THE VANILLA THRILLER, ADRIANO AND 3 DAYS OF MY LIFE

Yes folks, this represents three days of my life I’ll never get back! Really! I cannot imagine managing to put up anything close to what this is, in just 4 hours as the Master Chef contestants did….I have a healthy new respect for those guys. And as for my new mate Adriano, what a true Master Chef, and all round nice guy. He deserves a medal!

I had some of the wrong equipment and although I will have nightmares about this cake for possibly months to come, it was amazing to the taste! AMAZING…capitals clearly don’t do it justice and words fail me. DIVINE…superlatives are without an equal to the taste of this masterpiece! This experience taught me a thing or two about myself.

• I don’t like having to follow intricate instructions
• Now that I have followed said intricate instructions, I have realized I was a little too worried about them all and have therefore relaxed
• I am deeply deeply lazy at heart and this pushed me beyond all previous boundaries of intensive kitchen labor!
• I love my Thermomix, I love my Thermomix, I love my Thermomix

Tenina's V4 PLUS S1 Cake!

So, just as a tweak, here are a couple of the layers, put together with a layer of my own. I’m calling it the V4 + S1 cake, (the strawberry layer), which nicely cut through the sweetness…I also recommend you head on over to the Thermoblog for one (and the three that have to be done before you can do the one…if that makes any sense!) of the processes that particularly took my fancy and a couple more of them may show up here sooner or later, or at least versions of sorts. (Just not in one location or one cake!!)

The V4 + S1 consists of 3 macaron layers, separated by Vanilla Almond Crunch, Toasted Vanilla Brulee and Vanilla Ganache.

Access Vanilla Almond Crunch here.

Vanilla Ganache

NEED:

300g white couverture chocolate in pieces

1 vanilla bean

185g thickened cream (I used pure cream and added 1 tsp cornflour)

1tsp vanilla essence

100g unsalted butter

DO:

Place chocolate and vanilla bean into Thermomix bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 10.

Add remaining ingredients and mix for 2 minutes on speed 7-8 until thick creamy consistency is achieved.

Cover with cling film pushing film onto surface of ganache and set aside until use.

Toasted Vanilla Brulee

NEED:

3 egg yolks

50g dark brown sugar

250g thickened cream (again, I used pure cream and added 2tsp cornflour)

1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped out

175g caster sugar

25g cold water

DO:

Place all ingredients into Thermomix bowl and cook for 6 minutes at 80°C on speed 4. Pour into large shallow baking tray so the mix is approximately 1/2 cm depth.

Bake in 180°C oven for around 10 minutes until golden. Increase temp to 200°C and cook a further 5-10 minutes until a dark golden crust is formed. It will appear slightly split.

Cool completely.

Scrape mixture into Thermomix bowl and blend for 20-30 seconds on speed 4-5 until a smooth paste is formed.

Cover with cling film, pushing film down to fully cover the surface of the brulee mixture until needed.

SO: Quick recap of V4 + S1 cake pictured;

• 1 layer macaron (recipe not here…will need to do again in near future…)
• Vanilla Almond Crunch layer
• Another Macaron layer
• Toasted Brulee layer, Vanilla Ganache layer
• Final Macaron layer

Drizzle the whole darn lot with White chocolate ganache, top with strawbs and Adriano’s your uncle!