Vanitas, edible still life

Elaboración

FIRST DAY

Prepare sponge cake for opened book.

1. In the bowl of the KitchenAid, add the egg yolks and 75 g of sugar. Whisk on medium-high speed until whitish in colour and creamy, you will notice that it gains some volume.
2. Add the butter and beat again until smooth.
3. Begin to add the flour, a little at a time. Integrate while mixing on low speed.
4. Add baking powder together with salt, mix.
5. Finally, add the cornflour. Do it in the same way, little by little and mixing at the same time.
6. Once everything is integrated, set aside.

Whip meringue.

1. In another bowl, add the egg whites and begin to whip. Once it begins to foam, add the sugar (the remaining 75 g).
2. Whip with the whisk at medium-high speed until the meringue is firm, a little more soft peaks, but not dry. In other words, do not over whip the meringue until it is very stiff.

Add the meringue to the egg yolk mixture.

1. Start incorporating the meringue, little by little, into the egg yolk mixture.
2. Add a little, mix with a spatula until completely integrated and continue adding more. The first part of meringue will help us to smooth the mixture. As we add more, the mixture will become smoother and lighter.

Pour the batter in molds and bake.

1. Preheat the oven to 355ºF/180ºC, with heat up and down.
2. You will have prepared the mould in the shape of a book, greased with butter and sprinkled with flour, removing the excess. In my case, I also used another rectangular mould measuring 25 x 18 x 2.8 cm. The result was very thin and I did not use it to make a book. You can pour the whole quantity into the book mould.
3. Bake for 24-28 minutes.
4. Remove from the oven, leave to cool on a wire rack and turn out. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Wrap tightly in cling film and store in the fridge.

Prepare sponge cake for closed books.

1. Preheat oven to 347ºF/175ºC heat up and down.
2. Line a rectangular mold 25 x 18 x 2,8 cm with parchment, previously greased.Grease bundt molds and sprinkle with flour removing the excess. Set aside.
3. Sift the flour together with the baking powder and salt.
4. In a bowl add the egg whites together with the vanilla and milk, whisk until the mixture is homogenized.
5. In the bowl of KA or a stand mixer, add the butter together with sugar. Beat with the flat beater at medium speed, until a creamy, aerated and white texture is achieved.
6. Begin to integrate the dry ingredients alternating them with the liquids.
7. Add 1/3 of the egg white mixture and beat at the lowest speed for a few seconds. Stop, lower the mixture from the sides and add 1/3 more of the dry ingredient mixture. Mix again at low speed for a few seconds.
8. Repeat the same process with the rest of the egg whites and dry ingredients mixture. Mix at low speed only until the mixture is homogenized.
9. Pour the mixture into the moulds and bake for 35 minutes or until you prick it with a toothpick and it comes out clean.
10. Remove and let stand 5 minutes in the pan.
11. Unmould and leave to cool completely on a rack.
12. Once it is completely cold, wrap in plastic film and refrigerate until next day.

Prepare modeling chocolate.

1. The process for preparing the white and dark plastic/modeling chocolate is the same. Prepare both separately.
2. Add the chocolate to a waterproof bowl and melt in a bain-marie.
3. Remove from the heat and add the warm corn syrup. Mix until completely homogenised.
4. You will get a thick, slightly oily paste. This is fine.
5. Store the chocolate paste in a freezer bag or cling film. Stretch slightly, remove the air and set aside at room temperature until firm. It will take about 8 hours.
6. NOTE: To preserve it we can keep it refrigerated if it is very hot or in a cupboard, cool and dry. Always wrap tightly in cling film and put it in a zip bag to prevent it from drying out.

SECOND DAY

Prepare Swiss Meringue Buttercream (SMBC).

1. In a heat-resistant bowl, add the egg whites along with the sugar.
2. Place on a water-bath at medium low heat. Stirring constantly, leave until the egg whites reach 165ºF/74ºC. For it we will help ourselves of a digital thermometer.
3. Remove from the heat, pour the egg whites into the bowl of the KitchenAid or a stand mixer and whip at medium high speed until a firm and shiny meringue is obtained.
4. Once we have the firm meringue, begin to add the butter cut into squares little by little and at the same time the mixer continues whipping.
5. Once we have all the butter added, increase the speed and finish whipping.
6. Stop, scrap the cream with the help of a spatula and add the vanilla extract.
7. Whip again at high speed until the ingredients are completely integrated.
8. Cover with film and set aside.

Assemble the skull.

1. With the help of a serrated knife, cut out the base of the bundt cake.
2. Make sure they are as straight as possible and fit together well.
3. Spread the base of one of the bundt cakes generously with SMBC.
4. Join the two sponge cakes together and press down lightly.
5. Spread a first layer of SMBC over the entire surface of the cake. Make sure it is as smooth as possible. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
6. Cover with a second layer of SMBC over the entire surface. This time try to shape the SMBC as you lay out the SMBC to form a skull shape.
7. Refrigerate for 30 minutes to allow the SMBC to harden.

Stretch white modeling chocolate for the skull.

