Mascarpone torte with Grand Marnier

   

 This is the first challenge of Daring Bakers I post -and the most modified one- since I was supposed to excecute a pavlova recipe. Having trouble making a worthy cocoa meringue and being no fan of crunchy -and overwhelmingly sweet- baked egg whites,I used the mouthwatering and really easy making  mascarpone mousse ( which is also quite fatty...) in an orange scented torte. Replacing bitter chocolate with plain couverture, I also combined this filling with respberry gelee in a tart, which resulted really well and I'll  probanly post it later. 

              Olive oil cake

              100gr                      couverture
              50gr                       olive oil
              3                            egg yolks
              3                            egg whites
              50gr                       granulated sugar
              25gr                       flour
              1                            orange (zest)


            Mascarpone chocolate mousse
            265ml                       mascarpone, softened at room temperature
            241ml                       heavy cream
            173gr                       chocolate 72%
            2Tbs                         Grand Marnier


             Baked meringues
           60gr                          egg whites
           60gr                          granulated sugar
           60gr                          powdered sugar
           1                              orange (zest)


          Silky ganache
          148gr                         semisweet chocolate
          125ml                        heavy cream
          39gr                          sugar
          39gr                          corn syrup or glucose
          39gr                          butter
          1,5 Tbs                      Grand Marnier

As in every torte, start preparing the cake base. In a bain marie melt chocolate with olive oil and whip the egg whites to meringue. Whisk the egg yolks -which must have at least 25C temperature- in melted chocolate and fold in half of the meringue. Lumps may remain. Then add orange zest and the rest of meringue. Shift in the flour while folding the mixture -gently and avoiding deflating-, until homogenized. Place dough in a 20cm-diametre ring or a 20x24cm rectangle form ,covered with foil on bottom, and bake in a preheated oven at 180C (air) for 15min. Let the cake cool.

Continue with the mousse warming half of the cream. Melt with the hot cream the chopped chocolate and use the microwave to completely homogenise if necessary. Set aside to cool. Add rest of the cream and Grand Marnier to the mascarpone and mix at medium speed for a few seconds until soft peeks form. At low speed incorporate the thick ganache and start assembling the cake.
If using a ring and the cake has gained enough volume, cut two equal layers. Keeping the form to support the sides, fill with mousse and refrigerate or freeze untill set. If willing a rectangular one with changeable dimentions, cut the cake into two 20x12cm pieces and assemble similarly in a 20x12 size. For the meringues, whip the egg whites with caster sugar at medium speed until stiff peeks form and fold in the icing sugar with zest. Use a piping bag to make sticks and pellets on parchment paper and bake at 110C for about an hour. At last, prepare the ganache warming cream with sugar and corn syrup. Melt with the hot mixture the chocolate and butter, add Grand Mrnier, whisk until smooth and let cool untill soft but not runny. Spread a layer of it on top of the torte, freeze and pipe the rest of it in preferable shapes. Garnish with meringues.