Mulberry Project - Layers of Vanilla Mousse, Pastry Cream, Fresh Mulberries, Toasted Walnuts, Homemade Mulberry Jam and Banana Cake

I was walking my way up to the yoga studio as I saw a street vendor selling what seemed to be blackberries. My heart was beating really fast, "OMG this is the inspiration I need - fresh lovely ingredients to work with!" I swiftly bought a bag from the vendor, and as I was paying I noticed that the berries were oblong shaped. "What the heck did I buy?" No way those were blackberries. I was already getting changed for my class, but I was so curious of what I bought, so I opened the bag and got a berry out to taste. One of my classmates saw me, and asked what was in the bag. I told her I have no clue. She peeked into the bag and said, "ah, 오디 (odi)!" Alright, I have a bag of odi on my hands, but still got no clue on what it was. I got my phone out; thank goodness for kor-eng dictionary, so that's when I figured I had a bag of mulberries.

 Oh, forgive me for my ignorance, but I honestly didn't know a berry called mulberry existed. All along I thought Mulberry was just a made-up berry to name a British high end luxury brand like Burberry! haha! Umm, or is there a berry called burberry? Please enlighten me if there really is a burberry berry.

Mulberries

The mulberries tasted similar to grapes, a subtle version of grapes in my opinion. I was searching cyberspace to find what people normally do with mulberries. Disappointed with the information available, I just decided to follow my instinct with my mulberry project.

Berries are often times turned into tarts or jam. Grape jelly is perfect with peanut butter; PB&J with bananas are yummy. A simple cake sandwiched with jam goes a long way; it is also one of the key components of an English trifle. Am I making any sense? Probably not, but those are the things rambling in my mind when I was thinking of what dessert to make out of my mulberries. So with those mash of things in my mind, my mulberry project is a dessert carrying layers of vanilla mousse, pastry cream, fresh mulberries, toasted walnuts, homemade mulberry jam and banana cake.

How I assembled the cake using a loaf pan. Top left corner: Pastry cream layer embedded with mulberries and walnuts; top right corner: banana cake covered with mulberry jam; bottom left corner: last layer of banana cake; bottom right corner: the cake inverted out from the loaf pan (I used a torch to slightly warm up the pan to loosen up the mousse, so the cake would slide out easily).

The verdict: it's an ok dessert. Since the mulberry has a very subtle flavour, the two layers of banana cake were overpowering. I tried eating it with just one layer of banana cake, and it tasted better. Although I think a more lighter flavoured cake would work better, something like a lemon sponge cake would be a really nice alternative to the banana cake. Nevertheless, I'm happy with what I came up with.

Thanks to these mulberries, my chemistry with baking is back; it's sizzling and sparks are flying. Until my next baking affair!

Components used for this dessert treat:

• Vanilla Mousse
• Pastry Cream
• Fresh Mulberries and Walnuts
• Mulberry Jam
• Banana Cake

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte