Corn and mascarpone cake by Hiroyuki Emori
Text: Reiko Matsuno | Photos: Haruko Amagata
Hiroyuki Emori is a professional figure of great importance in Japan and with great international projection. Head of Maison Givrée since 2017, he has developed a business that equally combines signature pastry and ice cream. Among his hallmarks is a preference for working vegetables into cakes and ice creams. “I think asparagus is like a fruit,” he explains, “because its juice is so sweet and juicy that it works wonderfully with white chocolate.” With this idea he shows us his usual assortment of cakes.
Having trained in the North of France together with illustrious masters such as Franck Fresson, at Maison Givrée the star cake format is the tartlet, either individually round or well portioned in the form of a wedge. All these cakes usually have a crunchy base, a cooked cream, and other airy creams with which to complete each proposal.
Wedge Cakes
In Japan, they are especially familiar with the sliced cake wedge format, which is what Maison Givrée uses to display their usual assortment of cakes, always with seasonal flavors. On our visit there, we found, for example, this spectacular corn cake. Like the rest of the series, it has a crunchy base and an almond cream baked inside. The combination is then completed with a corn cream and a mascarpone cream quenelle on top.
Corn cake
Sablé
- 180 g softened butter
- 120 g icing sugar
- 300 g flour
- 37 g almond powder
- 55 g eggs
- 2 g vanilla powder
Work/mix the butter and sugar well. Add the eggs and emulsify. Then add the flour and the almond and vanilla powders. Reserve cold. Roll out the dough to 5 mm thick and line a 21 cm diameter tart. Reserve cold. Bake at 160ºC for 15 minutes.
Almond cream
- 250 g softened butter
- 125 g vanilla powder
- 250 g icing sugar
- 220 g eggs
- 250 g almond powder
- 60 g soft/cake/all-purpose flour
Combine the butter, vanilla, sugar, eggs, and flours and mix well. Pour into the pre-cooked sablé tartlets. Bake at 180ºC for 15 minutes.
Corn cream
- 125 g fresh cream
- 0,50 g vanilla bean
- 20 g sugar
- 33 g yolks
- 1,5 g gelatin sheets
- 200 g corn
- 100 g cornmeal
Roast the corn in the oven. Make an English cream with the cream, vanilla, sugar, cornmeal, and egg yolks. Add the hydrated gelatin sheets and the roasted corn kernels. Pass through the blender and process in a slow extraction or cold pressed blender. Pour the mixture into circular silicone molds 1 cm thick. Spread the corn kernels on the surface and freeze.
Gold whipped ganache
- 120 g fresh cream
- 20 g trimoline
- 100 g Gold caramel couverture
- 283 g fresh cream
- 2 g salt
Heat the first cream and the trimoline, mix with the melted chocolate and emulsify. Add the second cream and salt and emulsify. Reserve the set in the cold for a day. Assemble and pour into a ring with a diameter of 21 cm and a height of 3 cm. Place the frozen corn cream in the center and freeze.
Mascarpone cream
- 200 g cream
- 50 g mascarpone
- 25 g icing sugar
- 1 g salt
Mix all the ingredients and assemble.
Corn glaze
- 600 g sugar
- 150 g water
- 200 g glucose syrup
- 650 g fresh cream
- 150 g powdered milk
- 20 g gelatin
- 100 g neutral glaze
- w/s yellow dye
Heat the glucose syrup, water, and cream. When the mixture reaches 45ºC, add the powdered milk and sugar. Continue with the gelatin and the neutral glaze and finish with the coloring. Emulsify well.
Montage
Apply the glaze at 28ºC on the assembled ganache with the corn cream inside. Place on the already cooked and cold tartlet. Place a mascarpone cream quenelle on top of the cake and decorate with corn sprouts and some roasted grains.
