Chocolate sponge, mascarpone cream mousse with chocolate crumbs, chocolate coffee mousse and a sweet cocoa macaron shell drizzled with the best chocolate sauce!
Long story shor this is one of my new favorite cake! I mean it’s the perfect combination of flavors and not one of those typical dry and just overwhelmingly sweet and buttery chocolate cakes.
I know it sounds quite complicated but the only risky part is the giant macaron. Yeah that is really a pain in the ... but if you leave that layer out the cake will still be the best! Trust me!
I am not a huge fan of chocolate cakes, neither my mum. So it was a challenge to create a chocolaty cake for her birthday. I think I did my best.
The two sponge layers and the chocolate crumb (from the Momofuku milk bar cook book) are really simple recipes. But thet crumb, it’s soooo addicting you have to make at least a duble batch and you know what?! If you don’t want to make this whole fancy cake just please make the crumb!
The mousses are a bit more complicated but absolutely doable, the most important thing is timing! And the correct amount of gelatin so they won’t turn out as soups.
Now let me talk about the giant macaron. To be honest I didn’t designed this cake with the macaron shell but I had to test the recipe before my frineds birthday. I baked her not one but three giant macarons. If you follow me on instagram you might have heard about them. So that’s why I added the macaron element to the cake. But if you don’t have any on hand you can just leave it out!
I have to mention my all time favorite chocolate sauce just because it’s THE BEST THING EVER! I know I can be a bit too excited about things but it really is amazing!
If you have any birthdays coming up, here is the perfect cake recipe, you're welcome :D!
Chocolate Cream Mousse Cake
Prep Time: 1.5 hours Baking Time: 45 min. Total Time: 6 hours Portions: 8-10 slices
Ingredients:
Chocolate sponge:
110g soft butter
110g icingsugar
110g eggs (around 2 large ones)
80g all-purpsoe flour
30g unsweetened cocoa powder
Chocolate crumb:
105g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon cornflour
100g granulated sugar
65g unsweetened cocoa powder
½ teaspoon salt
85g butter (melted)
Cream Mousse:
250g mascarpone
100ml heavy cream
2 tablespoons strongly brewed coffee
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
2 gelatin leaves or 5g gelatin powder
Chocolate Mousse:
2 egg yolks
160g milk
4 teaspoon strongly brewed coffee
4 gelatin leaves or 10 g gelatin powder
200g dark chocolate, chopped (min.60%)
200g heavy cream
Macaron shell: (optional)
92g almonds (grounded)
92g icing sugar
15g unsweetened cocoa powder
25 ml water
100g granulated sugar
75g egg whites (around 2)
For decoration:
½ batch of my homemade chocolate sauce (recipe here) or other chocolate sauce
Directions:
Chocolate sponge:
Preheat your oven to 355 F or 180 C. Draw two 7 inch or 18 cm circles onto a parchment paper then fold it up side down to a baking sheet.
In a large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
Add the slightly beaten eggs in 2-3 portions.
Fold in the flour and cocoa powder.
Divide the batter evenly between the two circles and spread them to get slightly bigger layers. Bake them for 10 minutes. Let them cool down completely.
Chocolate Crumb:
Preheat your oven to 300 F or 150 C. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl mix together the flour, cornflour, sugar cocoa powder and salt.
Add the melted butter and toss together until small crumbs start to form.
Spread it onto the baking sheet and bake for 20 min. Let it cool down completely.
Cream Mousse:
Soak your gelatin leaves in some water or add 2 teaspoons of water to your gelatin powder and let it set.
Warm up your brewed coffee add the sugar and let it disolve.
Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin leaf then add it to the hot coffee mixture. Or add your soaked gelation powder.
Start to whip up your heavy cream.
Meanwhile whip the mascarpone and the coffee mixture together.
When the heavy cream reacehes a stiff peak form fold it carefully into the mascarpone in 2 batches.
With a cake ring cut your sponges to the right size. Then put your cake ring onto a serving plate or a cake board. Put the first sponge to the bottom then spread half of the cream mousse on top of it.
Add an even layer of chocolate crumbs then the spread the other half of the mousse on the top. Cover it with some more chocolate crumbs.
Add the other sponge than set it in the fridge while making the other mousse.
Chocolate Mousse:
Soak your gelatin leaves in some water or adda few teaspoons of water to your gelatin powder and let it set.
Add the milk, egg yolk and coffee into a pot and heat it up. Cook until it thickens (around 175 F or 80 C). Stir constantly.
Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin leaves then add it to the milk mixture. Or add your soaked gelation powder. Stir in then add the chocolate pieces. Mix until everything is disolved.
Whip up your heavy cream.
When your chocolate mixture is at room temperature fold the whipped cream into it, in 2 portions.
Spread the mousse on top of the cooled cake then set it into the fridge for 4 hours at least.
Macaron: (optional)
Make sure you measure out everything in gramms!
Put the egg whites into a bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it at room temperature for a few hours before using them.
Preheat your oven to 210 F or 100 C.
If you use whole almonds put them into a food processor and ground them. Sift them and ground the bigger bits again. Spread them on a baking sheet and bake them for 15 minutes.
Let them cool down completely then ground and sift them again with the powdered sugar.
In a medium sized pot bring the granulated sugar and water to 250F or 121 C.
In a large bowl whip up half of the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form then slowly start to pour in the hot sugar syrup. Beat until stiff peaks forms and it holds it’s shape for 5 minutes.
Sift the almond mixture with the cocoa powder into the other half of the egg whites then fold them together.
Fold the egg white meringue mixture in three batches to the almond mixture. Make sure you don’t stir them just fold! It’s good when the mixture stick to the spatula but slowly drips down.
Put the mixture into a piping bag and pipe one 6.5 inch or 17 cm disk on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. And pipe smaller macaron disks for normal sized macarons with the leftover meringue onto another sheet. Let them rest for at least 1 hours or until the top of the macarons are dry enough so when you touch them gently nothing sticks to your finger.
Preheat your oven to 300 F or 150 C. Bake the giant macaron for 15-20 minutes and for 10-12 minutes the normal sized ones.
Let them cool down completly on the baking sheet!
Remove the cake ring from the cake and add the giant macaron shell on top of it just before serving the cake. Drizzle it with the chocolate sauce.
