LE REFUGE

Spice cake:

1. In a stand mixer, cream butter, sugar, brown sugar and spices.

2. Add egg yolks one by one and incorporate well.

3. Incorporate dry ingredients sifted and the milk. Adding little bit of each and interchange.

4. Pour the dough in a bowl.

5. In the same stand mixer, cleaned, rise the whites gradually until soft peaks form.

6. Incorporate the raised whites gradually to the dough and pour into the molds that were sprayed with cooking spray and floured beforehand. (molds : mini bundt molds) PS: the first time we tried making these, we didn't flour the molds and used butter instead of cooking spray and it failed miserably. DON'T make the same mistake!

7. Cook for 20 minutes at 350°F.

8. You can unmold the cakes while still warm.

Milk chocolate mousse filling (a day before)

1. Bring cream to boiling temperature and pour over the chocolate. Let the mixture sit for a minute.

2. Emulsify the mixture with a whisk.

3. Cover with a plastic wrap and let cool down for a night in the refrigerator.

4. With a whisk, stir thoroughly the mixture until stiff peaks form (about 3 minutes).

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White Chocolate Chantilly (a day before)

1. In a pot, bring both the cream and corn syrup to boiling temperature. Add the gelatin sheets. Remove from heat, add star anises, vanilla and cardamom and let infuse for 5 minutes.

2. Pour the mixture onto the white chocolate.

3. Emulsify the mixture with an emulsion mixer while adding the rest of the cream (cold cream).

4. Use 1/6 of the chantilly for the green color and use the rest for the orange color. Add food coloring until obtaining the desired color.

5. Cover with a plastic wrap and let refrigerate for the night.

6. With a whisk, stir thoroughly the mixture until stiff peaks form (about 5-10 minutes for orange and 2-3 minutes for green).

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As for the assembly and design, rather than try to explain, I thought I would make an accelerated video showing these main steps:

1. First of all since we are using a chantilly rather than a buttercream. It is important to do a first thin layer to assure our frosting will be opaque in the end (chill for 20 minutes after this step).
2. Do a thick layer of mousse and use your spatula, a triangle shaped instrument and a trapeze shaped instrument to create the pumpkin shape (chill for another 40 minutes after this step).
3. Use wet finger to smoothen out the chantilly.
4. Use the end of a Pocky to create the stem and with green chantilly and a #67 piping tip create the leaves and with a #2 piping tip create the strings.

So here is the video:

Happy Cooking!