Birthdays are an excellent excuse to bake a cake. And if it's a birthday of someone in the family, it's the perfect time to try something new - 'coz if it doesn't turn out well...the least that could happen is a last minute trip to the bakery to buy a cake!
My mum's birthday cake was a no-brainer for me. She loves durians more than anything else so I had my mind set on a durian mousse cake from a long time back. I had a basic mousse recipe and every mousse that I tried was based on that one with a little tweaking here and there in the ingredients. I've never done a durian mousse cake before but I knew I just had to do it!
Making your own fruit puree is always a bit of a gamble as the sweetness, texture and freshness of the mousse will all depend heavily on it. Most importantly, if the fruit puree is too dense, the mousse may not set and you'll end up with cake floating in a gooey mousse mixture.
It was the first time I bought durians on my own and I made a mistake choosing ones that were a little too ripe. That meant that the taste was a little too strong and the cake would probably not last more than 3 days in the fridge....one more reason to eat it up quick! Hehe...
The durian puree made the mousse mixture so thick that I was resigned to having an unset cake, but thankfully the kitchen gods were kind to me and it turned out well! The mousse wasn't really smooth and had a slightly grainy look but I think that was due to the sheer amount of durians in it!
I felt like I needed a gas mask at some point because the smell was just too much to bear! I like durians but there's definitely a limit...
Normally my mum or my sis would help me with the decorations a whole lot 'coz I'm quite hopeless at coming up with ideas. But now my sister's moved out and I couldn't really ask my mum for ideas to decorate her own birthday cake, so I had to do it. It looked good in my mental picture but it came out looking pretty half-assed on the real deal...so hmmm guess I gotta work on that too.
