"Hurry Xmas" Chocolate & Orange Super Whoopie Pie

It’s the same old song every year:

What? Hurry Bambi re-released again? New cover, same song, same price? DAMN YOU LARUKU AND SONY/KIOON! DAMN YOU AND YOUR FILTHY MILLIONS! I WANT TO BE AS RICH AS YOU ARE! AAAAAAAHGGG <- Screaming bloody murder for 2 to 5 minutes.

But let’s be honest. Hurry Bambi is like nougat (or christmas treat of your choice, depending on the country your are from): it comes back to town for Christmas, it has to, because if I doesn’t… L’Apocalipse! I heard that’s on December 21st ._. I can see the reason now.

Hurry Xmas is a great song, a mixture of jazz and christmas carol, different from the usual sound of the band but great anyway, it’s a proper Christmas carol for us. While all our friends sing boring tradicional xmas songs… here we are! singing our funky japanese carol like the freaky-hipsters we are, oh yeah. I’m not going to complain about Hurry Bambi being re-released or about Sony trying to make more money with the same fans again and again.

But hey, it’s almost Christmas… WHERE’S MY HURRY BAMBI? I WANT HURRY BAMBI THIS YEAR TOO!! AAAAAAAAHGGGG *screaming bloody murder for 10 to 15 minutes*

STEP 1: Orange cream.

Ingredients:

- 3 egg yolks

- 100 gr. white sugar

- 1 tablespoon cornflour

- 40 ml. orange juice

- The zest of a big orange

- A pinch of salt

- 90 gr. butter, cut in cubes

- 60 ml. heavy cream

This cream is a combination of a simple orange curd and whipped cream. And it’s delicious. DELICIOUS.

In a small saucepan, mix egg yolks, sugar, cornflour, orange juice and salt, until everyting is incorporated.

Add the butter, put it on medium heat and cook until it boils, whisking constantly (veeeery important!). When the mixture is boiling, keep cooking it and whisking for 3-5 minutes until it gets the consistency of pastry cream. Put it in a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap (the plastic has to touch the surface of the cream to prevent it from forming a crust. Let it cool completely in the fridge, for about an hour.

To whipe the cream we need two follow two basic rules:

-The cream has to be heavy, otherwise it will not whip. The fat helps the cream to be whiped, so it needs to contain the right percentage of fat, around 35 to 40%.

-Everything has to be cold. The colder the cream is to start, and the colder it stays as you whip it, the easier and better it whips. The cream shouldn’t be room temperature, get if from the fridge just before using it. Put your mixing bowl in the freezer too, for about 15 minutes. 

In the cold bowl, beat the whipping cream. You can use an electric hand mixer for this task, the cream will be whipped faster. Once it’s ready, take the orange curd out of the fridge and mix it with the whipped cream. The result is a light-coloured and soft cream. Again, cover the cream with plastic wrap and put it in the fridge until needed.

STEP 2: Whoopie pie.

Ingredients:

- 100 gr. flour

- 40 gr. unsweetened cocoa powder

- 1 teaspoon baking powder

- A pich of slat

- 2 tablespoons margarine

- 2 tablespoons butter

- 110 gr. brown sugar

- 1 egg

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- 60 ml. milk

Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In another bowl, beat butter and margarine together. Add brown sugar and beat everything together with a mixer on low speed until just combined. Increase speed to medium and beat for about 3 minutes, the mix will look light-colored and fluffy.

Add egg and vanilla and beat again.

Add half of the flour mixture and half of the milk and beat until incorporated. Repeat with remaining flour and milk and beat until combined. Done! :D

Now, we need a single rectangular whoopie pie, then we will cut it in the shape of Hurry Bambi. We need two whoopie pies: top and bottom. You can bake them separatedly or together in the same baking sheet, if there’s enough space on your baking sheet to do so.

With a spoon, or piping bag with a rounded piping tip (that’s what I used), make two 13x15cm. rectangles on the parchment paper, like in the picture. Make sure both whoopie pies have the same size.

Bake for about 10 minutes or until the pie springs back when pressed gently. Let them cool completely.

Now proceed to cut both pieces in the shape of Hurry Bambi. I printed a 13x15 Bambi and used it as a template. It’s easy to cut this kind of cake, but be careful, it might torn apart L

STEP 3: Decorations.

- 50 gr. powdered sugar

- 1 tablespoon water (more or less)

- Yellow food coloring

I hate to tell you: It’s drawing time! And no template whatsoever! Yaaay! I know, it’s difficult if you can’t draw, but I don’t know how to make this simpler T_T C’mon guys, Hurry Bambi is not THAT difficult ^_^ You can do this! Just skip stupid tiny details of the design like the little L’ earring, or the chain.

This time we are going to try a royal icing without egg whites, using water instead. In a bowl, mix powdered sugar with water until it gets the right consistency, according to the “10 second rule“: drag a butter knife through the surface of your royal icing and count to 10. If the icing surface becomes smooth in anywhere between 8-10 seconds, then your icing is ready to use! If yours is too thick, add water. If it’s too liquid, add powdered sugar :D

Dye the royal icing with yellow food coloring and put it in a piping bag with a #2 or #1 piping tip. I used #2, but I change it to #1 because it gives a more accurate and steady drawing. You can make corrections using a toothpick.

When the desing is completely done, fill the bottom part of the whoopie pie with orange cream. I piped it, but you can use a spoon :D Put the top part of the whoopie pie over the cream, veeeeery carefully, and it’s done! Hurry Bambi will be sang again and forever in every L’Arc Xmas! PUUUURESENTOOOOO!