Little, Orange, Tart

« Layers of rich chocolate cake sandwiched between a light and fluffy tyrni mousse topped with a sweet tyrni gelée. »

One of the more unusual foods in Finland is the tyrni berry, a.k.a. sea buckthorn, which is a tart and bright orange fruit that grows up north. Jarkko brought a bottle of the unsweetened juice to Boston once and sprang it on me without preparing me for the taste of the day-glo orange coloured fluid. My mouth puckered so hard from the tartness that I think it took a few hours for my face to return to normal. After all the trouble he went through of buying the juice and carting it all the way to the US, I'm glad he had a good laugh.

The herring market in early October usually brings with it quite a lot of tyrni products. It's an expensive berry since the fruit is difficult to pick and must be done by hand so, aside from jelly, juice and frozen puree, it's not very common to find products containing tyrni even in Finland. The Finnish word for the berry is rather recent with the first citation being from 1850 hailing from the old Norse þyrnir and old Swedish thörne. It is a virtually unheard of berry outside of cold northern climes and China though it appears that some attempts are being made at cultivating plants for commercial harvesting at more southern latitudes. The Berry Bible didn't have any recipes containing the sea buckthorn, but did include a rather informative description of it.

Sea Buckthorn Berry

Common Names: buckthorn, sanddorn (Germany), oblepikha (Russia), argousier (France), havtorn (Sweden). The name sea buckthorn is derived from its habit of growing near the sea with its thorny spines.

Scientific Classification: Sea buckthorns (Hippophae rhamnoides) are a member of the oleaster family (Elaeagnaceae) and related to the Russian olive and the oleaster. Their name is derived from the Greek language: hippo, meaning "horse", phoas, meaning "light", and rhamnoides, from their resemblance to the genus Rhamnus-the buckthorns. The ancient Greeks fed this plant to their horses to improve their health and to make their coat shiny. the Russian name for this plant, oblepikha, means "to cling to," referring to the berries, which are firmly attached to the branches.

Habitat and Distribution: Sea buckthorns are deciduous shrubs with round orange berries (they can be red or yellow, too, but not as commonly) that are native to the northern regions of Eurasia. They are particularly widespread in northern Europe and on the seacoasts of Romania, Mongolia, and China and are divided into eight subspecies by geographic location. they grow from sea level, preferring the slopes of riverbanks and the seashore, to 10,000 feet in the Himalayas.

In Russia families grow sea buckthorns in the gardens at their dachas. The berries are harvested at the end of summer and canned or made into jams or taken to the cities and sold at farmers' markets.

North American gardeners grow sea buckthorns as ornamentals for their colourful orange berries that remain on the bush all winter long.

History: Legend has it that the sea buckthorns were the food of Pegasus, the flying horse of Greek mythology. The medicinal qualities of these historic fruits are recorded in ancient Greek and Tibetan texts from as early as the seventh century, when the sea buckthorn was considered a universal healing agent. It was used to treat rheumatism, scurvy, tumors, skin diseases, and intestinal disorders.

Where they are grown commercially: Sea buckthorns were domesticated in Siberia in the 1930s and are often called Siberian pineapple after their similar flavor. In Eurasia this shrub is one of the most widely grown northern fruits.

Russia, Mongolia and China are the largest producers of sea buckthorn products in the world. The berries are harvested commercially and processed for jellies, juices, liqueurs, candy, vitamin C tablets, tea, ice cream, cosmetics, and medicines.

Currently, many countries, including Canada, Russia, China, and Scandinavia, have breeding programs for this berry. With recent scientific studies showing their high antioxidant levels, which give them protective and anti-inflammatory properties, production is likely to increase in North America if a sea buckthorn can be developed that can separate easily from the plant so it can be harvested mechanically.

Sea buckthorn plants are available for home gardens. To order, see One Green World's web site, www.onegreenworld.com.

So, when I noticed a recipe for tyrni in the most recent issue of Ruoka & Viini, I decided to give it a try since the juice is good when it has been sweetened and I vaguely remembered that it is Jarkko's favourite berry. Thus begins my saga of 1 week and 3 cakes.

The original chocolate cake recipe called for 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks along with a decilitre of ground almonds. The big problem with this recipe; the cake was dry to the point of being nearly impossible to slice into two layers and, once layered, the cake was too hard to go well with the soft mousse which made it fall apart when eating it. The chocolate flavour was dulled by the almond as well which I didn't think complemented the tangy zing of the tyrni either.

I went looking for a simple, moist, chocolatey cake recipe that might work in its stead. The soft, rich chocolate cake I found has the perfect texture to accompany the mousse. I have always avoided slicing chocolate cakes into layers whenever possible since I'm not very good at it and they tend to be very delicate. However, it becomes an issue with this cake since the springform pan is necessary for building the cake. I did make one cake with 2 layer cake pans and baker's cellophane but it was an exercise in patience. The springform pan is far easier to deal with but, unless you have two of them in the same size, you're going to have to slice the cake into layers. It helps to have a long, sharp serrated knife and a pancake spatula or two to assist in positioning the cake without damaging it in the process. The chocolate layers are the most difficult part of this cake.

