two triple chocolate mousse cakes with raspberries

I made these two triple chocolate mousse cakes two summers ago (where does the time go?!), but never had a chance to blog about them until now! The first one was an 8-inch version, which I made for a co-worker who was leaving the company (he went to work for Google - so jealous!).

And then second one was a smaller 6-inch version, which I made for a casual dinner/playdate with my good friend Cecila. Our kids get along so well, which works out great because then the adults can catch up while the kids play!

I've made this particular cake many, many times, and I always love it each time. I've decorated it simply with just a bit of whipped cream. Or I've made them into individual cakes like these, for a fun and elegant dessert. I've decorated the rim with fresh raspberries or halved strawberries like with this cake, which adds a nice colorful decoration as well as a nice tang of fruit to go with the rich chocolate cake. I've done a piped decoration on top, in this case a cute wreath mousse cake for Christmas. I've even made them in different shaped molds, such as this Hello Kitty triple chocolate mousse cake. So versatile! And the cake components themselves are pretty simple to make, you just need the time to be able to let each layer set before adding the next.

The cake starts with a rich chocolate cake for the bottom layer. The original recipe from America's Test Kitchen uses a flourless chocolate cake, but I prefer to use a regular chocolate cake recipe instead. Then the middle layer is a rich chocolate mousse, made with melted bittersweet chocolate and cocoa powder which is folded into freshly whipped cream. And finally, the top layer is a simple white chocolate mousse, with a bit of gelatin to help it set properly.

I don't know about you, but my mouth is watering just thinking about this cake again!

hello kitty triple chocolate mousse cake studded with silver dragees

My best friend Sue and I both share a love for Hello Kitty, so I wanted to make her some sort of Hello Kitty cake for her birthday this year.  Last year I made her this cake inspired by Boston cream pie, and while I thought it looked pretty, it didn't live up to my expectations in the taste department.  So this year I wanted to make her something that tasted great, and since I know she loved my triple chocolate mousse cake, I decided to make her a Hello Kitty triple chocolate mousse cake!

I've made this triple chocolate mousse cake many times already, so I thought it would be a breeze to make in Hello Kitty form, but from the very first step my cake ran into complications!  My first mistake - for the bottom layer, I baked an 8-inch cake using my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe.  I wanted to use the same technique I used for my Hello Kitty tiramisu cake, by cutting out and fitting the cake into a Hello Kitty shaped mold.  But after the cake was baked and cooled, I went to cut out my Hello Kitty shape, and realized that the cake was too small - I should have used my 9-inch cake pan!  Doh!

But it was late at night already and didn't have time to bake a whole new cake, so instead I just cut out the main part of Hello Kitty's face with the majority of the cake, and then with the scraps I cut out the shape of the ears and bow.  Then I fit them into the mold, hoping the mousse that would go on top would end up holding the cake in place.

Then came my second mistake - I made the chocolate mousse for the middle layer using the recipe from my copy of America's Test Kitchen "Complete TV Show Cookbook", but for some reason when it was time to fold in the whipped cream into my chocolate mixture, the chocolate seized up and turned the mousse into a lumpy chocolaty mess instead.  This had never happened to me before!  So I had to start all over with another batch of the chocolate mousse.

Right after that came my third mistake - after filling the mold with my layer of chocolate mousse, I picked up the cake so that I could put it in the fridge to set.  But instead of picking it up by the cake board on the bottom like I should have, I picked it up by holding on to the mold.  Before I knew it, the mold slid right off of the cake, and since the mousse was still soft and hadn't set yet, everything came oozing out over the sides of the bottom cake layer.  I screamed out loud and immediately fit the mold back on, but it was too late.  I knew at this point I would not have clean layers.

The top layer of white chocolate mousse didn't have any major mistakes surprisingly, except that my white chocolate mixture was a bit too warm when I folded in the freshly whipped cream, so the resulting mousse was a bit too runny.  But after it set in the fridge you couldn't tell, other than the fact that the layer wasn't as tall as it should have been.  At this point it was 2am so I went to bed, hoping that the string of mistakes would not follow me into the next day!

