Memories "Kakekrigen" Semifinal - Day One

I was back in the studio, all the memories of my first week in studio were flooding back. This time I was feeling comfortable but little bit nervous of the challenges ahead. I was looking forward to meet the week’s finalist and  I knew the competition will be much tougher. I learned a lot from last time and hopefully it will help me in the competition.

Here are the Semifinalist 

As last time, we were picked up from hotel at 06:30. And there I met all my co-participants.They all were very nice people but I was missing my old group :( .

We reached studio and started dressing up. It was my turn for the makeup.

Makeup time

Today for the first time I met, Lars Lian (Judge). He came to the dressing room and introduced himself. It was bit difficult to understand his dialect. He is from North part of Norway. But seems like a nice guy :).

We all were ready for the photo shoot and then we all lined up for the entry. Fridtjof began with the theme. Today’s theme was Eventyr Cake (Fairy Tales). I do not know much about the Norwegian FairyTales but through my son I learned about  some of the Norwegian Fairytales. I choose a story about a brave boy who fooled the Troll and helped his father  ‘’ Askeladden Som Kappåt med Trollet’’. The task was to use this story as an inspiration for the cake.

I planned to make a Chocolate Roll Cake (Roulade Cake) with caramel cream filling and Cloud Berries Jam, Cloud Berries (Multer/cloud berries are Norwegian berries and found in jungle, it has a very special sour taste). In spices, I was planning to use cinnamon in cake and cardamom.

Monica checking Spices 

As the story was about the jungle & troll, so my Roulade  cake would represent a wooden log and sticky caramel will represent the troll and cloud berries  (multer) would represent the jungle/forest. I also made Fondant Troll and Boy to set up the scene.

The most difficult part in this cake was to roll the cake . As this was a flour-less cake, so I knew it will crack once I start to roll it. My plan was to use Chocolate Ganache as glue and to give the cake a wooden log appearance.

I started with caramel and everything was going well. But then I had some difficulty with my caramel. I had to prepare it twice. The first batch was little bit bitter in taste, as the sugar caramelized into darker color than I would have preferred. As caramel was an important element, so I decided to make another batch. And this time it was perfect.......yum :)

Critical Moment……….

As expected, when I started to roll the cake I could see the cracks. Fridtjof was so worried that the whole cake will fall apart and he was standing nearby me. But I knew how to handle it. I told Fridtjof that ‘’it is just like a work of art’’. He was more nervous than me and I assured him that it will be alright :))))

I managed to transfer the cake to a serving dish in one piece :). At last I covered it with chocolate ganache and it was looking like a wooden log.

As usual, I didn’t had much time to look around. I gave the final touch with the Troll, boy, trees, mushrooms, berries. I was very happy with the final result. And then I looked around at other cakes and felt that I had  a chance to win Yellow apron this time.

After that I presented my cake to judges. Judges were very happy with the presentation.

Tasting Time:

Judges did liked the chocolate flavor in the cake, caramel was also upto the mark. They needed bit more sour taste to balance the caramel. For the sour taste, I used cloud berries (multer) but was not enough. The kitchen staff provided me canned berries instead of fresh. I was bit scared that canned berries would contains liquid and cream might turn runny because of that I didn’t used enough :(

Although I didn’t win the yellow apron but my cake was in top two :-).

I was very proud and happy. And there is always a next chance.....