'How to cook like Heston' challenge: Laure Moyle

Laure trains her (paint spray gun) sights on Heston's exploding chocolate gateau

What does my pudding obsession make me do? Things like... insisting we take a ski holiday all the way to France, a paint spray gun, popping candy and passion fruits. Completely logical, isn't it? The point is we had so much fun and such a treat of a pudding in the end. Let me explain.

Chocolate a la Heston. Ingredients and tools you need to plan to acquire in advance since you won't find all of them in your corner shop.

When it came to the spray gun, no matter how much I looked through my kitchen cupboards, no way. Nothing. Zilch. My only solution: go hunting on eBay. Bingo :)

In search of the 'motive'

So I have all the ingredients. A good start. I now need a "motive". An occasion. Normally I live by the principle that a new pudding creates the occasion (to have people round and share it). However, not this time. I really wanted to share the 'theatrical' side of this recipe, especially the finish of the cake. Without missing the deadline for entering the competition of course.

Our departure for ski holiday and stopover at my mum and dad on the way became the perfect occasion. In principle at least. When my hubby was busy finding small pockets of space in our Zafira to pack all the stuff you need to go skiing with kids in tow, there was me insisting that we must take the spray paint gun on holiday. Mmmmmm... not easy!

Anyhow, the paint gun, all the ingredients and the specific cake ring needed for this recipe went through the Channel Tunnel with us. Pfewwww :)

Preparing the cake itself was like a dream. Followed instructions to the letter. Cake in the freezer. Off to bed. See you tomorrow. Easy. Brilliant.

Laure, get your gun

However, the next day we woke up with -10 outside. (I know because I went for a run. In that weather. Really.) Not disheartened, I unpack my power tool, the spray gun, and start to explain its role to my mum while tempering my dark chocolate.

I could see that the idea of vapourising liquid chocolate on a cake, in her kitchen, with a spray gun that boasted on its box of being able to cover three square metres of surface per single paint projection was not making her laugh.

Only one solution then. Use the socket under the "tonnelle", the old outhouse next to my mum and dad's house, now open on all four sides for us to find respite from hot summer days, not the case today that's for sure.

So, padded in ski jackets and snow boots, my "assistant" (mum), the cameraman (my hubby with his iPhone), the sound editor (my sister) and I set out for the middle of the garden to subtly cover this ultimate cake with a light coat of chocolate droplets. I'll let you have a look for yourself:

The person who holds the cake really, really at arm's length is my mum... very brave I must say, considering I had a chocolate spray gun in my hands, and knowing me....

I can tell you without a second of hesitation that this was a moment we will all remember for a long time. It was so much fun. And for me, gun in hand, maybe the closest I have been to feeling seven or eight again! (Considering I have a five-year-old and a seven-year-old who make me do all sorts of silly things, that's saying something).

The verdict

The cake was amazing, subtle, light, delicious, and as beautiful as any cake that would have come straight from one of Lyon's best patisseries. To give it its due to the last detail, we served it on my mum's vintage plates from her great grandmother.

More than anything, the feeling that happened to me when I picked up the chocolate spray paint gun and turned it on - impossible to describe other than "a kid in a sweet shop" perhaps! So much fun and happiness! Thanks Heston. You are now the new culinary hero of a little corner of Beaujolais.

And if my nieces stop by soon, there's a chocolate tree in the garden!

Want to join in? 

Thanks Laure, sounds like a blast (a blast, see what we did there?). If you want to join in and potentially win a tour of Heston's lab!, just register with lovefood, pick a recipe from the show, attempt it properly, and let us know how you got on by sending some pics and a few hundred words by email to contactus@lovefood.com

Terms

Our standard competition terms are here. You must be a registered user of lovefood.com to enter. The editor's decision is final. Closing date is 15th February.

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