This was one of two desserts I got to create for The Pokemon Company when they contacted me for an opportunity to make dessert content for them to promote the Pokemon Scarlet and Violet World Championship series for 2024! This was a total dream come true for me, between having done Pokemon content in the past, but also because I literally grew up being the biggest Pokemon fan – literally ask anyone I grew up with, if there was anything they knew about me, it was that I love Pokemon. The prompt I got was to create desserts inspired by Sylveon, Comfey, Gimmighoul, Wattrel, or Riolu, and I had to film two reels and two stories for them! Of the options listed, I knew right away that I could do Comfey, since it was a cute Pokemon with a simple design that translates well into pastries and desserts, especially the ones that I make. With the other Pokemon, that was where things got tricky at first. Initially, I was going to go Gimmighoul and make Gimmighoul coin shortbreads, since any Pokemon player can relate to the pain that is collecting 999 of those bloody coins. But, and this might be a bit scandalous, I actually did not own a Pokeball-shaped cookie cutter, and to make Gimmighoul coins, I would actually need one. Then there was the issue with the Pokeball shape being indented into the coin, not etched on top, so it just became too convoluted to do for me at least. So instead, I decided to go with the Pokemon on that list which I actually love the most, and went with Sylveon! Sylveon, or Ninfia is it is called in Japanese, is the most recent(which is crazy since it was revealed 11 years ago) Eeveelution, being a Fairy-type mammalian Pokemon with pink and white fur, and these white-pink-blue ribbons that adorn it. I actually was gifted a Sylveon doll(pictured at the bottom of this recipe post) back in freshman year of college by my dear friend Lulu, who said I gave that kind of energy(I guess she knew I was gay before I came out, which just shows what a perceptive person she is!). While my favorite Eeveelution will forever be Umbreon(even though they would not let Umbreon learn Payback in Scarlet and Violet and that broke my heart since Curse-Payback Umbreon is my absolute favorite thing to use next to Scald Milotic), Sylveon is my second favorite Eeveelution because it is pretty viable competitively between its typing and near-broken Pixilate-Hyper Voice combo. In case you couldn’t tell, I actually used to play Pokemon competitively before I learned how to bake. So, going with my heart here, I opted to make a Sylveon-themed dessert!

For the components of this dessert, we have a layered strawberry-vanilla mousse cake with fresh whipped cream, glazed strawberries, and homemade modeling chocolate decorations. Truthfully, I wanted to make a cute individual mousse cake for quite some time now, inspired by the one from Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, so going that route actually hit two birds with one stone for me! I knew that trying to exactly replicate Sylveon’s features in a dessert would be hard, since it is not round nor does it have a simple design that can copy well. But a lot of its key colors and features can be translated through either pink and white ingredients, or through modeling chocolate, so I went that route instead. The mousse cake itself is a layer of strawberry mousse with a vanilla bean mousse underneath it. The berries, I got these cute mara de bois Harry’s berries(an extremely expensive but totally worth it Californian strawberry) that I used, since their petite size reminds me of the small strawberries I would find all over France and Switzerland when I visited those countries years ago. The modeling chocolate is definitely the most time-consuming and challenging aspect of this recipe. I used two kinds of chocolate, ruby for the pink colored modeling chocolate, and white chocolate, which I made a large batch of, then colored individually to get white, blue, and indigo colors for the entire dessert! If you do not want to make your own modeling chocolate, just use store-bought and save yourself some time. I just like to make my own since I only use it for very specific cake orders, so stocking it in my pantry makes little sense. Rolling and shaping the modeling chocolate, while fun, takes a lot of time, so keep that in mind when you try to make the decorations. We are replicating Sylveon’s ears, bow, and ribbons using the modeling chocolate, which requires pink, white, blue, and indigo modeling chocolate to use. I naturally colored all of mine too, since ruby chocolate is naturally pink, and with the blue and indigo, I used blue spirulina and purple yam powders to achieve the necessary colors. So this dessert is not only naturally flavored, but 100% naturally colored as well. I was really going for a dessert that you could see in a French(or Kalosian) patisserie/cafe, just to really embrace the fact that Sylveon debuted in the Kalos games.

