Contact GPW

Have any recipe requests, cooking questions or just want to say hi?  The GPW would love to hear from you!

Please use the form to send her a message. If you would like a reply, please include your email address.

         

123 Street Avenue, City Town, 99999

(123) 555-6789

email@address.com

 

You can set your address, phone number, email and site description in the settings tab.
Link to read me page with more information.

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Serves 12

Preparation Time: 35 minutes / Chilling Time: 6 hours (or overnight)

 

The Good Parsi Hubby had been bugging me for months to make chocolate mousse, so when I offered to make my sister-in-law a cake for her birthday, I thought I’d create something new, with mousse.  This cake is very simple to make, using half a batch of my Chocolate Mousse recipe, crushed biscuits and whipped cream for decorative rosettes. Be sure to use only dark chocolate, which ensures the mousse stays firm enough to hold its cake shape. And of course, no mouse is complete in our household without cherries, so they have been added for decoration, and delicious flavour too!

Ingredients

For cherry syrup:

  • 1 cup fresh pitted cherries
  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup raw sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbl rosewater (optional – I’m a rose water addict)

For mousse cake:

  • 200g plain butter cookies/biscuits of your choice (anzac or gingernuts would work well, too)
  • 2 tbl olive oil
  • 2 tbl butter, melted
  • 4 eggs, separated and whites refrigerated
  • 200g dark chocolate (70% and above), in pieces
  • 300ml thickened cream

For decoration:

  • 400ml thickened cream
  • 2 drops red food colouring, for pink colour (optional)

Method

  1. For the cherry syrup, place the pitted cherries, water, sugar, vanilla and rosewater into a small saucepan. Stir to combine.
  2. Bring to the boil on high heat, then reduce to medium-low to simmer for 20-25 minutes until cherries are soft and liquid has reduced to a thick syrup. Stir every 5 minues. Once reduced, Leave to cool at room temperature, then chill cherries and liquid in the fridge. NOTE – Do not place warm cherries or syrup on the cake as in step 17 below as the mousse and cream will melt and deform.
  3. In the meantime, process/crush the biscuits until finely crumbed. Place in a small bowl.
  4. Add the melted butter and olive oil to the crumbs, and stir to combine well.
  5. Line the sides and bottom of a 20cm springform tin with baking paper, and press the biscuit mixture evenly on the base of the tin. Place in the freezer while you make the mousse.
  6. Place the chocolate in a medium sized bowl and melt on 50% power at 1 minute intervals in the microwave until melted. NOTE – you may alternatively melt the chocolate over a saucepan of simmering water if you prefer.
  7. Beat the thickened cream until stiff peaks form.
  8. Add the egg yolks to the melted chocolate and stir vigorously with a fork. 
  9. Immediately fold in the whipped thickened cream. NOTE – folding the cream immediately after the yolks stops the yolk-chocolate mixture from cooling and forming clumps.
  10. Beat the cold egg whites in a clean, dry processor or with beaters until stiff peaks form. TIP – beating the whites just before use ensures they stay light and fluffy.
  11. Immediately fold the whites, into the chocolate and cream mixture in three batches.
  12. Remove the tin from the fridge, and pour the chocolate mousse over the biscuit base. Smoothen top so cake is flat and even.
  13. Place the tin back flat in the fridge for 6 hours, or overnight.
  14. Whip the cream and colouring for decoration, until stiff peaks form. Put cream into a piping bag with a #6 size star nozzle.
  15. Remove the cake from the fridge and carefully remove from the tin. NOTE – be careful when peeling baking paper off the sides in order not to damage the mousse.
  16. Pipe 15 – 20 cream rosettes (depending on how big you make them) on the top of the cake.
  17. Place a cherry onto the centre of each rosette and drizzle over with the remaining syrup.

Any extra cream and cherries can be served as extra garnish when serving the cake. Keep cake refrigerated to hold its shape as the mousse will slump when warm.

Enjoy! GPW