In the morning, I started my day by unmolding the cake, and then decorating the top of the cake.  I didn't want to simply use cocoa powder like I did for the tiramisu cake, so my husband came up with the awesome idea to use silver dragees instead.  He got the idea from a shirt that our daughter wears quite often, which is bedazzled with little studs to form the shape of Hello Kitty.

On a side note, I find it crazy that it is illegal to sell silver dragees in California!  Yet, you can buy them in every other state in the country.  Online stores that sell silver dragees won't even ship to you if you are in California.  Because of this, the only silver dragees that I have are the ones my husband bought for me while visiting his parents in Hawaii last year.

That said, it would probably be illegal to sell this cake in California!  Because it is decorated with lots and lots of silver dragees.

In the end, despite all of the blunders while making the cake, I still loved the end result.  Of course the layers didn't look as clean as I would have liked, but seeing Hello Kitty light up and sparkle through silver dragees brought a smile to my face.  

I hope that Sue liked it was well!  Happy Belated Birthday!

christmas wreath triple chocolate mousse cake

Every Christmas we drive down to LA to spend Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family, and this year I wanted to make a cake to mimic my Christmas wreath cupcakes from Martha's "Cupcakes" book, which I had made earlier in the week.  So I decided to make the triple chocolate mousse cake from America's Test Kitchen once again, since I've made it several times and it hasn't let me down yet!

For the bottom layer I made my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe (instead of the flourless chocolate cake in the ATK recipe), but I followed the recipe exactly for the chocolate mousse (middle layer) and the white chocolate mousse (top layer).

From start to finish this cake takes a while to complete, because you have to bake the cake and then wait for it to cool for an hour or so.  Then you prepare the chocolate mousse layer, add it on top of the chocolate cake layer, and then let that set in the fridge for another hour or so.  Then comes the final layer, the white chocolate mousse, and once added to the top of the cake it also needs to set for another 2-3 hours.

After all the layers had set in the fridge for a few hours, I piped my wreath design in the middle of the cake with a leaf tip and cream cheese frosting colored green.  Then I sprinkled on holly and berry sprinkles (I used only the berries) that I found at Target (or you could use red sugar pearls like Martha suggests).

I unmolded the cake right before our drive down to LA, but I think I hadn't let it set long enough.  The sides were craggy and jagged, and not smooth like how I wanted it to be.  But I had no choice, it was time to go!  I hope everyone enjoyed it anyway!

triple chocolate mousse cake with raspberries

I've made America's Test Kitchen's triple chocolate mousse cake various ways now - as individual cakes, a full sized cake, and one layered with strawberries - and it always turns out great.  In July I made one again, this time for a goodbye lunch for a coworker who was leaving the company, and I simply decorated it with fresh raspberries.

Again I used my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe for the bottom layer.  When it came time to make the chocolate mousse layer, I was somewhat distracted with the kids, and hastily read the recipe's measurement for salt as 1 teaspoon.  It didn't register in my mind that it was a lot salt!  But I whipped up the mousse, added it on top of the chocolate cake layer in my springform pan, and place it in the fridge for it to set.  Then I went to clean up and start on the next layer.  Before I threw the spatula I had used into the sink, I licked it off (can't let chocolate mousse go to waste!), and then realized that the mousse was REALLY salty!  I rushed to check the recipe again, and it was actually 1/8 teaspoon of salt that I should have added!  DOH!

I ended up waiting for the much-too-salty mousse layer to set in the fridge so that I could slice the layer off easily, and then dumped it in the trash. :( What a waste of good dark chocolate!  Then I proceeded to make another chocolate mousse layer, this time with the correct measurement of salt!

After adding the third layer of white chocolate mousse, I let that set in the fridge, and then decorated the perimeter of the cake with fresh raspberries.  To finish it off, I piped a "best wishes" message in melted chocolate.

The raspberries went really well with the cake, and the tartness of the fruit cut the richness of the dessert perfectly.  I hope everyone enjoyed it at the lunch!  Good luck and best wishes to Clayton, with whom I've worked with for over 10 years!

father's day - triple chocolate mousse cake with strawberries

For Father's Day this year, I wanted to make something with chocolate and strawberries.  So I decided on making triple chocolate mousse cake once more, but this time with strawberries.

