Hector's Yellow Roses
Mar 10, 2009 | From the kitchen of Rose
due april 9th, and all chocolate cake, say no more I made these out of chocolate rose modeling paste. sugar flowers is not my specialty, but for this cake I needed a few, so opted for Cake Bible's Chocolate Rose Modeling Paste. It really works, I had to follow rose's instructions step by step since the last time I modeled roses was 25 years ago!
the recipe is sufficient for 8 roses, plus a bit extra, and let me share with you that these are the most delicious sugar roses I've ever eaten. who can resist chocolate? even if no real cocoa butter is in? the smell of the roses was so chocolatey, too.
next time I will use real white chocolate, it should work, but will be a little more temperature sensitive and not keep longer than a month or so on display.
ok, I am so bad keeping you all in suspense. april 9th is Luca's birthday and he is going to get a very special cake from the Cake Bible. i am planning on the chocolate oblivion torte, thinly frosted with white chocolate, then wrapped with chocolate fondant, and adorned with chocolate roses (leaves, branches, and roses). if you have or have seen a copy of Cake Bible, you know the name of this cake already!
p.s. yes, this cake is completely flourless, and just happens my flour bins are full of bread flour, go figure bread baking is taking over.
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Julie
04/15/2009 09:53 AM
Ooooo, this is what you used that yummy macadamia chocolate for! Talk about turning mistakes into triumphs!
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hector
04/14/2009 01:33 PM
my friend shade asked for a black and white birthday theme cake. she discretelly persuaded me to pipe balloons on her cake... you know.....I make cakes NOT balloons! I piped balloons with crème ivoire... the story is.... first they looked like push pins, then like mushrooms, then like spermatozoa, then like umbrellas. so, I decided to cover with a few white chocolate rose leaves.
then magically, found this newspaper picture and thought shade would adore! so there you go... the newspaper rough look cutout fit the cake design, do you agree?
this is a 2x recipe of the oblivion minus 2 cupcakes. 10" springform. as I smoothed the cake onmy turntable, I really enjoyed the rough edge effect which in chocolate seems yummy. then I poured some illy mocha glaze and loved how the natural swirl pattern ocurred, so left it as is. I used callebaut semisweet chocolate, reclaimed from my apprenticeship bakery job, from macadamia nut chocolate bars! I named this cake Chocolate Oblivion Shade
luca's cake was made the next day and named Hector's La Porcelaine. It is actually two cakes in one, the inside is a cake named Cordon Rose Oblivion. Stay tunned...
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Rozanne
04/14/2009 10:48 AM
The cake looks so amazing. Your pictures are so good as always. So was this Luca's b'day cake?
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Julie
04/14/2009 07:05 AM
Hector, what a lovely effect! I am amazed. I like both versions, but the second one looks like there's a story behind it- are you able to tell?
Thanks so much for sharing, your work is wonderful!
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Hector
04/14/2009 02:29 AM
In the spirits of the oblivion, here is one more version. I gently smooth the oblivion with a heated angled icing spatula, first the top surface; then the sides, as it creates a rough edge border that i think is something to talk about!
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/ChocolateOblivionShade.html
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Patrincia
04/01/2009 07:31 PM
So lovely Hector!!!!!!!
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Hector
04/01/2009 05:27 PM
thanks everyone, and as i read your beautiful comments, i have just come up with an additional design element for Luca's April 11th "La Porcelaine"
this additional design element will make the cake into 2 versions, so if everything goes well, I will dedicate the first version to Rose! April is her birthday, too!
i will attempt to bake the oblivion in a pan lined with ladyfingers, why not!!! the ladyfingers should offset my issue with over-sweet from the creme ivoire. What a complication, but I have to utilize white chocolate as it is Luca's preference over dark chocolate! perhaps I have chosen the wrong cake for him, but sorry, there is no point of return at this point.
this is obsessively oblivious!
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Rozanne
04/01/2009 05:12 PM
Gorgeous as always! Can't wait to see the next one.
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Julie
04/01/2009 09:32 AM
Hector, what a beautiful oblivion! If only my "test" cakes could turn out half as lovely.
I know what you mean about the Creme Ivoire, my daughter loves it but it is a little sweet for me. I pair it with acidic, barely sweetened components, like lemon or strawberry with reduced sugar.
With the mocha glaze, I think the choice of hazelnut is inspired- yum!
Thanks so much for sharing, I love seeing you work.
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Hector
03/31/2009 08:05 PM
I "hope" you will love this cake! I am naming this LA YELLOW PORCELAINE.
I spent 10 hours trying to perfect my chocolate glaze. I used the mocha glaze recipe from the book Rose's Melting Point. But, I substituted medaglia di oro instant espresso powder with ILLY espresso shots... why not... i have the ILLY hardware and supplies and my local ILLY rep is really supportive of my work. I don't have a recipe to share, as it is still experimental, but I must encourage you to read Cake Bible's chocolate glazing pages.
I prefer to photograph my cakes using natural daylight, so can you imagine my panic by the 10th hour, was nearly 6 pm and the sky was in full sunset. Luckily, I had the garnishes made weeks ahead: the white chocolate yellow rose, the chocolate fondant stems and sepals (thorns included), and the valrhona chocolate rose leaves! Tossing these on the glaze was nerve wrecking, but a miracle of food styling occurred: i may be looking too closely, but if you notice, i absolutely love the little front bump on the glaze from the weight of the yellow rose!
I am including photos of the process: a chocolate oblivion torte baked on a 9" springform pan (lined with a 9.5" silicione cake pan), the smoothest and most perfect creme ivoire frosting (every imperfection on the frosting shows on the glaze, and finally, the glaze. I confess, my glaze was too thin to pour, thus you see the sides washed off, but then, as I recollected the dripped glaze, I filled my piping bag and painfully 'piped' glaze on the sides of the cake. baking magic!
