Chocolate flower pots

This is a fun dessert to present – we used gerberas, but you can use any non-toxic flower that you like. It can be made the night before and left in the fridge until it is time for something sweet.There are lots of different textures in this dessert and the different layers are exciting on the palate.

Chocolate mousse

250 g	Dark chocolate, no more than 55% cocoa
1 Ltr	Cream (Main)
2	Egg yolks

Chocolate soil

100 g	Caster sugar
75 g	Dark chocolate, 70% cocoa, roughly chopped

Raspberry jelly and chocolate chip cookie base

1 packet	Frozen raspberries, 300g, thawed
2 tsp	Gelatine
200 ml	Sugar syrup
5	Chocolate chip biscuits, crushed and mixed with 1/4 cup Chambord liqueur
4 Tbsp	Whipped cream

Directions

Chocolate mousse

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water. Once melted, remove from the heat and set aside for about 5 minutes to cool slightly.
2. In another bowl, whisk the thickened cream until soft peaks form.Whisk the egg yolks into the melted chocolate, then whisk in half of the cream until well combined. Carefully fold in the remaining cream.

Chocolate soil

1. In a medium saucepan, add the caster sugar and gently pour in 2 Tbsp cold water.
2. Turn the heat on high and dissolve the sugar. Do not stir until the edge of the sugar starts to go golden brown and the middle of the sugar is still clear.When this happens, immediately remove saucepan from the heat and whisk in the chopped chocolate.The chocolate will start to crumble; this will take a couple of minutes. Pour on to a tray, ready for plating.

Raspberry jelly

1. Place the raspberries in a food processor and whizz until they are a smooth puree. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Measure 300ml of the raspberry puree and stir with the sugar syrup in a pot.
2. Bloom the gelatine in cold water. Heat the raspberry mix and add the gelatine. Keep heating for 5 minutes.
3. Pour the mix into a suitable dish and set in the fridge for 3 hours.

To assemble

1. Place a Tbsp of the cookie base into a jar and press down.
2. Pipe or spoon in the chocolate mousse.
3. Place a Tbsp of jelly on next, then a tbsp of whipped cream.
4. Finally, pile the soil on and push the flower into the dessert.

tip

Check out Ray McVinnie's video on'How to make chocolate shards'