Missing Component of a Delicious Cake
What can be better for Valentine’s Day than a chocolate cake? – A Double Chocolate Cake! But joking aside, it is excellent not only for Valentine’s day.
I have had a recipe for a Chocolate Mousse Cake for ages, and I remember making it for the first time years ago. Everyone who tasted it loved it, but somehow I forgot about it. Only last December when I was going through my recipe file while planning the Christmas menu, I rediscovered it. Hoping it would be perfect for Christmas Day dessert, I adjusted the original recipe and used chocolate with orange peel. I was right: everybody marvelled over its festive taste.
However, I felt that something was missing there. Being a massive fan of “Masterchef”, I know that the taste of a dish is fundamental but what makes it truly outstanding is a combination of textures. The Chocolate Mousse Cake had only one – smooth – consistency and in my opinion, needed something crunchy.
Transformation of the Chocolate Mousse Cake to The Double Chocolate Cake
I went searching on the internet for an idea of a crunchy base and found something that seemed suitable. It included a praline (hazelnuts in caramel) made into a paste mixed with cornflakes. I already had some doubts while preparing it as I wasn’t sure it was going to set. Unfortunately, I was right. Although the praline base was lovely and crunchy, at the same time, it was less stable than the chocolate mousse itself. As a result, I had to change the idea of the cake, and instead of having a praline base, we had a praline icing!
Nevertheless, the cake gained the missing texture, now the base needed only the right consistency. Having thought about it, I finally concluded that I should not turn the praline into a paste. Instead, I should leave it in the stage of tiny pieces and then mix it with cooled down melted chocolate. What can I say: the third time lucky! The cake was deliciously smooth and crunchy at the same time. It also gained the second chocolate layer so I could call it Double Chocolate Cake.
P.S. If you are looking for a recipe for a double chocolate cake but vegan, check this one out.
Double Chocolate Cake (Chocolate Mousse Cake)
Ingredients
Praline base:
- 75 g dark chocolate
- 75 g sugar
- 20 g water
- 75 g roasted hazelnuts
Chocolate mousse:
- 250 g dark chocolate
- 2 tbsp golden syrup
- 500 ml double cream
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- cocoa powder or chocolate shavings or lyophilised raspberry/strawberry powder
Instructions
- Melt the chocolate in a microwave or over a pan of simmering water, leave to cool.
- In a saucepan mix sugar with water, bring to boil.
- Simmer without stirring till the caramel reaches golden colour (it will take approx. 10 minutes).
- Place the hazelnuts on a silicon mat or parchment paper. When the caramel is ready, quickly pour it over the hazelnuts and leave to cool.
- Prepare an 18cm-diameter cake tin (with a removable base) by placing a cling film at the bottom of it.
- Break up the cold praline into smaller pieces and pulsate in a food processor until you reach a coarse powder stage.
- Mix the cooled down chocolate with the praline powder and spread it at the bottom of the prepared cake tin, put in the fridge.
- To make the mousse break the chocolate into smaller pieces and place it along with the golden syrup and approx. 100ml of the cream in a heatproof bowl. Place it over a pan of simmering water and leave for about 15 minutes. Stir to bring all the ingredients together and leave to cool down.
- In the meantime take a new A4 plastic folder and cut it in half along the longer side. Cut open along the longer side to get one long piece of plastic.
- Whip the rest of the cream with cinnamon until almost firm.
- Pour the cooled down chocolate to the whipped cream and gently fold the two together with a metal spoon.
- Take the tin out from the fridge and line its side with a prepared plastic foil.
- Pour the mousse into the tin and level the top with a spatula.
- Put the cake in the fridge for 6 hours (or overnight) to firm up.
- Before serving, unclip the tin gently and remove its side. Carefully pick up the cake from the base and peel off the cling film while holding it in the palm of your hand; slide the cake onto the serving plate. Remove the plastic from the side, and decorate the cake with cocoa, chocolate shavings or lyophilised raspberry/strawberry powder.
Notes
Related Recipes:
https://tastesofhealth.eu/recipe/double-chocolate-tart-chocolate-fudge-gluten-free-crust/
https://tastesofhealth.eu/recipe/homemade-chocolate-fudge-cake-with-homemade-milk-chocolate/
https://tastesofhealth.eu/recipe/strawberry-cheesecake-bites-homemade-pralines-recipes/
This sounds delicious and very intriguing, especially the contrast of textures.
Thank you, Irene. You are right :). The chocolate mousse is yummy but it is the texture of the base that makes the whole cake special.
looks delicious 🙂
looking for to trying the recipe!
It is really yummy, thanks a lot!
Thank you, I am pretty sure you will like it 🙂