Chocolate Mousse Cake

I can’t believe I am stuck for words when I am completing 7 years of blogging. 7 years! Wow! I think I should give myself a pat on my back. When life has been in general difficult yet worth fighting for, I have still kept my wits to continue cooking, clicking and blogging. I guess that just shows how much I love this little baby of mine, despite sometimes feeling that it hasn’t been fair to me. But having said that, I always believe in whatever is meant for us will come our way, come what may, so I guess I am happy with the little that is coming my way. 🙂

The last two years has marked a known push from my side to reduce my blogging in every way. I have gone from posting almost every day to posting twice or thrice a week. I feel that has helped me go on without feeling too much pressured on feeding the blog. I think I will continue the same trend or maybe even move to lower blog posts as the years pass, just to keep myself tied to this space of mine, that I did start by a whim, but has become a major part of my life, I must say…

Having said that, this post is #1500 on the blog as well! I know, it is such a huge number! It doesn’t mean that I have that many recipes – almost hitting 1400 soon, but combining all the guest posts that have graced my space, plus the events and miscellaneous posts I have done so far, this number has come through. I guess it is not a big thing. When you consistently blog, hitting these numbers don’t make much sense anymore. Especially when you consistently feel that the blog can do better, it loses its importance.

But then, when I notice about going through SEO and what is to be done to make sure your blog comes in the good books of Google, I find that the blog will tend to lose its personal touch. Everybody starts blogging like a passion and add their own personality to it, but when SEO comes into play, then there are certain guidelines – like having to write in a certain way, highlight and italicize all the key words, have the same thing written in different ways, etc. My problem is I am not ready to accept it and change the way I blog. If that’s the case, I can’t expect my blog to grow, isn’t it? 🙂

I have written such long, heartfelt posts every time there was a blog related milestone, but somehow I can’t get myself to write one when the blog is literally hitting  a double whammy. But this time I think I will forgive myself and let it just go. Sometimes, you just need to be kind to yourself and learn to manage things when you are really not in a mood for it. So as of now let’s slowly move onto the recipe for the day…

Since chocolate is my all time muse, I thought I must celebrate this post with chocolate itself. What better than a deliciously yummy mousse cake! This cake has been on my to-do list since a very long time. B loves mousse cakes and hence I chose his birthday to make this one. OK, let me share a small secret – his next birthday will be up InShaAllah very soon, so you can say I literally held on to this post awaiting for the best time for it to appear on the blog. And what better time than now! 😀

This mousse cake has three simple layers – one thin chocolate cake layer, the actual mousse layer and a thin ganache layer. It is a total kill for a complete chocolate fan. If you love desserts that make go “mm” with every spoonful into your mouth, then this is surely one among it! The only negative of this dessert is that it takes a little time to assemble and make the three layers, but all the layers are super simple to make and all you need is a little bit of patience to wait for it to settle. 🙂

I prepared the cake base first, let it bake while I worked on making the mousse. By the time the cake gets cooled, you will be ready with the mousse that can be plopped on top of it. I then let it set in the fridge for an hour and during that time, made the ganache and allow it to cool slightly. Do not let it cool completely, otherwise it would harden and would be difficult to spread. I did the cake and mousse the previous night and the ganache the next day, to have a delicious Friday dessert in place. The whole cake got cleaned up in minutes. That is understood… It was just truly chocolate bliss! Off to this super delicious recipe…

Before I end this post – how can I forget? Today’s is my Azza’s birthday #9! I may sound cliched if I say I can’t believe my girl is already on the threshold on the double digit age and I literally feel like crying. Both of my girls are two sides of the coin, with different temperaments. While Rasha is more outgoing and friendly, Azza is more within herself most of the time. But with people she adores, she is a total monster. Hehe… She can ride you up the wall with her shrieks, tantrums and manhandling. If I make her sound like a difficult child, then she isn’t. In fact, on the out, she is a very silent, simply smiling angel of a person. Just that when she is indoor, she is a totally different face. She is someone who totally values her outside impression, that if we threaten her that we would open up to her teacher regarding her tantrums, she would be begging with full of tears. 😀 So her is wishing my electric little child only the very best. I know your sister is acting a bit too bossy at the moment, but then she is hitting her terrible teens, so I hope you understand… 🙂

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Course Cakes

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 4 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 10 minutes minutes

Servings 6 -8

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• FOR CAKE:
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tbsp oil
• 1 tsp vinegar
• FOR MOUSSE:
• 200 gm dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp gelatin
• 2 cups whipping cream refer notes
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• FOR GANACHE:
• 100 gm fresh cream
• 1/3 cup packed chocolate chips

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease an 8 inch springfoam pan.
• Whisk the dry ingredients for the cake together. Add the wet ingredients and fold in till well combined.
• Spread the batter at the bottom of the pan and flatten the top. Bake for 10 minutes till done.
• Allow to cool completely in the pan.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate on double boiler method. Allow it to cool slightly.
• Warm the milk and bloom the gelatin in it. Set aside.
• Whip the cream and sugar till soft peaks. Add the melted chocolate and gelatin milk and whip till well combined.
• Pour over the cooled cake and tap the pan to flatten the top. Keep in the fridge for it to set.
• Warm the cream in the microwave. Add the chocolate chips and let it sit for sometime. Stir till smooth. Allow to cool. Pour over the set mousse and return back to the fridge to set for at least two hours.
• Slice and serve.

Notes

If you are using whipping powder instead of whipping cream, then use 2 sachets, beaten into one cup of milk and a dash of vanilla essence, till done.