Recipe from Evi Bakermans (winner of Baking Contest in Brabant, Baking with Sponge Fingers, the Netherlands).
Ingredients base:
100 gram (crushed) Sponge Fingers
60 gram butter
Ingredients Crème de Marron:
200 gram roasted or pre-cooked chestnuts
200 gram light coloured castersugar
240 ml water
1 vanilla-pod
Ingredients cheese cake topping:
200 gram Monchou cheese cake (ambient)
250 gram whipped cream
100 gram sugar
1 bag of whipped cream stabilizer
Ingredients nut crumbs:
100 gram chestnuts
100 gram hazelnuts
250 gram sugar
50 ml water
Other supplies:
Round shaped baking pan 18cm
Grand manier
1 pak Sponge Fingers
1 bar dark chocolate
2 bars white chocolate
1 pomegranate
Method:
1) Nut crumbs
- Heat the sugar with water to a brown karamel (do not stir during this process) in a pan.
- Add the hazelnuts and chestnuts to the karamel and stir.
- Put baking paper on a baking pan and put the karamel mixture on the baking paper.
- Wait until the mixture is cooled down and chop into crumbs with a blender.
2) Base
- Crush the Sponge Fingers in a blender.
- Melt the butter in a pan en add the crushed Sponge Fingers. Stir with a spoon.
- Put baking paper on the baking pan (18cm).
- Put the butter and Sponge Finger mixture equally on the base of the baking pan. Put this in the refrigerator.
- Melt half of the bar of dark chocolate and put this on top of the butter / Sponge Finger mixture. Put it back in the refrigerator.
3) Crème de Marron
- Add the water and sugar in a pan, add the vanilla seeds from the vanilla-pod.
- When the sugar is starting to solve, add the roasted chestnuts and stir.
- Stew the mixture and stir until the mixture thickens (after approximately 10-15 minutes).
- Pour the mixture in a bowl and mash with a mixer until it is an equal creme. Let the mixture cool down.
4) Cheese cake topping
- Mix the cheese cake until it is smooth.
- Add the sugar and mix.
- Mix in a different bowl the whipped cream with the whipped cream stabilizer until it is half stif.
- Gently add the whipped cream to the cheese cake mixture until it is an equal topping.
- Put it until use, in the refrigerator.
5) Making the cake
- Take the baking pan with the cooled base and chocolate out of the refrigerator.
- Spread half of the Crème de Marron on the base.
- Add the nut crumbs to cover the base (not too much).
- Spread half of the cheese cake topping and make sure that the surface is smooth and equal.
- Put the Sponge Fingers on top and sprinkle with Grand Manier.
- Spread the remaining Crème de Marron.
- Finish with the remaining cheese cake topping and put the cake in the freezer for 1 hour.
- Start with preparing the decoration of the cake.
6) Decoration cake
- Melt 2 bars of white chocolate (au-bain-marie) and add a piece of the dark chocolate (to get a light brown colour).
- Spread the chocolate on a baking pan with baking paper.
- Cut the pomegranate open and remove the seeds (make sure that the skin is removed).
- Cut the chocolate into rectangular shapes (4x6 cm).
- Get the cake and stick the chocolate rectangles to the sides of the cake (cover the cake on the sides).
- Sprinkle pomegranate seeds and nut crumbs on top of the cake. Tie a nice ribbon around the cake.