The last cake I made was somewhere during February! No wonder my mum has been hinting that there was no cake around the house as of late (I used to bake a cake every week or so!). So for Mother's Day, I decided to make a Mont Blanc-inspired cake, only that didn't work out as planned so I transformed it into a tartlet instead.
It's chestnut season over here as of late, but I bought a bag of chestnuts from the Asian grocers since I didn't have time to prepare the fresh ones. I expected them to be peeled, but they were shelled! I was impressed for a good few seconds until it hit me. I had to peel them myself and boy, they were a pain in the butt. I ended up breaking most of them but it was fine, as long as I had a few 'perfect' ones for decorating.
Decorating was done in a mad dash, but they seem to look alright (?!) Taste wise, I really enjoyed the chestnut cream and the contrasting textures. Next time, I'd like to try making a whole cake. But if it was in the tart form, to just bake the sponge in the blind baked tart shell so the tart would be more even.
In composition order: pate sucre shell, chocolate sponge brushed with sugar syrup, unsweetened whipped cream, chestnut pieces and chestnut cream. Garnishes used: half a chestnut, thyme and a light dusting of Dutch cocoa powder.
