Chocolate Mousse Cake

Ingredients

• Cake
• 2 cups (400 g) sugar
• 1 3/4 cups (245 g) cake flour
• 3/4 cup (90 g) cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 tsp (7.5 ml) baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp (7.5 ml) bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp (5 ml) salt
• 2 eggs, at room temperature
• 1 cup (250 ml) milk
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) vegetable oil
• 2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla essence
• 1 cup (250 ml) boiling water
• Ganache
• 300 g dark chocolate
• 1 cup (250 ml) fresh cream
• Mousse
• 150 ml milk
• 3 1/2 slabs (315 g) dark chocolate, grated
• 150 g butter, cubed
• 2 1/2 cups (625 ml) fresh cream

Instructions

1. 1

   Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease and line three cake tins of 21 cm in diameter.

2. 2

   --- Cake ---

3. 3

   In the bowl of an electric mixer, using the paddle attachment, mix the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt together. Add the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla essence. Beat for 2 minutes on medium speed. Stir in the boiling water –the batter should be runny. Divide the batter equally between the three prepared pans and bake for 20–25 minutes or until the centres of the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Allow to cool in the pans before turning out.

4. 4

   --- Ganache ---

5. 5

   Over a double boiler, melt the chocolate and cream together. Stir until smooth. Leave to cool to room temperature – it should thicken slightly but still have a pouring consistency.

6. 6

   --- Mousse ---

7. 7

   Bring the milk to the boil, then pour it over the chocolate and butter in a mixing bowl. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Leave to cool to room temperature. Whip the cream until stiff peaks form, then fold into the chocolate mixture.

8. 8

   Trim the ‘dome’ sides of two of the cakes. This helps to flatten the cakes while leaving you with cake to crumb for decoration.

9. 9

   --- To assemble ---

10. 10

    Spread half of the mousse onto the first ‘flattened’ layer, top with the second ‘flattened’ layer and spread the rest of the mousse on top of this layer. Finally top with the remaining cake. Pour the ganache over the top and sides of the cake. Crumb the trimmed cake pieces and stick cake crumbs all around the cake.