Pretty Awesome Chocolate Mousse Cake

Few weeks ago we had a birthday party for my partner in our house. And since most of our friends have babies, the party out of the house is almost impossible to organize. I planned it few weeks in advance and I only hoped  I could prepare everything on time.

The biggest challenge for me is always the cake. I want it to look perfect and gorgeous, but most importantly, taste great.


This time I decided to make chocolate cake with butter cream frosting and mousse filling. And the result was pretty great!

For the cake:

1 ½ cups all purpose flour

2/3 cup natural unsweetened cocoa

1 ½ cup sugar

1 ¼ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

2 eggs

½ cup vegetable oil

2 teaspoons vanilla

¾ cup milk

2/3 cup hot water

Butter cream Frosting

1 ½ cups butter

3 cups icing sugar

4-8 tablespoons milk

2 vanilla pods

Mousse

4 large eggs

1/3 cup sugar

12 ounces semisweet chocolate

1 ½ cups chilled whipping cream

¼ cups Irish cream

For the cake:


Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease the bottom of two 9-inch cake pans. Place parchment paper cut to size at the bottom of each pan and grease that as well.


Mix the dry ingredients and place in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix eggs, oil, milk and vanilla and beat until combined. Add hot water and mix well. Pour into the pans and bake for 28-30 minutes. Cool completely before taking out of the pans.


For the frosting:


Beat the butter in a mixer until smooth. It is important to leave your butter out of the fridge for few hours for the best results. Add the vanilla and mix until combined. Add the powdered sugar in several additions and use more or less sugar depending on your preference. Add milk a tablespoon at a time and mix until you achieve smooth consistency.


I used few drops of green food coloring for the visual, thought it would be a nice spring color and great contrast with some raspberries.


For the mousse:


Whisk eggs and sugar in a large metal bowl. Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and whisk for about 5 minutes or until frothy but not too thick. Remove the bowl from the water and beat with a mixer for about 10 min until the mixture gets cool and thick.


Place chocolate in a bowl and melt by placing it over simmering water. Cool to lukewarm.


Combine cream and Irish cream in a medium bowl, beat until peaks are soft. Pour the melted chocolate over egg mixture and fold together. Fold in cream mixture. Cover and chill overnight, or at least 4 hours.


I like to bake the cake and prepare the mousse a day ahead. The next day is the assembly day, and butter cream of course.

Assembly


Cut off the tops of each cake to make it more even to assemble. Then using a sharp knife, or a thread (my grandmother does that), cut both cakes into halves. Carefully place the top layer of the cake upside down and spread some mousse over it. Make sure to leave a bit of space at the end of the cake as it will be too messy if the mousse comes out too much. Repeat with the next two cakes and cover with the remaining layer. Now, spread some of the icing over the cake and refrigerate for about 1 hour. It will allow for the icing to harden so you can spread the rest of it very easily and without smudging it too much.


Refriferate and serve it with some fresh raspberries.