I planned on baking a 6-inch cake, so I baked the bottom layer (chocolate cake) in a 6-inch removable-bottom cake pan.  But I had forgotten that cakes tend to shrink a bit after being baked!  Since there were gaps on the sides between the cake and the cake pan, I knew I wouldn't be able to pour the mousse layers directly on top, so I created a 5.5-inch cuff using parchment paper and a cardboard bakery box.

Once I had my homemade cake ring, I lined the edge of the ring with halved strawberries, with the cut-side facing out.  Then I filled it with the middle layer of white chocolate mousse.

After letting the two layers set in the fridge for about half an hour, I proceeded to make and fill my top layer of bittersweet chocolate mousse.  Then I let the whole cake set in the fridge for the rest of the afternoon, and then decorated the top with more halved strawberries.  And I left the leaves on to add a splash of green to the cake.

I thought the end result was beautiful, but my husband commented on how funny it was that I was making a Father's Day cake that looked so girly!  Ooops!

The cake ended up tasting great, although the bottom layer became kind of soggy from the halved strawberries.  Next time I'll try adding a thin layer of mousse before adding the strawberries, and hopefully that will protect the cake layer from getting too wet.

Happy Father's Day honey!  Next time I promise the cake won't be so girly!  Or soggy!

triple chocolate mousse cake for angie and yvonne

My cousin Angie flew in from Chicago last weekend, specifically to run in Bay to Breakers with a group of friends.  My other cousin Yvonne planned to run in it as well.  So on Angie's first evening in town, we all had dinner at my house.  For dessert, I made a triple chocolate mousse cake - a 6-inch version of the individual triple chocolate mousse cakes I made a few months ago.

The bottom layer was a moist chocolate cake (I again used my favorite homemade chocolate cake recipe instead of the flourless chocolate cake recipe from ATK), the middle layer was a bittersweet chocolate mousse, and the top layer was a white chocolate mousse.  Then I piped on a good luck message in melted chocolate.

After I unmolded my mousse cake, the top edge was really wonky and uneven.  So I thought I would pipe on a nice shell border (to hide the wonkyness).  But, it only made the cake more ugly (sigh).  I had the urge to pipe a shell border on the bottom of the cake to even it out, but I resisted, as I have messed up cakes in the past by continuing to add things such as this.

In the end, the cake tasted great, and that's all that matters, right? :)

Hope you enjoyed it Angie and Yvonne!

triple chocolate mousse cakes

As soon as I saw this post, I knew that I wanted to make this dessert.  But, the recipe uses raw eggs that are not cooked all the way through (not recommended for kids).  Then I remembered an episode of America's Test Kitchen where they made a triple chocolate mousse cake, with no raw eggs!  So I used that recipe instead, and made them into individual cakes.  The perfect occasion arose when we went to visit the California Academy of Sciences Museum with my friends Sue and Cecila and our significant others and kids - I made these as snacks for us, but we ended up eating them after the museum, following a belated birthday dinner for Sue.

Since I didn't have a whole bunch ramekins of the same size, I used four 3.5-inch ramekins, two 3-inch ramekins, and then improvised with four additional 3-inch cake rings with which I lined the bottom with aluminum foil.  I buttered all of these and then dusted them with cocoa powder.

 

The bottom layer of the dessert was a moist chocolate cake.  The recipe from ATK uses a flourless chocolate cake, but I decided to use my favorite homemade chocolate chocolate recipe instead.  This may have been a bad decision, as the cake baked in the cake rings all fell apart when I unmolded them!  I suppose the flourless chocolate cake would have provided a more stable and dense cake, but in the end I was glad I went with the regular chocolate cake, since the resulting cake was very moist and not too heavy with the mousse. 

After trimming the cakes to be one-inch tall and then surrounding them with little parchment paper cuffs, I used a pastry bag to pipe and fill them with the middle layer - a rich bittersweet chocolate mousse - and then let them set in the fridge for about an hour.  Then I piped the top layer, which was a light white-chocolate mousse.  Normally I am not a big fan of white chocolate, but in this case it complimented the dessert well (and made for a nice color contrast).

And with the leftover pieces of cake trimmings and leftover mousse, I used drinking glasses to assemble little parfaits (can't let leftover cake and mousse go to waste!).