Makes 6 servings:
For the strawberry mousse:
2oz strawberry puree
1 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
2oz heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

In a pot, heat up the puree with gelatin, sugar, and salt until everything is dissolved into the liquid. Allow the mixture to fully cool at room temperature before folding in the cream to form your mousse. Pipe the mousse into silicone muffin tins, tapping them down to ensure that the mousse is a flat and neat layer sitting at the bottom of the tins.

For the vanilla mousse:
4oz whole milk
1 tsp gelatin powder + 1 tbsp cold water
1/4 cup granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1g vanilla bean paste
1 egg yolk
4oz heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

In a pot, heat up the milk, gelatin powder, sugar, salt, and vanilla until everything is dissolved in. In a bowl, whisk your egg yolk and then pour half of the warmed milk into that while whisking until combined. Pour the egg yolk mixture back into the pot with the heated milk and whisk everything on medium heat for 2-3 minutes, or until the mixture reaches 200 degrees F. Pour the liquid through a sieve and allow it to fully cool at room temperature before folding in the heavy cream to form your mousse. Pour the mousse over the strawberry mousse layer in the muffin tins and transfer to the freezer. Freeze for at least 2 hours before attempting to unmold.

For the white modeling chocolate
12oz white chocolate chips
3oz corn syrup
a pinch of salt

Over a double boiler, melt everything together until just combined. Pour onto a nonstick surface, and transfer to the refrigerator to firm up the dough.

For the indigo modeling chocolate:
1oz white modeling chocolate
1g purple yam powder
1g blue spirulina powder

Warm up the white modeling chocolate by simply holding it in your hands. Knead the purple yam and blue spirulina powders into the white modeling chocolate to dye it blue.

For the light blue modeling chocolate:
1oz white modeling chocolate
2g blue spirulina powder

Warm up the white modeling chocolate by simply holding it in your hands. Knead the blue spirulina powder into the white modeling chocolate to dye it blue.

For the ruby modeling chocolate
4oz ruby chocolate
1oz white chocolate
1oz corn syrup
a pinch of salt

Melt together over a double boiler. Mix together, off heat, until combined, then transfer the modeling chocolate into the refrigerator, covered, for at least 10 minutes. 

For modeling chocolate assembly:
Roll out the different modeling chocolates to roughly 1/8 cm-thickness. For Sylveon’s ears, I used an angel wing cutter on the ruby modeling chocolate, then a bench scraper to trim down the wings into the shapes of Sylveon’s ears. I then used some of the indigo modeling chocolate to form the insides of its ears. For the bow, I cut out 1 inch by 1 inch squares of the white modeling chocolate, then 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch rectangles of the ruby. I press the ruby onto the white and using chopsticks, pinched them together down the middle to form the bows. With the bows, I rolled out the white chocolate and cut it into 1 inch by 4 inch rectangles. I roll on perpendicularly the 1/16-inch wide strips of the light blue, then indigo, then pink modeling chocolates on one end. Then I cut the rectangle lengthwise into quarters to form 4 ribbons and then cut a small incision on the light blue tips to match the shape of Sylveon’s ribbons.

For the whipped cream:
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tsp confectioner’s sugar
1g vanilla bean paste
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, whip everything together until combined and soft peaks form. Transfer to a piping bag with a round tip and store in the refrigerator until time to plate.

For garnish:
Fresh strawberries
1oz nappage

Remove the leaves on the strawberries and cut them in half. Toss the berries in nappage to glaze them.

To plate, start by placing down your mousse in the center of a flat plate. Pipe cream and place berries around and on top of the mousse. Garnish with the ears, bow, and ribbons to finish.