Valentine’s Day is around the corner and it is not to early to plan for a day of sharing with those you love. Here is a lighter menu to coordinate with that lusciously rich dessert!
Chocolate Mousse Cake
Chocolate Mousse Cake
Yield: 1 cake
Cake:
Dry Ingredients
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1 cup walnuts or pecans, ground
Wet Ingredients
3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs, room temperature
3/4 cup hot coffee
Mousse:
1 cup heavy cream
4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup granulated sugar
8 ounces 62% bittersweet chocolate, melted
Whipped Cream
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup powdered sugar
Chocolate Ganache:
1/2 cup 62% bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. heavy cream
Cake
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Preheat oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9” springform pan with parchment paper and grease with cooking spray. Set aside.
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Into a bowl, mix dry ingredients. Set aside.
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Separate eggs into 2 bowls. Reserve the yolks. Beat egg whites with sugar until stiff. Set aside.
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Melt chocolate over double boiler or on low power in the microwave. Remove from heat and stir.
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Beat butter until soft and add sugar gradually, blending until light and creamy. Add cooled chocolate and vanilla.
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Add yolks into chocolate batter. Beat egg whites until stiff and set aside.
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Add half the flour mixture into the chocolate mixture, alternating with the coffee Stir batter after each addition.
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Fold beaten egg whites into the cake batter. Pour into prepared springform pan.
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Bake about 20-25 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool to room temperature.
Mousse
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Whisk together egg yolks and sugar in a bowl.
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Heat 1 cup heavy cream over medium heat until it begins to steam. Remove from heat. Slowly stream half the egg yolks into the hot cream while whisking.
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Add rest of egg yolk mixture into saucepan with remaining hot cream. Whisk to combine. Return to medium heat, whisking constantly until slightly thickened.
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Remove from heat, and whisk in melted chocolate until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 1 hour minutes.
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Whipped cream for mousse
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Whip the remaining 1 cup cream with powdered sugar.
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Gently fold the whipped cream into the mousse mixture with a spatula.
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Spread over Cake
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Pour mousse over top of cake in springform pan. Smooth surface with spatula. Refrigerate for 5 hours or overnight until mousse is completely set.
Ganache
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Heat cream in a saucepan until just beginning to steam. Remove from heat, and add chocolate.
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Let sit for 2 minutes before stirring to fully melt the chocolate into the cream. Cool to room temperature. Do not refrigerate or chocolate will solidify.
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Take a hot wet towel and run it around the outside of the springform pan a few times to loosen the cake. Open the pan, gently remove base and parchment paper. Move cake to plate or platter.
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Spread the cooled chocolate ganache over the top of the cake.
The mousse recipe is adapted from Micah Leal. Southern Living.
Foodie Lit
I love the details of life, especially from another era or from another culture. Amy Maroney handles these complexities remarkably well in her dual timeline novel. The Girl from Otto is an artful combination of genres. How did Amy accomplish this? “History, mystery, thrillers, and romance are my favorite genres, and I was writing the book I’d always wanted to read. I’ve always enjoyed romance as a component of other genres rather than as the main story. That’s what I set out to do,” Amy told me. She continued by talking about one of the goals of this novel and the others in this same series. “I really wanted to tell the world about the great women artists who did exist in early modern Europe. Ultimately, I want to illuminate some of these lost voices and stories with my fiction.” She has been able to accomplish this goal masterfully, absorbing me to the very last word! (and making me want to continue to the other books in her series!)
Develop this Chocolate Mousse Cake with layers of decadent and rich chocolate. The beautiful triple layered presentation enhances the deep chocolate flavor from the cake, the mousse and the ganache. The dark chocolate flavor is derived from the 62% cocoa in all three layers. The mousse is airy, not from gelatin but from whipped cream and melted chocolate and the shiny ganache tops off this amazing dessert. Strong coffee added to the cake gives a wonderful mocha taste, adding character to the entire cake. This is a perfect cake for Valentine’s Day, for any special occasion and certainly for chocolate lovers!
