Full question
I’ve made the Easter Egg Nest Cake before and can’t recall having any issues previously but twice I’ve tried now to make the filling and the chocolate and cream seemed to seize when mixed together. The mixture became clumpy. I waited for the chocolate to cool. It was still delicious! Is it to do with the cocoa content of the chocolate? Thank you!
Our answer
Nigella's Easter Egg Nest Cake (from FEAST) is a flourless chocolate cake. It tends to sink slightly as it cools, giving an indent that is perfect for nesting chocolate whipped cream and candy-coated eggs.
The filling is a chocolate cream, made with a combination of melted chocolate that is folded into lightly whipped cream. There are a couple of reasons why the mixture could have turned clumpy. It is most likely that the cream became overwhipped as the melted chocolate was folded in, particularly if you are using double cream. Nigella notes that the cream should be aerated but still soft, so the cream is not whipped even as far as soft peak stage, as it will firm up more as the chocolate is folded in. It is slightly better to initially underwhip rather than overwhip the cream as you can always give the cream a few extra turns with a whisk after adding the chocolate. If you had shards of chocolate in the cream then it is likely that the cream was too cold and the chocolate solidified as it was folded into the cream. If this is the problem then you can let the cream stand out of the fridge for 20-30 minutes before whipping (though be careful when whipping it as the cream will thicken more quickly) or add a spoonful of the lightly whipped cream to the bowl of melted chocolate and stir this in before folding this into the cream. This will help to "temper" or equalise the temperatures of the two ingredients slightly.
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