10/99 Zach's La Bomba

I'm eating a slice of this cake (I need to be careful or it will be the whole cake) while I am writing this and I am getting goosebumps with every bite that I eat.  One of my roommates and I just stared at each other and shook our heads and then stared at the cake.  Totally speechless. In trying to describe it, the following video is the only way that I can show you what goes through my head with this cake in my mouth. Maybe I've been watching too much friends, or maybe the cake is that good.

So back to the bomba, or the bomb as I have been calling it. What a process!

The process of the cake started two days ago on Tuesday night. I started making the Blackfruit Tea Sabayon  that goes in the Blackberry Mousse Filling.  First, I have to tell you that I went to five grocery stores (including specialty stores like Fresh Market) to find black currant or blackberry tea.  I'd like to know where Rose shops for these things.  I finally gave up and got the closest thing- a mixture of black currant and cardamom tea that cost me about ten bucks. I was not happy about that.  Jenn, from The Knitty Baker, said she got her's from Teavana.  Our Teavana store opened last month so i'm so upset that I didn't go there before I invested in the cardamom blend.

Anyway, the Sabayon is where it gets interesting.  You bring an inch of water to boil in a saucepan and then you make a sort of double boiler with a glass bowl.  Rose specified glass so I used glass.  In the process of whisking my eggs, I got a little surprise that was entirely fitting: BOOM!  The bowl exploded.

Normally I would be not too happy about this but I couldn't help but laugh as the thing exploded while I was making a bomb. It was too fitting.

So I cleaned up my pieces and started over.

This time I stuck a spoon in between the bowl and the pan so that the trapped heat wouldn't explode my cookware.

But then another problem came up. You are supposed to whisk the eggs into submission ("vigorously" as it says in the book) for about five minutes.  My measly little muscles couldn't last but about 45 seconds whisking so vigorously so I started calling my roommates over one by one.

We got a nice little assembly line going where we'd stir for about 30-45 seconds, check the temperature, then switch.  It was great fun and I was super thankful because we had to whisk for about 10 minutes because the bowl was so shallow that the temperature wasn't rising enough.

To complete the blackberry mousse filling, you puree a bunch of blackberries and then run them through a fine mesh strainer. Then you add some nice chocolate (60-64%) and some other things, including the Sabayon, and put it in a bowl and let it freeze.

The actual cake part of the bomb is pretty small. You bake it on a huge sheet and then cut it out so that you have lots left over:

And then finally last night I took it out of the freezer and poured on the laquer glaze and let it sit overnight in the refrigerator so that it would defrost a bit.

And this morning I just garnished it with a few blackberries and it's ready to serve!

Bon Appetit!


Rose's Heavenly Cakes
Flourless chocolate mousse cake- page 285
blackfruit tea sabayon- page 288
completed blackberry mousse filling- page 289
lacquer glaze- page 290