Picture Perfect Cooking

I hadn’t made a “fancy” dessert in a while and when I had the urge a couple of weeks ago this Chocolate Mousse Cake from Diethood fit the bill.  How can you go wrong with a chocolate cake base topped with mousse and whipped cream?  That’s right, you can’t!!! 

For the cake:

4 tbsp. unsalted butter

2 tsp. vanilla extract

1/3 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 large eggs

2/3 cup granulated sugar

For the mousse:

10 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/4 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

Pinch of salt

3 tbsp. water

For the whipped vanilla frosting:

1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line the bottom of a 9 inch spring form cake pan with parchment paper.  In a medium saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter.  Remove this from the heat and add the vanilla.  Set this aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift the flour and cocoa powder together.  In another bowl, whisk the eggs and sugar until they are well blended.  Pour the water into a large skillet and put the skillet over medium heat until it comes to a simmer.

Place the bowl with the egg mixture into the simmering water.  Whisk this constantly until the egg mixture is lukewarm, about 2 minutes.  You may need to adjust the heat a little to keep the water from coming to a full boil.  You just need a gentle simmer.

Remove the bowl from the water and, using an electric mixer, beat the egg mixture until cool and tripled in volume, about 5 minutes.

Add about 1/3 of the flour/cocoa mixture at a time to the egg mixture.  Gently fold this in with a spatula.  Fold about 1 cup of the cake batter into the melted butter.  Then pour the melted butter/batter into the remaining cake batter.  Gently fold until it is completely combined.

Pour the batter into the prepared spring form pan.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool completely in the pan on a rack.  Run a knife along the edge of the cake and open the spring to release the cake.

For the mousse:

Pour enough water into a skillet to reach a depth of 1 inch.   Bring this water to a simmer.  Pour the chocolate chips into a glass bowl and place this into the simmering water.   Turn off the heat and stir until the chocolate is melted.  Remove the bowl from the water and allow the chocolate to cool.

Using an electric mixer, beat the cream and salt until soft peaks form.  Mix 3 tbsp. water into the melted chocolate.  Slowly pour the whipped cream over the chocolate and gently fold it in until just incorporated.  Spread the mousse over the top of the cake only.

For the whipped cream topping:

Combine the cream, vanilla and sugar.  Beat on high with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form.  Place the whipped cream into a zip top bag fitted with a large decorating tip.  Pipe the whipped cream along the outside of the cake cover the bare cake up to the mousse.  Chill for 3 hours or overnight.