For this year’s Mid-Autumn Festival, I wanted to do a few different kinds of moon cakes. Some more traditional, and some, a new interpretation of the term “moon cake”. In this case, I wanted to do not one, but two petit gateau, both moon-themed. One would be inspired by the full moon, but the other, the blood moon. And that’s where the idea came about to do these moon-themed petit gateau! When it came to the flavor profiles, I wanted one to feature lighter-colored ingredients(which would reference the full moon) and one to feature dark and red-colored ingredients(which would be the blood moon). For the blood moon, blood orange was a no-brainer. It just made sense to go that route. I also happened to have cherries on hand, so I figured, that would be another red ingredient I could add that would enhance the red color of the blood orange even further. For another ingredient, I went with black sesame. Sesame can be smoky, nutty, and creamy, and those were all things that would compliment the cherries and orange beautifully. In fact, just to tie these cakes in with their full-moon counterparts, I actually made both use sesame as a base flavor – white sesame for the full moon, and black sesame for the blood moon. Thematically, these two cakes really came together quite nicely in both conveying the visuals of a moon, but also having really complimentary flavors to one another. I like the blood moon cakes especially because it is not a version of the moon people often try to recreate in dessert form!

For the components, we have a cherry-blood orange mousse, a cherry center, black sesame microwave sponge, blood orange glaze, and cherry fluid gel. The black sesame microwave sponge was done for two reasons – it saves a lot of time, since it can come together in as quickly as 5 minutes, and the porous texture of microwave cakes is a fun visual play on both space rocks and the craters of the moon. I made sure I had these paper box-shaped cupcake liners for these, but any microwave-safe paper cup would work too! What I love is that these cakes don’t require a foaming gun or siphon to make, but they are still just as light and airy as a microwave cake made with those! To further accentuate the surface of the moon-appearance, I used rings of cherry fluid gel on top of my cakes, since they would also look like those same craters, but would be a more similar color to the reddish-pink cherry-blood orange mousse. In terms of components and difficult, I would say that there really wasn’t one component that was terribly difficult to execute, but patience is key when working with these kinds of multi-layered mousse cakes: you need to make sure that the cherry core is frozen solid before attempting to put into the cherry-blood orange mousse, or you’ll end up with a smeared up mess when you cut into the mousses, instead of relatively clean, separate layers. The mousses themselves will need to be frozen solid before the glazing stage, or else the glaze will melt the mousse, and you’ll end up with a puddle. I used a clear glaze for these petit gateau, since the reddish pink color was really pretty, and I did not want to either cover that up with a mirror glaze, or fumble around with dying a mirror glaze to match that color.

Makes 4 servings:
For the cherry core:
18 pitted cherries
1/4 cup water
1 tsp agar
a pinch of salt
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tbsp blood orange juice

Puree all of your ingredients in a blender first. Transfer the liquid to a pot, and bring everything to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once everything is dissolved into the liquid, take the pot off heat and pour the contents of the pot into 4 2-inch silicone disk mold divots. Reserve any spare, as that will be used for the fluid gel garnish. Freeze the core solid, at least 90 minutes, before attempting to unmold. Keep the cores frozen solid for initial assembly.

For the blood orange-cherry mousse:
Juice and zest from 2 blood oranges
1/4 cup pitted cherries
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
a pinch of salt
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped stiff

Puree together the blood orange juice, zest, and the cherries in a blender. In a pot, whisk together the cherry-blood orange puree, cornstarch, gelatin, salt, and sugar. Bring to a boil while whisking continuously, making sure that there are no lumps, and that everything is melted together into the liquid. Pass through a sieve to remove any potential lumps as well as the zest, and allow the strained liquid to cool down to room temperature. Fold into that the heavy cream in three parts and transfer to a piping bag.

For initial assembly:
Start by piping the mousse halfway up into 4 petit gateau silicone molds. Press the frozen cherry cores into each mousse, then add in more mousse on top to cap off each divot, using an offset spatula to flatten out each mousse. Transfer to the freezer and freeze solid, at least 2-4 hours, before attempting to unmold.

For the black sesame micro cake:
1 egg
3 tbsp granulated sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp black sesame powder
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt

In a bowl, whip the egg white with sugar and vanilla to stiff peaks. In another bowl, begin mixing the black sesame powder and egg yolk together. Sift into that the flour and salt, and fold in the whipped egg white. With 3 heatproof paper cups, poke holes into the bottom of the cup, no more than 4, with a paring knife. Line the inside of the cups with cooking spray and divide the batter amongst the 3 cups. Microwave the cakes for 75 seconds and then let them cool upside down(this will allow the sponges to retain a more porous texture) for 2 minutes before tearing off the cups. Slice one of the cakes into 1/4-inch slices, and cut out 2-inch rounds from those, reserving the scraps. With the remaining cakes, start tearing them into smaller, roughly thumbnail-sized pieces, and store them in an airtight container.

For the soak:
1/4 cup milk
1 tbsp black sesame powder
a pinch of salt

Mix together the three ingredients. Brush onto the 2 inch round-cut cakes.

For the clear glaze:
1/4 cup blood orange juice
2 tsp gelatin powder
1/2 cup water
A pinch of salt

In a pot, mix together the blood orange juice with gelatin powder first. Then add to that the water and salt and bring to a simmer. Allow the glaze to cool down to 90 degrees F before pouring onto the still-frozen mousses, either over an elevated surface, or on a drying rack. Allow the excess glaze to drip off, and reserve that, and let the glaze set around the mousses before transferring onto the soaked black sesame micro cakes.

For the cherry fluid gel:
Reserved cherry core
1 tbsp warm water

Puree the set cherry core with water until it is completely liquid. Using a 1/4-inch ring cutter, more specifically the rounded side, dip that into the gel, and press it into the tops of each cake, two to three times, to form crater-like rings on top of the cake to emulate the red moon pattern!

For final assembly:
Fresh cherries, sliced in half and pitted
Reserved clear glaze
Cherry fluid gel

Re-melt the clear glaze as necessary, and brush the cherries with the glaze, specifically on the cut-open side, just so that the cherries won’t dry out. Arrange torn pieces of the micro cake on top of the cakes, as well as the cherry slices.