Week 6 - Puddings: Warm Chocolate Mousse Cake

I was meant to be making Almond Croissants this week but by the time I got to the middle of the week I realised I did not have a spare day and a half to set aside just for baking. Instead I am going to make the Warm Chocolate Mousse Cake  which was the baking challenge for week 7. I aim to make the almond croissants next week when I have more free time. 

(I admit that I am completely terrified about making the croissants as the whole process looks extremely complicated and long-winded. I just know its going to be really stressful as I will be juggling looking after Thomas while trying to roll out croissant pastry!!!) 

The recipe for the chocolate mousse cake says that I will need several mixing bowls to prepare all the various elements needed for the cake filling. Somehow I don't think this recipe is going to be as straight forward as I was hoping!!!

The biscuit base

To make the biscuit base I needed digestive biscuits, cocoa power and melted butter. I crushed the digestives into fine breadcrumbs using my electric food chopper. Then I added the cocoa powder and melted butter to the breadcrumbs and mixed it until all the ingredients were combined. I greased my 23cm springclip cake tin and spooned in the chocolate biscuit mixture, flattening it with the back of a spoon to make it completely even. I put the cake tin into the fridge so that the biscuit base could chill while I made the filling. 

Before I started this recipe I  made sure that I had the correct tin required for this cake, having learnt from last weeks mistake of not having the tin that was needed for the Tarte Au Citron. 

The biscuit base

The filling

There are five separate steps to make the filling for this cake. 

Step 1: I had to grind 50g of dark chocolate into small lumps using the food chopper. The recipe says to use dark chocolate made up of 70% cocoa solids as this gives the best flavour to the cake. I added the almonds and cocoa to the chopped chocolate and ground the mixture until it represented 'course sand'. 

Step One: The chocolate mixture

Step 2: In my second mixing bowl I whisked together the two egg yolks and caster sugar using my electric hand mixer. It took about 5 minutes of whisking for the egg yolk mixture to vastly increase in volume and become very thick and mousse-like.

The "How to Bake" book says that you must not skimp on the time spent whisking in this step as it could lead to a dense, heavy sponge as there would not be enough bubbles to make the cake mixture puff out during baking. 

Step Two: The whisked egg yolks and sugar

Step 3: By this point my small kitchen surface was getting rather crowded with all of the mixing bowls that I was using for each step. In bowl number 3, I whipped the cream until it stood in soft peaks using the electric mixer. The "How to Bake" book describes soft peaks as the stage when you lift the whisk and the peak of the cream on it slightly droops down. The mascarpone was a solid block from being in the fridge so I had to stir it until the mascarpone became a smooth texture before adding it to the whipped cream.  

Step Three: The whipped cream and mascarpone

Step 4: This is the "folding" stage where all of the mixtures made in steps 1-3 are folded together. The "How to Bake" book describes folding as an important technique for puddings as it raises and lightens the mixture. I have to make sure when I fold the mixtures together that I don't overmix as the volume needs to be retained so that the air in the mixture is not deflated. Using a large metal spoon, I gently folded the cream, the egg yolk and the chocolate mixture together. 

Step Four: The cream, yolk and chocolate mixture

Step 5: Using bowl number 4, I whisked together the 2 egg whites and a tablespoon of caster sugar until the whites stood in stiff peaks. Here are a few tips from the "How to Bake" book that will ensure good results when whisking egg whites:

• Use egg whites at room temperature
• Put them into a dry and clean bowl
• Whisk on a low speed first for 30 seconds
• Add a drop of lemon juice or vinegar to help stiffen the structure

Step Five: The whisked egg whites and sugar

After finishing step 5, I folded the whisked egg whites into the chocolate cream mixture and finally my cake filling was complete!

The finished  cake filling

 I spooned my cake filling onto the chilled biscuit case and baked it in the oven for an hour and twenty minutes until the top felt firm.

Ready for the oven

The finished cake

The Verdict

The cake was truly sumptuous with a good light texture and rich chocolate taste. It took over an hour to create and a total of 5 mixing bowls to create my chocolate mousse cake, but I can say it was certainly worth the effort. I asked my husband to describe the cake and he said that it was "far better than anything that I would find in a restaurant". 

Next Week's Baking Challenge

Almond Croissants (hopefully!!!!)