Quick (one hour or less), yet fancy-looking dessert

[Thornado]

I need some ideas and suggestions on some quick, yet good and fancy-looking dessert components.

I'm participating in the finals of a dessert and baking contest for amateur bakers this coming Sunday.

We are being judged on two different desserts. One should be a chocolate based dessert that we should make at home and bring to the venue. This is not a problem and I know what I'm making for that.

The second one is something that we make on-site. We will bake this on the stage during a chocolate festival, and we have a time limit of 60 minutes. This is from when we start until the desserts have to be plated and served to the judges, so we are under a bit of time pressure here (it also means that anything that involves things that need to set for a longer time is out of the question).

I obviously have some ideas floating around in my head regarding different components that I want to incorporate (thinking of a hazelnut daquoise base, a chocolate chantilly at some level, and some other things that bring out different textures (and to some extent flavors). One thing I've been considering is using the "40-second microwave cake" technique from El Bulli, which is good in terms of time, but I'm not sure how to include this in the final dessert in a way that is visually appealing.

We can't really decide on a final recipe yet though as we will be given a "secret box" the evening before the contest with some ingredients that we have to use. In addition to this, we will have access to base ingredients, but are not allowed to bring any ingredients of our own.

Anyway, if anyone has suggestions of good components to add to a dessert like this, please feel free to let me know. I'm not really looking for complete dessert suggestions, but more on a component level...

Now I'm rambling again. Mostly looking around here for inspiration, so I'll just shut up now.

Anyway, any

[Keith_W]

A chocolate fondant, perhaps?

http://www.masterchef.com.au/chocolate-fondant-with-amaretto-milkshake.htm

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'd be inclined to go the other way entirely - a simple, flavourful dessert that shows off the fresh fruit that's in season. Since you're doing one chocolate dessert already, I'd avoid it in the second - it shows better range to present chocolate and non-chocolate in contests like this.

Shortcakes, sweet quick biscuits, or some similar base with fruit quick-macerated in liqueur and piped chantilly are visual stunners and generally take around 30-45 minutes from start to finish. This is my go-to quick shortcake.

[Emily_R]

I'm with Panaderia on doing fruit rather than chocolate, since you're already preparing a chocolate dessert... And you can make the fruit itself more interesting by pairing with interesting complementary flavors -- peach and ginger / cardamom, pear and rosemary, etc.

[Lisa Shock]

You said bake, so, I am assuming you really mean baking. (otherwise, I'd suggest a fruit mousse or something with pastrycream or lemoncurd)

What about something like a tarte tatin, maybe with pears instead of apples? If you layer the fruit carefully, they can be very beautiful and made very simply in a cast iron skillet.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Ah, there's something I missed reading your post the first time round, Thornado. You're at a chocolate festival?

Is there any way that you can make your quick microwave cake in silicone molds? If so, I'd be very tempted to do that and then layer it alternatingly with the daquois noisette, perhaps a truffled brandy mousse, and a fruit-influenced mousse layer, and top it off with a chocolate fan or something similar. If you can get the cake to come out in perfect little rounds, it will be very visually appealing and should also be very easy to assemble.

[KennethT]

The typical application of the microwave sponge is to tear it into chunks after unmolding from the cup. You can get a very "organic" look to it this way. You can do a whole modernist chocolate dessert by making a chocolate sponge, make chocolate twigs using tempered chocolate, chocolate hazelnut sand by mixing nutella with N-Zorbit tapioca maltodextrin. You can then add components with white chocolate for visual contrast, or add some chocolate mint (a specific strain of mint that smells like a combination of mint and chocolate) in chiffonade, etc etc...

Also with the El Bulli theme is to do a chocolate version of their recent coconut puff - which was a microwave sponge chunk flavored with coconut with finely grated coconut covering the entire outside. So you could take your chocolate chunk, enrobe in tempered chocolate then cover in cocoa powder while still wet for an interesting matte look...

[janeer]

Me, I'd do a souffleed dessert omelet. Whatever they through at you could be used for the filling or garnish: fruit can be cooked down into a quick preserve for stuffing or a side compote; nuts or chocolate can be ground and sprinkled; cream can be whipped with liquor for the side, etc. The incredible, edible egg.