My friends have decided on their cake and filings. We are going to have alternating flavors of chocolate and fruit.
Chocolate - Rose’s German chocolate cake, thin ganache or dis-tempered dark chocolate mixed with feuilletine for crunch, generous layer of chocolate mousse.
Fruit - Moist yellow layer, thin distempered white chocolate folded with feuilletine and ground praline, mango curd folded in whipped mascarpone cream.

Each tier is covered with MBC, piped borders and fresh flowers. I will make sure to do the buttercream dam for each filing layer. I have taken the liberty to omit the dacquoise for crunch factor and substitute with feuilletine because my test sample got rather soggy…

1. This is what they wanted (with my influence), but do you think this is too crazy?

2. I have never filled a large heavy cake (5 layers, 14"max) with above aforementioned soft filings. Do you think i should experiment with gelatin sheets and stabilize them to prevent slippage and oozing? Does anyone know how to go about doing this? Should I add the soaked and heated gelatin sheets during prep of mousse/curd or during final stage of whipped cream or egg white folding?

3. are any of these filings okay to freeze? I am hoping i can make and fill these layers ahead for the freezer and let it slowly defrost as i decorate and transport the next day…

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What is dis-tempered chocolate?

I’ve used feuilletine before in fillings and it gets soggy.  The dacquoise would “last” longer but will also get soggy over time, as you have found.  If you can buy croquant, that will last longer, but it’s been a while since I’ve used that so I can’t tell you how much longer.  You might have better luck with ground cacao nibs, which are much more widely available (they have chocolate covered nibs too); the pieces might be larger than you were originally thinking of but they will stay crunchy.  I think you are safer with ganache because it will cut cleanly.  I think if you were to spread melted chocolate on the cake layers, it would cause problems with supporting the cake tiers (I can imagine it shattering when you insert the supports and that will cause problems later).  The nibs are definitely dark chocolate colored so you might want to go with white chocolate curls (they will maintain their shape and crunch) for texture in your fruit layers.

I would test these fillings in advance and see how they hold up for you with freezing/thawing, etc.  Make two 9” cakes and see how they survive.  I don’t like to leave things to chance or theory when it comes to testing new flavors and you certainly don’t want any surprizes when you are working on the wedding cake! 

When working with bloomed gelatin sheets, you would add it to the heated mixture (e.g., the curd while still warm) so the sheets melt.  If the mixture it too cold, the sheets will not melt evenly and you will have bits of rubbery gelatin in your mousse.  You soak the sheets in cold water (not hot water, they’ll melt) until they are soft and pliable, then squeeze out the water and add them to your mixture.

taking it out of temper will let the chocolate melt in your mouth easier. I usually spread melted chocolate thin on parchment and freeze, break into small shards and stir into ice cream. With ice cream, the chocolate melts along with your ice cream and doesn’t taste waxy. I am testing this technique out on a test cake this weekend.

i’m hoping to coat the crunchy bits thoroughly enough that the fats barrier from the chocoalte will prevent any moisture to the feuilletine. I plan to chop this into shards as well and sprinkle some between my layers.

Thanks for the tip on the gelatin. my usual recipe for mousse yields 4.5-5 cups. I will weigh this on my next batch and try to incorporate in the warm tempering liquid for the yolks.

I am not 100% on what croquant is. is it praline? or a fancy version of chocolate covered rice krispies?