My kind of gardening! # 347: Mousse Cookie Cups

This was an all-day, listen-to-half-an-audiobook kind of project and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Why are illusion bakes so fun? While no one could actually mistake these tiny pots for real plants, it’s just close enough for a double take. If I saw an illusion entremet in a pastry case, it’d be an automatic “yes please, take all my money.”

Let’s break it down: the pot is a sugar cookie with raspberry black tea, painted in melted candy coating, filled with layers of chocolate ganache, blackberry mousse and blackberry jam, all topped with buttercream foliage.

Definitely more under-the-sea vibes than recognizable flowers, but I’ll take it! They’re for an octopus’s garden.

Whipping out my favorite sugar cookie base (yay for SweetAmbs and her perfect recipe!) and using ground raspberry black tea and vanilla for the flavors.

Smoosh.

So much potential.

Most of the reason this took all day: chilling dough, chilling candy coating, chilling mousse, chilling chocolate ganache…

This upside-down mold hack is a genius move from Bakersmanncookies on Instagram. This way it maximizes the filling capacity and doesn’t allow the dough to slide down into itself.

Time to break out the microplane to file these bbs down. Cookie dust is like bakers’ pixie dust! I can see my new tagline now: “She leaves a little cookie dust wherever she goes” (Nate can definitely attest to this as my one-man kitchen clean up crew.)

My attempt at a terra cotta color failed, so millennial pink it is.

Candy melt painting, coming to a craft night near you. This actually would be such a fun group craft night idea! Everything would be prepped – cookie cups already baked and fillings ready to go – and people could paint on designs in candy coating and pick their proportions of fillings, then pipe on flowers.

I put an extra blob of candy melt on each piece of parchment paper to serve as the pot’s base. Can’t have them rolling around! Utter chaos.

Ganache puddle at the bottom because why not?

Blackberry mousse: blackberry jam folded into whipped cream with a little gelatin for stability. Then an extra dollop of jam plopped on top for no reason.

Last but not least, the “dirt” layer. I debated adding brownie crumbs but thought the buttercream would have trouble adhering to it.

Felt a bit like a witch with a cauldron mixing up all the buttercream colors.

Ta-daa!

The buttercream did not want to cooperate. It split TWICE, causing much angst and re-whipping. I think it knows I prefer Italian meringue buttercream more. Shhh.

My favorite part is the trailing vine!

Just a cute lil sugar bomb.

Happy munching!

Cookie recipe from SweetAmbs

Inspiration for the bake: Bakersmanncookies on Instagram