Chocolate Cream for Filling

Ingredients

• 5 tbsp grated chocolate
• cream or milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla flavouring

Method

Beat the egg until the yolk and white are fully incorporated — roughly two minutes by hand, one with a whisk. This breaks the emulsion structure and readies it to stabilise the chocolate and dairy later.

Combine the grated chocolate, cream or milk, sugar, and beaten egg in a heavy-bottomed pan. Set over medium heat and stir constantly. The sugar needs to dissolve fully — you'll feel the granules breaking down against the sides of the pan — and the chocolate must melt into an even suspension. This takes about 8–10 minutes. You're not cooking the egg, you're tempering it; the temperature should stay below 65°C if you have a thermometer, though you can judge by the steam rising gently (not rolling) from the surface. The mixture will thicken slightly and smell unmistakably of chocolate, not raw egg.

Stop stirring once you see the emulsification stabilise — the mixture will look glossy and homogeneous rather than grainy or separated. This is the point at which the egg's proteins are coagulating just enough to bind the cocoa solids and fat from the chocolate with the cream, creating a stable emulsion. Remove from heat immediately.

Stir in the vanilla flavouring straightaway. The residual heat will carry it through. If the mixture has tightened too much — if it looks dense rather than pourable — thin it with a tablespoon of cold cream whisked in quickly. You want something that will hold its shape when piped or spooned but still flows slightly off the back of a wooden spoon.

Use while still warm for a mousse-like filling, or cool to room temperature for something thicker that won't seep into cake layers. This quantity fills an 8-inch sandwich cake comfortably.