Christmas Arbitrator

Shortcrust

1. Quickly knead all the ingredients for the shortcrust pastry into a crumbly dough using the hand mixer and dough hook. Roll up in foil and let rest in the refrigerator. Seal three cake rings (26 cm diameter) with foil from the outside and place them on individual boards / trays that fit in the refrigerator.

Three types of chocolate mousse

1. For the chocolate mousse, temper the respective chocolates on the water bath. Separate the eggs for each variety and whip the egg whites and cream until stiff. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar until frothy. Quickly stir the chocolate into the egg yolk mixture, blend with a third of the egg white and carefully but quickly fold in the cream and the remaining egg whites. Pour each mousse into a prepared cake ring and let it harden in the refrigerator.

Marzipan biscuit

1. Preheat the oven to 175 ° C. Separate the eggs for the sponge cake, beat the egg whites with half the sugar and a pinch of salt until stiff. Mix the egg yolks with the rest of the sugar until frothy, if necessary, carefully heat the marzipan in the microwave in stages and stir into the egg yolk mixture. Sieve the flour onto the egg yolk mixture, level it with a third of the egg whites and carefully fold in the remaining egg whites. Line a 26 cake ring with baking paper (bottom), fill in the biscuit mixture and bake until golden at 175 ° C (about 30 minutes). Take out of the oven, let cool and cut into four 1 cm thick bases.

Baumkuchen

1. Preheat the oven to 220 ° C. Separate the eggs for the tree cake, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt and granulated sugar until stiff. Mix the butter with the powdered sugar until frothy. Add the pulp of the vanilla. Also stir the egg yolks until frothy, gradually add the marzipan (possibly reheat slightly in the microwave). Gradually add the egg yolk mixture to the butter mixture and stir. Stir in the flour and carefully fold in the egg whites. Line a 24 cake ring with parchment paper (bottom) and place on a baking sheet. Smooth out 1-2 tablespoons of dough and bake in the oven for about 2-3 minutes on the highest level. Spread another 1-2 tablespoons of dough on top and do this until the dough is completely used up. Let the finished Baumkuchen cool down. Take the shortcrust pastry out of the refrigerator, knead until smooth, roll out approx. 0.5 cm thick and cut out a 26 cm cake base. Bake at 160-175 ° C in a preheated oven until golden yellow.

Three kinds of brittle

1. Now make the brittle for the chocolate mousse and the layered nougat. Caramelize 330 g sugar for the pistachios, 300 g sugar for the cashew nuts and 375 g sugar for the pine nuts. Add the nuts / seeds / kernels, place on a silicone mat and roll out with a rolling pin. Beat it up several times and roll it out again. Temper all of the chocolate for the nougat. Now weigh 440 g of the pistachio brittle, 400 g of the cashew brittle and 450 g of the pine nut brittle and chop in a food processor for about 5 minutes until an oily, pasty mass is formed. Stir this into the respective chocolate (pistachio → white, cashew → whole milk, pine nut → dark). Line a sheet with foil. First brush this with the pine nut nougat (approx. 0.5 – 1 cm thick), allow to harden in the refrigerator, then spread a layer of pistachio nougat, allow to harden again. Finally, apply a layer of cashew nougat and let it harden again. If you want, you can apply additional layers, the nougat can be kept liquid on the water bath. Chop the remaining brittle and place a handful on each of the various chocolate mousse (again: pistachio → white, cashew → whole milk, pine nut → dark).

assembly

1. First cut the cooled Baumkuchen into strips and then into small cubes. Spread a handful of Baumkuchen pieces on top of the chocolate mousse. Now provide each of them with a sponge cake base, press firmly, remove the edge of the mousse from the cake ring with a knife and turn it out. Brush the shortcrust pastry base with 1-2 tablespoons of liquid chocolate and cover the sponge base with the dark mousse. This is followed by the white mousse au chocolat base and finally the one with the whole milk mousse au chocolat. Top with the rest of the sponge cake. For the ganache, bring the cream to the boil, remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate. Let cool slightly and place on top of the sponge cake. From the frozen nougat, cut cubes that are roughly the same size as the pieces of Baumkuchen. Decorate the ganach glaze generously with pieces of Baumkuchen and layered nougat cubes and allow to cool. For the ganache, bring the cream to the boil, remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate. Let cool slightly and place on top of the sponge cake. From the frozen nougat, cut cubes that are roughly the same size as the Baumkuchen pieces. Decorate the ganach glaze generously with pieces of Baumkuchen and layered nougat cubes and allow to cool. Measure the circumference and height of the current cake for the edge of the chocolate. Divide the circumference by three and cut three strips of parchment paper to the length and height of the cake. Brush one strip each with white, dark and milk chocolate and let it sit slightly. Loosen the cake blank from the cake ring. Now gradually press the different chocolate strips onto the cake so that the edge of the cake is completely covered. Alternatively, you can simply spread the chocolate ganache completely over the cake and decorate with layered nougat and nuts.