Chocolate raspberry mousse cake

yesterday was my sister's birthday....since a long time I was deciding what dessert I should make....I wanted to make something really special, something that I had never tried before...as I am a big chocolate fan, I wanted to make some type of chocolate cake....but I didnt want to make a regular cake, and mousse cake seemed too challenging as I had twice attempted to make chocolate mousse but was unsuccessful....during my research I came across David Lebovitz's recipe "chocolate idiot cake" which looked indeed very easy, and was not a traditional chocolate cake, as it was flourless chocolate cake, and which as per the author "an idiot" could make it, if they followed the instructions....and after reading the description of the cake, I was tempted to make it.

However, I thought it was too simple,so the idea struck me to make a raspberry mousse over the chocolate. after some research I zeroed in on this recipe for "raspberry mousse", again this is a super easy recipe....but while I was looking for raspberry mousse recipe, I came across the recipe for "chocolate raspberry mousse cake". I was tempted to make the chocolate mousse at the last moment...I was skeptical about it, as I had failed twice, but this recipe was different from the recipes I had tried earlier, this one didnt include beating and folding egg whites. I guess, I realized something about myself as I pushed myself to give this recipe a try, that I dont give up easily. I am super proud of myself. I am indeed my Mommy's girl :)

So here I present to all of you the chocolate raspberry mousse cake...and since I wanted to stick to the raspberry-chocolate theme, I used the ghirardelli dark chocolate with raspberry filling for the chocolate cake. you can use any chocolate you like, just use a good quality chocolate that you enjoy eating, as you are going to taste the chocolate in both the cake and the mousse.

Day 1: Chocolate Idiot Cake
Ingredients:

1. 290 g semisweet chocolate chopped (i used 1 cup ie approx 150 g semisweet chocolate chips and 150 g ghirardelli raspberry squares )
2. 200g unsalted butter
3. 5 eggs
4. 1 cup sugar

Method:

• Melt the chocolate and butter using double boiler method ie in a large saucepan heat water, and place the chocolate and butter in smaller vessel and stir it till it melts and forms uniform consistency.
• beat the eggs and add sugar and beat it some more.
• Pour in the molten chocolate and butter mixture and beat it to form a uniform batter.
• Prepare the pan by greasing it with butter and dusting it with cocoa powder tapping away the excess. I used a spring form pan, but I think that you can use regular pan too to make this cake. If the springform pan is not 100% water tight then you need to wrap it with foil.
• Preheat the oven to 350 deg
• Pour the batter in the prepared pan cover it with a foil
• In a larger tray pour water and place the baking tray in the larger tray and the water should come till half the inner tray height.
• bake for 1 hr 15 min, the cake should be springy to touch, your finger should come clean after lightly touching the center of the cake. the knife test doesn't work with this one, as this is a flourless cake. so do not over bake. 
• the cake will be done if you follow these steps, let it cool, it will shrink some bit and separate from the sides.
• I made the entire cake in 3 steps. so once the cake is cooled you can keep it in the refrigerator.

chocolate and butter in double boiler

melted chocolate and butter mixture

beating eggs and sugar

after adding chocolate

Prepared pan

batter in pan

chocolate cake ready :)

(I used this recipe as I think this one was easier than the recipe of cake on hunger happenings as this did not include beating egg whites and folding egg whites)

Day 2: Morning, Chocolate mousse

1. 3 1/2 cups regular whipped cream
2. 12 ounces (2 cups) semi sweet chocolate chips
3. 3 tbsp water
4. 3 tbsp sugar
5. 3 egg yolks

Method:

• Melt chocolate using the double boiler method.
• Keep it aside to cool
• In a small vessel pour water and add sugar and heat it till water boils, to make syrup
• Beat the egg yolks, add the syrup to the egg yolk and mix it well.
• Pour in the melted chocolate, and mix it using beater. the mixture will turn little dry and crumbly, so heat it again using double boiler method just so that it loosens little, or if your bowl is microwavable, heat in microwave for 15 sec. Do not heat too much, else the cream will melt.
• add 1/3 of whipped cream and whisk well 
• now add the remaining whipped cream and fold it with the chocolate mixture. The mixture should be fluffy Pour/ spoon the batter over the cake. allow it to set for half an hour minimum
  

  

  chocolate in double boiler

  

  melted chocolate

  

  egg yolk and sugar syrup mixture

after adding chocolate to egg yolk

after reheating the chocolate mix

after folding in the whipped cream

ready to set :)

     (My cake had shrunk quite away from sides, so I just scooped the mousse and placed it over the cake and spread as much as possible without it flowing over the cake , mine was sloping towards the edges and thicker in the center, but that doesn't make any difference. the look and taste is awesome nevertheless. So if you are using a regular cake pan, you can just invert the pan the next day, place cake on a plate and set the mousse on it.)

Day 2: evening, Raspberry mousse

1. 3 tbsp seedless raspberry jam
2. 3 cups regular whipped cream
3. 1/4 cup sugar

Method:

• in a bowl smoothen the jam with a spoon till it is loose consistency.
• mix the sugar with the whipped cream.
• add the loosened jam and fold it with the cream, till you see an even colour, no streaks.
• spread the raspberry mousse over the chocolate mousse and allow it to set for couple of hours. 

(I used 3 tbsp jam, but I think if you add 4 tbsp jam, it would give better colour to the mousse and it wouldn't harm the taste much. if you feel it might make it too sweet, you can avoid using sugar. I thought my mousse was little too light pink. I am sorry for not having pics of the mousse in making)

Your cake is ready to be served!!!! You can decorate it with chocolate powder, or chocolate shavings or fresh fruits, anything that strikes your imagination.

it is super easy recipe, and the best chocolate mousse recipe, I loved the chocolate mousse....if you do not know how to fold, here is the video link to fold the cream in the mousse. I would suggest you do it in parts like I did, coz together it might seem little overwhelming and you dont want to add the layers unless the previous one is set well. Also, if you break it in 3 parts, its feels like its no work at all...

slice of heaven indeed..

I loved this cake, and I hope you ll try it and love it too :) 

Happy experimenting :)