ideas for using these flavors in a cake?

[amccomb]

Hi!

I posted another thread asking for creative flavor ideas for wedding cakes, and was pointed to an excellent thread that I shared with the bride.

She narrowed down some combinations that sounded really great to her, and now I'm at a loss as to how to combine these flavors in a cake/filling! Would I use a mousse or buttercream filling with one flavor and a jam/curd with the other flavor? I don't mind doing that with a couple of cakes, but I was hoping to do something different with each of 10(!) cakes.

We know for sure we are going to do a chocolate cake with a caramel custard, a ganache, and maybe a pecan dacquoise or pecan praline. We are also doing a yellow cake with champagne poached peaches between the middle layers and a honey mousse or buttercream between the others. We might do the exotic orange cake from this site, as well.

Here are her other favorites:

-lime and ginger

-dark chocolate and pomengranate

-dark chocolate and pear and brown butter

-key lime and dark chocolate

-espresso and caramel

-fig and plum

-lemon, rum, and vanilla

-bourbon and tart cherry

-chocolate and ginger

Can anyone give me ideas on how to do these combinations? Some I might be able to do - for example, for lemon, rum, and vanilla, I could maybe do a lemon curd and a caramel (or mousse?) with rum and vanilla in alternating layers. For bourbon and cherry, I have a bourbon cherry jam I make that I could use as a filling. Should I leave it as that between all of the layers, or try to give a contrasting texture/flavor in between alternating layers? Or should I add flavoring to the cake itself?

Fig and plum eludes me, even though the combination sounds delicious. I have the same problem with dark chocolate, pear, brown butter and chocolate and ginger.

Any ideas? I'm really excited about this, and I'm having fun doing it, but I want these cakes to taste good, and I'm afraid of combining the flavors in a way that jars the palate.

[rooftop1000]

Ginger cake with whipped cream and dark chocolate shavings, a very light cake no fillings.

Chocolate sour cherry could head towards a german chocolate cake

Pear upside down cake with brown butter caramel and drizled with ganache.....

tracey

[bluechefk]

lime & ginger: flavor cake with lime zest & soak with key lime syrup; ginger buttercream with small pieces of candied ginger between the layers - maybe a plain buttercream to finish the cake.

fig & plum: plum upside-down layers - turn layers so that plums are inside the cake; fill with fig preserves & a mascarpone cream. or you could hunt around for a fruitcake recipe that would feature dried figs & dried plums.

lemon, rum & vanilla: vanilla bean & rum flavored cake layers; fill with lemon curd, and finish with a light lemon buttercream.

lime & chocolate: tart lime curd between layers of dark chocolate cake; cover all in key lime flavored bittersweet ganache.

the bourbon & cherry combination just cries out for pecans, imo

[K8memphis]

There's a ginger chocolate cake in Pierrre Herme's chocolate book. It's just all combined not different components. It was good.

[amccomb]

How would you guys do dark chocolate and pomengranate?

For the plum/fig, I have a nice spiced plum jam that I make every year. Maybe I could make a port syrup for soaking the cake and use the fig /mascarpone mix mentioned previously with plum jam in alternating layers? Or is that too much going on in one cake?

I also have a recipe for a nice pear bavarian cream. Could I maybe fill the cake with that and browned butter caramel and ice witha dark chocolate ganache for the pear/brown butter/ganache? Or fill with the bavarian and thin layers of ganache and ice with a browned butter caramel buttercream (not that I've ever made a caramel buttercream!)? The pear flavor is pretty subtle, though...

[bluechefk]

would you be willing to share your pear bavarian recipe? - i've been wanting to try one. it sounds like a nice filling for your cake - how about making the cake layers with browned butter? and if i remember right, pierre herme has a caramel ganache recipe in one of his books, too :-)

[amccomb]

Oh! Another flavor combo to add!

She wanted to add chocolate and mint, and I'm stumped on this, too, beyond a mint ganache. She wanted it to be like a grasshopper cake.

[bluechefk]

forgot to add to last post - re: pomegranate - off the top of my head, i'm wondering if RLB's mousseline buttercream could be adjusted to use pomegranate juice?

[meredithla]

How would you guys do dark chocolate and pomengranate? 

Or fill with the bavarian and thin layers of ganache and ice with a browned butter caramel buttercream (not that I've ever made a caramel buttercream!)?

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Try chefette's caramel french buttercream recipe in the recipegullet. I just did a bittersweet chocolate cake with a caramel marscapone filling and her caramel/cognac buttercream recipe. To die for!!

[SweetSide]

Oh!  Another flavor combo to add!

She wanted to add chocolate and mint, and I'm stumped on this, too, beyond a mint ganache.  She wanted it to be like a grasshopper cake.

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I did one like this more on the peppermint patty theme. Chocolate genoise, soaked with creme de menthe simple syrup, white chocolate whipped ganache filling with peppermint oil added, covered in dark chocolate ganache. Use green creme de menthe in the ganache and it will be more "grasshoppery".