Chapter 473 - 307: Do You Want to Try This?

Chapter 473: Chapter 307: Do You Want to Try This?

Watching the cake batter rise bit by bit under the warm yellow light of the oven, Lin Chen nodded in satisfaction and turned back around.

"The cake base is done. Next, we need to make the filling for the middle and the coating for the outside."

"Before we even start—back when we’re buying the ingredients—we have to be clear on what the main flavor of this dessert will be. Only then can we pair it with other flavors."

"For example, with the one I’m making, the primary flavor is definitely chocolate—and a rich chocolate at that. With that as the foundation, adding any kind of fruit would be pointless. The fresh sweetness of the fruit would be completely overwhelmed by the heavy sweetness of the chocolate. It would also dilute the richness of the chocolate, which is not what we want."

"But we’re making a Great Xia-style chocolate cake, not an American-style one. That means we can’t be as over-the-top with the sweetness and richness. We need to make it as light as possible."

"The hardest part of choosing the fillings is figuring out how to cut through the cloying sweetness of the chocolate without adding fruit, and without affecting its richness."

"So, next I’ll be demonstrating how to make a rum-and-chocolate coconut panna cotta. This will be one of the filling layers."

"Another layer will be something that’s become quite popular in Great Xia recently for pairing with desserts: mochi, made by heating tapioca starch and milk. I’ll be adding fermented rice to it to help cut the richness."

"This fermented rice is made from glutinous rice and is a semi-finished ingredient for making rice wine. It has almost no alcohol content, similar to a soft drink. Especially in winter, you’ll often see fermented rice-flavored hot milk tea and sweet soups on the menus of milk tea shops and restaurants."

"Also, speaking of chocolate, what are the most widespread and common flavor pairings in North America? That’s right, sea salt chocolate and mint chocolate. I’ll be adding both of those in as well."

He was busy from just after eight until ten o’clock, by which time he had finally finished preparing all the cake’s components. The baked chiffon cake had also been inverted and set aside to cool naturally.

「The next day, just as dawn broke.」

Erica, who had been thinking about the chocolate cake all night, was already washed up and knocking on Lin Chen’s door.

"Wakey-wakey, sleepyhead! Time to get up and work! If you don’t get up, I’m coming in~"

Lin Chen, who had wanted to laze in bed a little longer, snapped his eyes open and sat up with a sigh.

"I’m up, I’m up! I’m getting dressed, don’t come in."

CLICK.

The words had barely left his mouth when the doorknob turned.

Erica strode in and saw Lin Chen sitting on the bed, watching her quietly with an ’I knew it’ expression. She giggled, not looking the least bit embarrassed.

"Tsk, tsk. Lying isn’t what good boys do~"

"That doesn’t sound very convincing coming from a rascal like you."

"A rascal?"

Erica blinked and licked her lips. "Well, if I don’t do something to deserve it, I’d be letting that title go to waste."

As soon as she finished speaking, she lunged forward and threw back the covers.

A flash of disappointment crossed her eyes.

"Why are you sleeping in pajama pants?"

"Aren’t pajamas what you’re supposed to wear to sleep?"

"Those are for lounging around the house for comfort and convenience. It’s healthier to sleep naked!"

’Sleep... sleep naked?’

Lin Chen’s mouth fell slightly open. He felt like he had just picked up on some unnecessary information.

Pouting, the foiled Erica pulled him out of bed. She rushed him through his morning routine and dragged him straight to the kitchen to continue filming.

First, he sliced the chiffon cake base evenly into four layers, each about two fingers thick.

He started with one layer of cake, spread a thin layer of sea salt chocolate ganache over it, and sprinkled it with crushed pistachios and hazelnuts.

He coated the surface of the second cake layer with ganache as well, placed it upside down on the nuts, and then coated its other side.

He added a layer of room-temperature fermented rice milk mochi. Its natural stickiness was enough to bind the cake layers, so no more ganache was needed.

He cut a few pieces of the rum-chocolate coconut panna cotta and arranged them on the third layer, filling in the gaps as much as possible, before covering it with the final slice of cake.

Staring at the three unexpected layers of filling on the camera’s screen, Erica, who was hiding behind the camera, couldn’t help but swallow hard.

Even though she hadn’t tried some of the flavors, she could roughly guess what they tasted like from Lin Chen’s descriptions and her own imagination.

She’d never imagined a cake could be made like this. You could even put pudding inside!

But that wasn’t all.

Lin Chen quickly melted chocolate and butter over a double boiler and poured it over the cake’s surface, creating a crispy chocolate shell.

While waiting for it to set, he whipped up some mint-flavored cream. Once it was whipped, he folded in a handful of chopped mint leaves and chocolate crunch pearls.

He used a piping bag to squeeze the cream onto the chocolate shell, roughly smoothing it with a spatula as he turned the cake. Then, he cut up some strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries for a simple decoration, and finally drizzled a little clear mousse liquid made with lemon juice to set everything in place.

