Mocha Nougatine Cake

Weekends can't be more beautiful than these past two weekends here in San Jose, California. Sure we have a late Spring here with rain pouring down about 3 days a week in average, clouds and winds are the rest, but for the last two weeks, the weekend has always been gorgeous, like the one we're having now. It's bright and sunny with temperature around 75 degrees, so who cares if the weather sucks on weekdays as long as it's warm and sunny on the weekends. So even though my allergy is getting worse and worse, who can complain? It felt so good that I can finally go out wearing shorts and no jacket, it felt good when I stroll around in cotton summer dress, I can finally enjoy my jamba juice and frozen yogurt again, ahh.... a beautiful life :)

Enough about the weather report, onto the meat now.

It was nice having a little break from baking last week, no birthdays (none that I had to make cake for), and no other events, no last-minute thing, nothing. I did enjoy my sleep and not having to wake early to finish some cake or decorating. It wasn't too busy either at work so I could go home on time and play with my baby nephew. I did however, can't stay away for too long from baking. I made this cake last weekend just because for once, I didn't have any particular plan other than errands to do, and this cake has been on my to-try list for a while. So what's special about this cake, other than the fact that it doesn't scream Spring?

There is a bakery in a city of Bandung, Indonesia called Bawean or Sweetheart. This bakery is so famous and I've been hearing lots of things about this particular bakery. I for one, never been there and when I heard so many good things about it, especially about what they call "Mocha Nougat Cake", I just had to try making it at home. From what I heard, this is one of their most popular cakes, it has three layers of vanilla sponge, filled with very strong rum custard, covered in mocha buttercream and crushed nougatine. When I say strong custard, I really meant STRONG. I never prove it of course, but I have quite a few friends coming from the city and the first thing they say when describing this cake is that this cake is strong strong strong in alcohol. I mean literally, it's so strong that it's bitter and the alcohol goes straight into your nose on your first bite. Many said that they feel tipsy after a slice or two, but strangely, people kept coming back and makes you wanting for more.

From the description, it doesn't sound too hard to make, in fact, I would say it's quite simple. So when I had some time last weekend, I was determined to make this. I have never made nougatine before, so I also learned something here. I used chiffon type cake as the base, made pastry cream with lots of rum, simple coffee buttercream, and the peanut nougatine. Making the nougatine was pretty straight forward but it did take me a long time chopping the peanut and the nougatine in pieces. I tried to use food processor but it just grind it into a fine powder, which I did not want, so I chop it manually with a knife.

I was really skeptical putting a lot of rum in the filling as I personally don't like cake that has too much alcohol in it. I love putting alcohol in my cake as a taste-booster, but when it starts to overpower the taste, that's when I draw the line. I say if you like your alcohol, that's fine, but why not go drink it straight from the bottle rather than spending hours or days making a cake that taste completely like alcohol? It's just a one-person opinion though :D. I did however put a good dose of rum in it, just not too boozy yet.

So, does it live up to the hype? Well, I wouldn't know myself but I can say that this cake tastes pretty darn good. Just imagine creamy custard, soft sponge, coffee, and the crunch from caramel-flavored peanut in every bite, enough said :).

I won't post the recipe just yet. The recipe still needs tweaking :)