CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE

​

This is my ultimate chocolate dessert! It has a fudgy cake base and a fluffy indulgent mousse topping, seriously good! It is perfect for a dinner party as it serves 12 people and can be made the day before. Serve it with some fresh berries if you like or with whipped cream. 

Serves: 12
Time: Takes time

For the cake
150g (5.3oz) butter,
150g (5.3oz) real trade chocolate, I used 70% but use 50% or less if you don’t like dark chocolate
5 free-range eggs, separated
150g (5.4oz) fair trade unrefined sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

For the mousse
200g (7oz) real trade chocolate, I used 50%
30g (1oz) butter
3 eggs, separated
300ml (1/2 pint) cream

To serve
¼ cup fair trade cocoa powder
300ml (1/2 pint) cream
2 tablespoons icing sugar
Fresh berries – raspberries or blueberries

METHOD
Preheat the oven to 180C (350F) Grease and line a 21cm (8 inches) springform cake tin.

Put the chocolate and butter in a metal or glass bowl and place over a pot of simmering. Let it melt and when it looks like there are only a few bits left, stir well with a wooden spoon. If it is all fully melted, remove it from heat. Allow cooling to room temperature so that the chocolate doesn’t harden when the egg is added.

Whisk the egg whites with a pinch of salt until soft peaks form. Divide the sugar in half, half to use for the egg whites and the other half to use in the yolks. Add half of the sugar to the beaten egg whites and mix well until really thick and glossy, set aside for now.

In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until pale and thick. Fold the melted chocolate into the pale yolk mixture, then fold gently through the egg whites with a large metal spoon being careful not to beat the air out of the egg white. Gently pour into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean. Leave the cake to cool in the tin. Take a clean dry tea towel and press it down on the centre of the cake to form an indentation for the mousse filling. I like to leave an edge around the cake (like a pizza kinda) I put the cake in the freezer to cool while I make the mousse (put in the fridge if you are not a fast worker so the cake cools but doesn’t freeze)

For the mouse
Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pot as before, then remove from the heat and leave to cool to room temperature again. Whisk the egg whites in a clean dry bowl until soft peaks form and set aside. Whip the cream until it is thick, not too soft. Set aside. Beat the egg yolks into the cooled chocolate, one at a time whisking well with each addition. Fold in the cream and egg whites into the chocolate bit by bit. You want to keep as much of the volume from the cream and the egg whites but if you don’t mix it completely; you will get white through the mousse if it isn’t incorporated properly. Spread the mousse over the cooled cake. Put into the fridge until set, at least 2 hours.

To serve
Whip cream until soft peaks form and fold through the icing sugar. Before you remove the cake from the tin, dust with cocoa powder. Cut the cake in half and then into quarters. Cut each quarter into thirds. To plate, serve a wedge of cake on the plate with a quenelle (or dollop) or cream and some berries on the side.