Chef Lynn Mansel often uses brushes, paints, and pallets to create his artwork -- not to mention eggs, confectioner's sugar, and flour. Mansel is the executive pastry chef at Mohegan Sun, which encompasses three casinos, more than 65 dining and premium retail outlets, a 1,200-room hotel with 100,000 square feet of meeting space, and a spa.
His work allows him to combine his love of painting, sculpture, and the arts with creating great-tasting desserts. "I paint a picture on a plate with dessert," says Mansel. From intricate desserts served in eggshells to the world's largest wedding cake and a lifesize tank made out of strawberry shortcake, Mansel's creations are as varied as they are ambitious.
"I'm always trying to outdo myself," he says. Measuring 17 feet tall and weighing 15,032 pounds, Mansel's famous wedding cake earned him a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records. Ingredients included 10,000 pounds of pound-cake batter and nearly 5,000 pounds of creamy frosting, flavored with vanilla and almond. The cake weighed more than five Volkswagen Beetles, had seven tiers -- each of which took two forklifts to raise -- and could feed up to 59,000 people.
"Then I got bored and decided to create a huge gingerbread house," he says. It was 28 feet high with two rooms that Mohegan Sun guests could walk through. If Mansel can imagine it, he finds a way to bake it.
It's not just his desserts that are innovative, but also the vessels in which they are presented. He showcased many of them during The Sun WineFest, held at Mohegan Sun on Jan. 24-26. There were pushup-pop containers filled with different flavors of mousse and fruit, mousse pops dipped in chocolate, and warm dessert ravioli.
Wine companies have started taking the seeds, stems, and skins, called pomace, that is left over after pressing the grapes and drying it into a powder. One of the unusual ingredients Mansel uses in the dough of the ravioli is this pomace-based product, which infuses the desserts with a light wine flavor. This allowed him to create such surprising confections as cabernet dough filled with goat cheese and fig jam; Chablis dough with strawberry shortcake and liqueur inside; and a sherry dough with Roquefort cheese and pear.
Mansel has also created several different shaped Plexiglas trays adorned with lights for passing around mini desserts. He puts tarts of all flavors on long skewers, mousse on plastic spoons, cones filled with gelato, and sterilized eggshells serve as miniature bowls for flavored mousse topped with fruit caviar.
Born to Bake
Mansel was born and raised in Llanelli, U.K., and began his culinary career in 1969, serving as an apprentice at the Seabank Hotel in Porthcawl, England.
While earning his culinary degree in pastry from the City & Guilds of London Institute, Mansel served as the third pastry chef at the five-star London Tara Hotel. It was here that Rene Schubert taught Mansel the art of sugar work and desserts, an education that helped inspire his current interest in training up-and-coming pastry chefs at Mohegan Sun.
Currently, Mansel is the pastry chef of all Mohegan Sun-owned restaurants, which means that he approves all pastry-menu decisions, oversees the entire pastry staff, and continues to create unique desserts. He tries his best to customize the desserts served at corporate functions. McDonald's recently had a meeting at Mohegan Sun and Mansel made sure the desserts were apropos. He made "burgers" out of red velvet pound cake and mousse fillings, cream-puff "fries" in a cup, and "shakes" made out of white chocolate.
"I find out what each company having a meeting is trying to accomplish," says Mansel. "What's the history, who is participating? I then create a three-dimensional dessert that makes an impact."
He also leads corporate teambuilding activities in his pastry shop. Groups will bake a cake and decorate it with a variety of frostings and toppings, and even get a chance to use his air-brushing tools. As Mansel puts it: "We take them out of their comfort zones."
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Recipe: Chef Mansel's Sweet Pizza with Apricots
INGREDIENTS
Dough
-- 2 ½ cups warm milk
-- ½ ounce dry active yeast
-- 2 lbs., 4 ounces bread flour
-- ¼ cup olive oil
-- 1 teaspoon salt
-- 2 ounces honey
Pastry Cream
-- 2 ¼ cups milk
-- 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped
-- ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
-- 6 tablespoons cornstarch
-- 1 large egg
-- 4 large egg yolks
-- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
-- ¼ teaspoon salt
-- 14 ounces well-drained ricotta cheese
-- 8 ounces confectioner's sugar
Apricot Topping
-- 1 pound fresh apricots
-- 4 ounces sugar
-- 2 ounces butter
-- 2 ounces Ben Rye Sweet white wine
Sauce
-- 8 ounces fresh black mission figs
-- 3 ounces sugar
-- 3 ounces balsamic glaze
-- 1 ounce butter
DIRECTIONS
Dough
Dissolve the yeast in the warm milk and let stand a couple of minutes in a large bowl; stir in the honey and olive oil. Combine salt and flour together and fold in until it forms a soft ball; additional flour might be needed. Transfer to a clean bowl and cover; let stand until double. When the dough is ready, punch and divide into eight individual dough balls; rest on a floured surface and cover. When ready to top, flatten each with your hands and shape into 6-inch diameter rounds. Transfer each onto a cornmeal-dusted peel or a sheet pan.
Cream Filling
Place the sugar and cornstarch in a small bowl and mix to combine. Add the egg, egg yolks, and ¼ cup of the milk and mix until it forms a smooth paste. Place two cups of the milk and the vanilla bean in a pot and bring to a boil over high heat; remove the bean.
Pour the boiled milk over the yolk mixture while whisking. Strain the mixture through a sieve back into a clean pot, taking care to scrape the mixing bowl well. Bring back to a boil over medium heat, whisking all the while; cook until mixture thickens. Transfer to a clean bowl; add the butter and salt; cover and chill. Fold in the ricotta cheese and confectioner's sugar before using.
Topping
Cut the apricots around the seam, twist in half and lift out the seed; cut into quarters. Place the sugar and butter in a shallow pan over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved and it turns a light golden color. Add the Ben Rye and reduce by half; remove from the heat and add the apricots. Set aside to cool.
Sauce
Cut the figs in quarters; place the sugar and butter in a shallow pan with the glaze and bring to a boil. Add the figs and cook for five minutes; strain and cool.
Build the Pizza
Place 3 ounces of the custard onto each of the dough circles, leaving one half inch of dough around the edge. Place the apricots in a decorative fashion on each of the pizzas; bake for 15-20 minutes or until pizza is a golden color. Remove from the oven; place each on its own plate and drizzle with the fig reduction.Garnish each plate with a drop of sweet ricotta cream, ½ a fig and a fresh mint leaf. Finish with a dusting of confectioner's sugar.