1. Stretch out about half of modeling white chocolate. Keep the rest in the bag or with cling film to prevent it from drying out.
2. Place on a silpat and roll out with a rolling pin. Try to dimension the chocolate paste until it is big enough to cover the whole skull. The chocolate should not be thick, the sheet should be rather thin.
3. Place the chocolate sheet on the sponge cake with SMBC and adjust.
4. Shape the plastic chocolate into the desired shape, in this case a skull.
5. With the help of a knife, remove the excess from the base and trim to a smooth finish.

Create the details to decorate the skull.

1. Model all the decorative parts of the skull; eye sockets, nasal septum... In the video I show you how I have done them, but you can make your own.
2. Once you have the skull, place strips of plastic chocolate to give the appearance of a pumpkin. To model, texture and join the pieces together, I use modelling tools.
3. With the excess from the top, create the stem of the pumpkin. Use texturing tools or a texturing knife.
4. Paint the eye sockets, the inside of the septum and the joints of the pumpkin's grooves with black powder colouring. These will give depth.
5. With the help of a brush, blend the excess.
6. Once you have the finished skull, keep it refrigerated while you form the books.

Shape opened book.

1. Cover the entire surface of the cake book with SMBC. It is not necessary to apply a very thick layer.
2. To create the pages of the book, use wafer paper or rice paper. Cut the pages to the same dimensions on each side of the book. You can cut as many pages as you want.
3. For the sides, cut strips that will simulate the pages closed one on top of the other.
4. Place rice paper, both on the sides and on the surface. The first layer will fit perfectly over the SMBC. The following pages, you should join them together with a small amount of water. Be careful not to overdo the water brushing.
5. Curve the corners of the leaves and brush the entire surface with cocoa powder to age them.
6. Finally, stretch a piece of dark chocolate modeling to create the cover of the open book. It should be larger than the size of the book.
7. Spread a thin layer of SMBC over the chocolate and place the book cake with the leaves on it. Cut off the excess chocolate and set aside. You can keep it refrigerated if you prefer.

Form the closed books.

1. To create the two closed books, I used the sponge cake baked in the rectangular mould.
2. Divide it into two pieces as similar as possible. In my case I have obtained two rectangles of 13 x 18 cm.
3. Cover the surface of both sponge cakes with SMBC.
4. To create the covers of the books, stretch modeling dark chocolate. You can either make one piece to cover both the cover and the book spine or you can make two pieces, one for one cover and the book spine and one for the other cover.
5. Cover the sponge cake with the chocolate and adjust to create the cover.
6. If you wish, you can create details for the book spine or the top cover. In my case I have used a silicone mould where I have created decorative details for the spine of the book.
7. To join these pieces together, use melted chocolate. If you wish, you can speed up the hardening process of the chocolate by using a chocolate cooling spray.
8. To create the sides that correspond to the pages part, use modeling white chocolate. Stretch pieces with the dimensions to fit these parts and texture with a scraper to simulate the reliefs of the pages. Place the pieces in the books.
9. Paint both the sides and the surface with cocoa powder to achieve an aged look.
10. Finally, you can paint the details or reliefs with bronze-coloured metallic powder colouring.
11. NOTE: You can create a page marker with modeling dark chocolate to place in the opened book. It gives a decorative touch and disguises the union of the pages. You can paint it if you wish.

Assemble Vanitas cake.

1. Choose a surface on which to present the cake.
2. Place the closed books, one on top of the other, and on top of these, the open book.
3. On top of these books, place the skull. It stands on its own very well, but you can use a stick if you prefer to hold the skull in place. Insert it into the books and then into the skull.
4. Serve and enjoy.
   

Notes

• To make the skull you can use moulds that you have at home, they don't have to be these or the same as these in particular. The important thing is that they have similar sizes and characteristics.
• To make the open book we can use this mould or we can use a rectangular sponge cake and shape it.
• The baking time of the sponge cakes will vary depending on the size of the mould you use.
• To line the moulds, we can grease the base and sides with butter to help the baking paper stick to it. The butter can be replaced with release spray.
• Refrigerating the sponge cakes overnight helps when cutting them because they will not crumble or will do so to a lesser extent. Or when assembling.
• In my case I decided not to fill the sponge cakes, but of course they can be filled. Always choose fillings that can stand a long time at room temperature.
• You can use corn syrup or glucose to make modeling chocolate.
• Respect the resting time of modeling chocolate in order to be able to work with it. If it is very cold, you can heat it with your hands or with a slight heat in the microwave (1 or 2 seconds).
• Remember to cover all the scraps of modeling chocolate that come out. When they are in contact with air for a long time, they start to dry out.
• Modeling chocolate can be stretched between two sheets of Teflon to make it easier to work with.
• To paint the chocolate I have used metallic powder colouring and cocoa powder, but other types of colouring can be used.
• It is important to follow and respect all the steps to obtain a good SMBC.
• If you have leftover SMBC, you can refrigerate it for 7 days or freeze it for 30 days. However, in this case we will not have any leftovers.
• It is important to be patient in the modelling process. The use of modelling tools helps favourably to achieve a good finish.
  

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• Butter
• Halloween
• Modeling chocolate