Sweet Mondays: Concorde Cake

I first came across this cake in the Philippines when I was younger and would go there to visit my family.  It was always a really special treat to have this for dessert.  It is made from layering chocolate mousse with chocolate meringues and then sticks of chocolate meringue are placed on the outside and on top. The meringue that is layered with the chocolate mousse on the inside of the cake becomes soft from being in contact with the chocolate mousse, but you have the crunch from the meringue on the outside,  and the result is a rich decadent chocolate dessert. You only need a little piece, but you may go back for seconds if you are a chocolate lover like me.

I recently went back to the Philippines to visit and we happened to stop by the bakery that had this cake.  I had to have my husband and kids try it.  They loved it too!  It is something really different than what they were used to in a cake.  No sponge, just mousse and meringue.

When I came across this picture from our vacation, I knew I had to try and recreate it. Well, not that cake exactly since it is huge, but I definitely had to try the recipe.  Once I searched for it, I found that the cake had a bit of history to it.  It was created by a French Patissier named Gaston Lenôtre in the 1970's.  Some say that it was created to celebrate the first flight of the Concorde airplane, and that is where it got it's name. Gaston Lenôtre also started the Lenôtre shops, which are beautiful upscale bakeries in Paris.  

It takes a bit of time to make it, but the process is relatively easy.  First you make the meringues, both in circle shapes and tube shapes, then you make the chocolate mousse. Once they are finished, you layer the mousse with the disc shaped meringues and stick the tube shapes on the outside. You can use any remaining meringues to crumble on top.  It was my first time making chocolate meringues and they were not as hard as I thought they would be. Granted, my tube shape meringues didn't turn out perfectly straight, but as the French would say, c'est la vie! It still tasted very good.

Looking at the inside of the cake, you can tell it's definitely for chocolate lovers!

If you are interested in trying to make this cake, here is the recipe that I used.  I followed it for the most part, but I made my meringue circles about 5 inches wide (instead of the 8 inches they recommend) and made four circles instead of two. That way there were more layers of mousse and meringue.  Yum.

I hope you get to try a Concorde cake sometime.  It's definitely worth it!