After finishing the large cake, he immediately made a smaller one in the same way. This one was just for Erica.

Under the camera’s close-up focus, a sharp knife, heated in boiling water, sliced down the middle of the exquisite cake. The hot blade caused the cream layer it touched to melt slightly, creating a smooth cut.

The crispy chocolate shell also melted easily under the heat, without shattering at all.

Two cuts, and the resulting triangular slice was removed, revealing the cake’s exceptionally tempting cross-section.

Four layers of brown cake were interspersed with black chocolate sauce, white mochi, and coffee-colored rum-coconut panna cotta. The surface was inlaid with a thin, crispy chocolate shell, and the very outside was covered in pale green mint cream and colorful berries.

The color combination alone was almost enough to make the starving Erica faint. ℯℯ𝑙.

’I knew Lin Chen was a good cook, but who would have guessed his dessert skills are on another level?’

After filming the cross-section shot, the recording was about ninety percent complete.

All that was left was to film everyone’s reactions to a taste test at the market.

The moment he turned off the camera, Erica couldn’t hold back any longer. She darted over, picked up the slice that had just been cut, and, too impatient to even use a spoon, shoved it into her mouth.

The cake, a full nine layers tall, was ridiculously high. She could barely fit the bite in her mouth.

CRUNCH.

The crispy chocolate shell shattered with a crisp sound.

The cool, dense mint cream gave off a light, fresh aroma. The chopped mint mixed within burst with an ultimate coolness against the warmth of her mouth, and every so often, she’d bite into one of the chocolate crunch pearls mixed into the cream.

The texture of these crunch pearls wasn’t just plain chocolate like she’d imagined. Instead, they were like tiny, spherical chocolate wafers, with a crispy cookie core inside.

The rum-coconut panna cotta was cool and refreshing. A faint coconut fragrance held a subtle hint of alcohol; since it had been cooked, the alcohol had completely evaporated, leaving only a lingering aftertaste.

The chocolate ganache with pistachios and hazelnuts was the most familiar flavor to her, but the mochi layer in the very center of the cake, which looked like melted cheese, was the most surprising part.

Whether it was the cake sponge, the panna cotta, the chocolate, or the mint cream, everything slowly melted in her mouth.

Only the mochi layer, which not only looked like cheese but acted like it too, stretched into a long, white strand that showed no signs of breaking!

Even enveloped by layers of rich chocolate, the unique flavor of sweet fermented rice from the mochi still managed to break through.

This faint alcoholic note, combined with the flavor of the rum, created the illusion that she was eating a liqueur-filled chocolate cake.

As she chewed, the saltiness from the sea salt in the chocolate ganache slowly emerged.

With just one bite, she was swaying her head in bliss, completely lost in a world of chocolate.

Seeing her exaggerated reaction, a skeptical Lin Chen cut a small piece for himself as well.

Even though he was the one who made it, this was actually his first time trying this combination. He wasn’t entirely sure how the final taste would turn out; he had simply simulated it in his head and, feeling the flavors might work, just stacked a bunch of delicious things together.

"Hm?"

After the cake entered his mouth, its unexpected deliciousness made him raise his eyebrows in surprise.

It was a little too sweet for his taste, but since it was meant for foreigners, maybe this level of sweetness wasn’t even enough.

Aside from that one issue, the cake’s combination was practically perfect.

Even for someone like him, who was tired of Chinese-style cakes, this filled chocolate cake was a pleasant surprise. Every bite offered a different flavor.

If you ate the layers separately, it would be like having several different kinds of cake.

Just as he was carefully savoring the flavors in his mouth, Erica suddenly rushed over, threw her arms around him, and planted a firm kiss on his cheek.

"How are you so good at everything? Huh? Quick, tell me, is there anything you can’t do?"

"Is it that strange for a chef to know how to make dessert? Calm down."

"I can’t calm down! This thing is too delicious!!"

With that, she gave him another hard kiss.

Lin Chen sighed and wiped the chocolate from his face. He finished off the remaining cake on his plate, then started transferring the large cake into a box.

In the span of just two or three minutes, Erica had not only devoured the slice on her plate but had even cut herself another huge piece.

With that one slice, only half of the cake was left on the tray.

"You’re eating, right? Should I cut you a piece?"

"No, no," Lin Chen waved his hands quickly. "You have it. I’m not a big fan of sweets. Just tasting it is enough for me. The rest is all yours."

"You don’t like sweets?? Why?"

Erica, still holding her cake, stared with wide, disbelieving eyes. She simply couldn’t believe he wouldn’t like something so delicious.

"There’s no ’why.’ Everyone’s tastes are different. I just find sweets cloying after a while, same as how rich, fatty meat gets cloying if you eat too much."

"Oh, so that’s how it is..."

She tilted her head and took another huge bite of cake, her lips now smeared with cream and chocolate sauce.

As she chewed, she suddenly puckered her cherry-red lips.

"Then how about you try this flavor? I guarantee it’s not cloying!"