Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

When I'm trying to eat healthy and stay away from sugar, a strange phenomenon happens.  At night, my dreams begin and end in butter, sugar, chocolate and cream!  This is no lie!  A few years ago I even had a dream about eating a rich and dark piece of chocolate cake!  I woke up with the "realness" of devouring that amazing cake and all my cravings were squelched for the day!  I guess you could say, I had my cake and ate it too!  With ZERO guilt!;)  That's how real these dreams are!  And because of this, I end up playing in my kitchen a ton more than usual!  Here is the latest!

Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake!  In my advanced baking classes we used to make a lot of similar types of mini layered mousse cakes for the French restaurant that was affiliated with the school!  But I promise you, these little beauties are easy, not advanced!  Here's what you'll need:


For the bottom cake layer:
1 Duncan Hines Milk Chocolate Brownie Mix ("doctored" to my liking:)
3 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup canola oil
Follow the baking instructions on the box for a 9 by 13 in pan.
Once the cake is baked, allow it to cool for about an hour before cutting into it.


For the dark chocolate mousse:
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2/3 cup heavy cream
4 oz bittersweet chocolate(I used 60% cacao Ghiradelli)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
Sprinkle the powdered gelatin into the water(this is called blooming) and set aside.  In a small saucepan bring the 2/3 cup of cream to a boil.  While the cream is heating, chop your bittersweet chocolate into small pieces and put in a stainless steel bowl.  Once the heavy cream comes to a boil, remove it from the heat and add your bloomed gelatin, stirring to dissolve it in the cream.  Now, pour your hot cream/gelatin mixture over the chopped chocolate and allow the chocolate to melt for a minute.  Pour the 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream into your stand mixer and beat on high until soft peaks form.  Add the 3 tablespoons of sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks form.  Let the sweetened whipped cream sit and begin to get to room temp.  Also let the chocolate mixture cool down to room temp.  Roughly 10 minutes for each!  If the chocolate mixture has already started to set up and get thick in to cooling process, don't panic.  Just stir it a bit to loosen it up and fold it into the whipped cream until well combined.  Store covered in the fridge until ready to use.  


For the white chocolate mousse:
2 Tablespoons water
2 teaspoons powdered gelatin
2/3 cup heavy cream
3 oz white chocolate
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
Follow the same exact method as the dark chocolate mousse above!


Now for assembling the cakes:
Use a round cookie cutter or the rim of a drinking glass to cut out the cake rounds.  I was able to get 8 cake rounds from the 9 by 13 inch sheet.  With foil underneath each cake round, cut roughly 6 inch tall parchment paper strips and wrap them around each cake, securing it with tape like this:

Now, spoon a layer of dark chocolate mousse into each parchment cup, on top of each cake round.  Then do the same thing with the white chocolate mousse.  With the back of the spoon, flatten each mousse layer.  Store the assembled cakes in the freezer.  When you are ready to serve, take a potato peeler and shave bits of bittersweet chocolate on top of the cakes.  Allow them to thaw on your counter for 30 minutes before removing the parchment and serving!

Duncan Hines brownie mix modified by Kara

Dark and white chocolate mousse by Kara

images by Kara