The mousse is easy to make though I decided to whip the cream first since it requires that the bowl and beaters are clean, dry and cold and getting that out of the way is more efficient. I also added the cooled gelatin-fruit juice mix to the cream cheese mixture without the whipped cream and chilled it while the cake was baking and cooling since it is too runny to whip with the cream and expect it to be fluffy. Chilling it a bit makes it firmer and easier to whip. If you can't get or don't want the added liquor, you can simply add an equivalent amount of juice and extra sugar.

It's a beautiful cake and one must enjoy the bright orange qualities of it as well. Allow the cake to warm up a wee bit before serving and decorate with dark chocolate swirls and possibly some tyrni purée or berries. This cake is so good that only one of the three I made got taken to work and my taste testers loved it. If you don't have tyrni juice or jelly available, you might substitute cranberry or raspberry successfully, too.

Chocolate-buckthorn mousse cake

Makes: one 20-24cm/8-9.5in cake
Time: 35 mins prep + chilling and baking time
Special tools: springform pan
Source: Ruoka & Viini

chocolate layer cake

Makes: 2 8-9in/20-22cm cake layers
Source: CI

• 1/2 cup or 1,25 dl cocoa (natural)
• 2 teaspoons instant espresso powder
• 1.25 cups or 3 dl all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract (optional)
• 1 cup or 2,5 dl whole milk, room temperature
• 1.5 sticks or 170g unsalted butter, softened
• 1.25 cups or 3 dl sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature

buckthorn mousse

• 200g or 7oz philadelphia cream cheese or other tuorejuusto (softened)
• 1 1/3 dl or 1/2 cup tyrni/buckthorn jelly
• 3 tablespoons tyrni/buckthorn liquor (optional)
• 2 dl or 3/4 cup whipping cream
• 3 2g gelatin sheets or about 1 .25oz gelatin packet
• 1/2 dl or 1/4 cup sweetened pure tyrni/buckthorn juice

buckthorn gelée

• 3 2g gelatin sheets or about 1 .25oz gelatin packet
• 1 dl or 1/2 cup sweetened pure tyrni/buckthorn juice
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 dl or 1/2 cup water

1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350F/175C degrees. Grease two 8-9.5 in/20-24 cm round baking pans or one springform pan. Line pan bottoms with waxed or parchment paper; grease paper as well. **(note: I used a 24cm pan so a 20cm pan might need to use a little less of the batter else the layers might be a bit too thick. YMMV.)
2. Whisk the cocoa, instant coffee, flour, baking soda, and salt in medium bowl and set aside. Add vanilla to the milk and set aside.
3. Beat butter in bowl of electric mixer set at medium-high speed until smooth and shiny, about 30 seconds. Gradually sprinkle in sugar; beat until mixture is fluffy and almost white, 3 to 5 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating 1 full minute after each addition.
4. With mixer on lowest speed, add about 1/3 of dry ingredients to batter, followed immediately by the milk/vanilla mixture; mix until ingredients are almost incorporated into batter. Repeat process twice more. When batter appears blended, stop mixer and scrape bowl sides with rubber spatula. Return mixer to low speed; beat until batter looks satiny, about 15 seconds longer.
5. Divide batter evenly between pans. With rubber spatula, run batter to pan sides and smooth top. Bake cakes until they feel firm in center when lightly pressed and skewer comes out clean or with just a crumb or two adhering, 23 to 30 minutes or about 45-50 minutes if using single pan. Tranfer pans to wire racks; cool for 20 minutes. Run knife around perimeter of each pan, invert cakes onto racks, and peel off paper liners.
6. For the mousse: Place gelatin sheets in a bowl of cool water for a few minutes. Heat the juice in the microwave until hot. Squeeze water from the gelatin sheets and dissolve in the hot juice. Set aside to cool.
7. Whip the cold cream to stiff peaks and place in the refrigerator until needed.
8. Whip softened cream cheese, jelly and liquor together until fluffy. Beat in the fully cooled gelatin-juice mixture. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and whip again until smooth. Place into the refrigerator for about an hour while the cake cools. Don't leave the gelatin-juice mixture in the cold for too long as you only want it to thicken, not gel.
9. After the cake has cooled and the layers are ready, remove the whipped cream and the cream cheese mixture from the refrigerator and whip them together until smooth and fluffy.
10. Wash the springform pan ring, if using a springform pan, and position it on the pan with the bottom cake layer in place. Pour half of the mousse over the bottom layer and make even with an offset spatula. Gently place the second layer of chocolate cake on top and repeat with the other half of the mousse, taking special care to make the top even and smooth. Cover top with plastic wrap and place flat on a shelf in the refrigerator for an hour or two. Microwave the gelée juice, sugar and water until hot and dissolve gelatin. Set aside to cool while the mousse is firming up in the refrigerator.
11. Remove the cake from the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap and slowly pour the cooled gelée mixture into a spoon held just above the mousse. Replace the plastic wrap and refrigerate the cake for another few hours or overnight.