bake in a slow oven, 130C for 90 minutes. When it is done leave in the tin to cool.

Stabilized Whipped Cream (Yield: 3¾ Cups)

1 tsp Plain Powdered Gelatin
1 1/2 tbsp Cold Water
1 1/2 tbsp Boiling Water
2 cups Heavy Cream
¼ cup Fine Sugar (adjust according to your taste)

1. Bloom the gelatin in the cold water. Let stand about 5 minutes.
2. Add the boiled water to the gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve.
3. Using a cold bowl, whip and heavy cream whip the cream and gradually add the sugar.
4. Whip to soft - medium peaks and then add the melted stabilizer all at once.
5. Continue to whip for a few seconds longer until desired consistency.
6. Use immediately on your cakes and desserts

Durian Mousse

3 packets of durian
1/4 cup heavy/whipping cream
1/2 cup whipped cream

1. Remove the flesh from durian. 
2. Add heavy cream into durian and blend it up using the pulse function. (Taste better with some texture) 
3. Fold whipped cream into the durian paste and use immediately as cake filling.

Assembly

1. When sponge cake is completely cooled, slice into two from the middle and spread durian mousse in the middle. 
2. Do a crumb coating by spreading a thin layer of cream all over the cake and chill the cake in the fridge for 1 hour. 
3. After an hour frost the cake with the rest of the whipped cream and decorate accordingly.

 If you are lucky, slice and enjoy. If you are like me, just imagine how delicious it's gonna be!

*Apparently Mum brought home a big slice of leftover cake! Unfortunately my Dad found it first and devoured the whole thing. -_-