In my opinion the creme ivoire was overly sweet and takes away the perfection of the chocolate oblivion torte. I will consider adding hazelnut paste to the creme ivoire to offset the sweet a bit. However, the ILLY chocolate glaze was superb and intensely ILLY. I hope my local ILLY rep reads this!
Enjoy, this is not my final cake yet, but just my second oblivious take. On April 11th, you will see the real LA PORCELAINE.
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/LaYellowPorcelaine.html
P.S. The photo is highly unretouched, the only thing I retouched was to make the background out of focus. This glaze was as shiny as you see it!!!!!!!!!
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Hector
03/23/2009 02:25 PM
thx patrincia. glenn is doing very well =)
I didn't have my springform pan on hand so used a jello ring mold! I sprayed it with bakers joy then lined it carefully with non heavy duty aluminum foil. After sitting in the fridge overnight, the cake came off from the pan by lifting the foil, then the foil peeled fine. the cake had a rought wrinkled foil finish but worked fine with my design!
the oblivon is really a great way to enjoy fluorless chocolate cake!
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Patrincia
03/23/2009 10:01 AM
So sorry to hear about your friend - hoping he'll make a speedy recovery.
As for your cake - stunning presentation as usual Hector. Please give us more details on baking the oblivion in a ring pan.
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Hector
03/22/2009 09:28 PM
omg, we are getting all confused =) Luca's bday is for April 9th, this wreath cake was for yesterday. Stay tunned.
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Julie
03/22/2009 09:00 PM
Hector, the cake is wonderful! I never expected the oblivion to look like that, even after reading about it as you made the different components. It's beautiful!
Happy Birthday to Luca, and I hope your friend Glenn is home and well soon!
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Rozanne
03/22/2009 06:16 PM
My apologies Hector. When you said the "main guest" I thought it was Luca b/c I thought that you made the cake for him. Anyway, I hope your friend Glenn is ok.
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Hector
03/22/2009 01:40 PM
oh no, Luca is fine, is our friend Glenn who is in the hospital and won't have cake!
well, I stripped the white chocolate leaves off the cake for future cakes. we tried to eat a few more leaves than served, but too sweet white chocolate is. the oblivion will be passed at work...lucky coworkers having neat 1 lb of valrohna caraibe 66 percent.
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Rozanne
03/22/2009 12:23 PM
Gorgeous, Gorgeous, Gorgeous! It is picture perfect.
So sorry to hear about Luca. I hope he is doing ok. I am sending positive thoughts his way. Let us know how he is doing.
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Jeannette
03/22/2009 05:52 AM
That is so lovely, Hector!
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hector
03/22/2009 12:19 AM
thx Patrincia! here are more, just made this cake for this weekend. I named this cake originally Hilo's La Porcelaine, but now it is nick named Hundred Nights of Winter or also Somebody Please Eat Me. we were suppose to host a fabulous dinner, but main guest is in the hospital ER and we all worry, unexpected diabetic diagnosis and attack. Thus the name of the cake is a bit morbid.
http://www.hectorwong.com/roselevy/LaPorcelaineHilo.html
the cake is the chocolate oblivion torte baked on a ring pan, very happy how it unmolded. i melted the chocolate directly on induction stove, plus perfect! no more double boiler.
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Patrincia
03/19/2009 11:43 PM
How did I miss those chocolate leaves??? Very nice Hector! Yours all look perfect... only about 70% of the ones I made turned out as nice. Great job!
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hector
03/18/2009 03:40 PM
and now, the roses in porcelain.
if i can rewrite the instructions, I would recommend not using a brush, but instead pour/drip the roses first in oil, then in corn syrup.
be sure to click on the picture for a larger and shinier picture.
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Julie
03/15/2009 11:53 AM
I love that you used botanically correct leaves! They look great.
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hector
03/15/2009 05:26 AM
Hector's Brown Leaves! one more Cake Bible recipe that works!
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Hector
03/14/2009 06:41 PM
btw, the leaves will be brown and molded from rose leaves. I didn't want to use my florist roses, so recurred to find a neighbor with a rose bush!
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Zach Townsend
03/13/2009 04:40 PM
...."The Yellow Rose of Texas" (but insert "Hector").
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Hector
03/12/2009 01:40 PM
thx J, yes, the white must show, maybe I can bake a white chocolate oblivion torte?
leaning towards crème ivoire or straight melted white chocolate?
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Julie
03/12/2009 10:43 AM
Hector, they're so beautiful! Each different from the rest, the handmade quality is really lovely.
Can't wait to see the finished cake, I love the sound of the pale white chocolate that will show when it's sliced. Which white chocolate will you use for that-Mousseline? Creme Ivoire? Ganache?
Happy Birthday Luca!
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Hector
03/11/2009 01:16 PM
dear R and P, literally sureal thxs! everyone can learn how to model roses, the instructions on cake bible are precise, u can practice with playdough, clay, and fondant! but I always feel criminal to sell modeled roses with my cakes as each rose is normally sold for $25!!! many bakeries now bring these from the philipines for a buck where craftmanship is suberb and labor costs minimal.
now my desperation is how can I leave my yellow roses to air dry for 3 days without inviting an attack of ants or flying critters? seriously concerned!
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Patrincia
03/11/2009 12:03 PM
Dito Hector - very nice job with those roses. Can't wait to see the finished cake. Happy Bday Luca!
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Rozanne
03/11/2009 10:24 AM
Absolutely stunning Hector! They are so perfect. Can't wait to see the finished cake.
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