Chocolate mousse cake and a trip to York

For me, this cake is a wish-list of all the best things baking with chocolate can provide.  Chocolate biscuit base? Yep.  Layer of rich brownie? Yeah, it’s got one of those. Chocolate mousse? Of course! Whippy cream to set it all off? Mai oui...and even some chocolate pigs frolicking on the top!  Somebody pinch me; I must be dreaming.

Now this looks pretty fancy and you do need to organise yourself to get the stages done (with waiting time between them) but there is nothing complicated here at all.  If you can whisk and fold then you can make what is a very sophisticated looking dessert.  Also, in this heatwave, it doesn’t require a lot of oven time.

I kept the brownie all dark chocolate but used a mix of dark and milk chocolate for the mousse, simply because I prefer a less bitter mousse.  But you can tinker and tailor it to your tastebuds!

Often with recipes that use a 23cm tin, I’ll ignore the instruction and use my 20cm tin as I prefer a taller cake.  Don’t try that with this recipe as it is a huge cake even when made in the 23cm tin.  This could happily feed a large gathering for dessert and perhaps even leave you some for the next day...I must admit it is rather rich, even though I feel feeble for saying so.

Mr CC and I had a lovely long weekend in York.  We went there for a daytrip last year and realised that the City needed more than that to discover all the gems it has to offer.  It is a truly historic town with wonderful architecture wherever you look.  Here’s the Minster (I wasn’t drunk, I went for an arty angle to omit the scaffolding around the top of the left hand tower!)

Right that’s the travel guide over with – now to the important stuff!  To visit York is to fall in love with Bettys the famous tea rooms; I use the plural because in York you have big Bettys:

And little Bettys (it hurts me not to use an apostrophe but that’s how it is!)

Being keen to immerse myself in local culture I had to try both.  I had a quick cup of tea and a fat rascal in little Bettys while Mr CC was off looking at trains in the National Railway Museum (I think I got the better of that particular deal!).  I have read much about the legendary fat rascal – a cross between a scone and a rock bun, and the window display only got me more excited:

What I didn’t know is that they are served warm and eaten with butter (it just gets better!)

We visited big Bettys for the formal afternoon tea.  Even the menu was beautiful and in-keeping with the art deco style of the tea room:

The afternoon tea was classic and elegant – no putting savoury herbs in sweet tarts here; rather a lovely selection of tried and tested combinations such as lemon meringue, chocolate and caramel...I wish other afternoon tea venues would take note.

It wasn’t all about Bettys though; we found a lovely little cafe – Bennett’s - right by York Minster (on High Petergate) and thoroughly enjoyed their Yorkshire classics of gingerbread and curd tart.

To prove we didn’t live off cake for the weekend here’s a plate of wholesome goodness from Wackers (on Gillygate), York’s biggest and best loved fish and chip restaurant.  The fish and chips is fried in beef dripping....mmm, beef dripping!

Ingredients

For the base:

300g oreo biscuits – I used one packet normal filling, one packet chocolate filling
150g chocolate digestives – use milk or dark, whichever you prefer (I used milk)
125g unsalted butter, at room temperature

For the cake:

200g dark chocolate – 70% cocoa solids
50ml dark rum
100g unsalted butter
¼ teaspoon fine salt
150g golden caster sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
50g golden syrup
30g plain flour (this is not a typo – it is only 30g)

For the mousse:

250ml double cream
250g chocolate – I used a mix of dark and milk
4 eggs, separated
30g icing sugar

For decoration:

300ml double cream
50g icing sugar
Chocolate decorations of your choice – I used tiny chocolate pigs!

Method

Line the sides of 23cm round springform tin with baking paper of re-usable silicon liner.

Place the biscuits and butter into the food processor and blitz until you have claggy crumbs.  If you use a processor there is no need to melt the butter.  Alternatively, you can melt the butter and beat the biscuits to crumbs in a plastic bag then mix together.  As the biscuits are chocolate and filled with cream I think the processor is the way to go, if you can.

Press the base into the prepared tin and refrigerate for 30 mins.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 160°C/fan oven 140°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

Put the base in the oven (straight from the fridge) and cook for 10 minutes.

Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

Increase the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/gas mark 4.

Now make the cake layer: place the chocolate, rum, butter and salt into a saucepan and melt over a very gentle heat, stirring often.

When the chocolate has all melted add the sugar and stir rapidly.  At first the mix will look and feel gritty but then you will feel the sugar crystals dissolve even though the mix will still look granular.

Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the eggs one at a time.

Whisk in the golden syrup.

Whisk in the flour.

Your batter will be very thick and runny – like a brownie batter.

Pour the batter over the biscuit base and cook for 30-35 minutes or until the cake looks baked but still has a little squidge in the centre.

Leave to cool completely – in the tin – on a wire rack.

Now make the mousse layer: heat the cream in a saucepan until it is at scalding point i.e. almost but not quite boiling.

Remove from the heat and place the chocolate, broken into squares, into the cream.  Leave for a couple of minutes before stirring.

Leave to cool for 5 minutes or so before whisking in the egg yolks.  If the mix is too hot the eggs might start to cook and the mix will look ugly.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with the icing sugar until they are stiff.

Take a spoon of the whites and whisk into the chocolate mix – this will slacken the chocolate and make it easier to fold in the remaining whites.

Fold together the chocolate and egg whites making sure you stop as soon as they are combined – over folding will knock air out of the mousse.

Spoon over the cake and chill for a minimum of 2 hours but ideally overnight.

On the day of serving whip the cream and icing sugar and spoon into a messy blob on top of the mousse.

Decorate as desired with chocolate.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat. 

Jubilee treats...part one of two

If you live in the UK, the chances are you’ve realised that this weekend is a four day Golden Jubilee celebration marking Our Maj’s 60 years on the throne (stop sniggering!).  Let’s just say it’s garnered a mention or two in the media....

Being an old curmudgeon, I shall be avoiding street parties like the plague (the last street party I went to was for the Silver Jubilee in 1977; I had green balloons attached to me and wore a label identifying me as a Birds-Eye pea pod.  This stuff scars you for life – believe me) but instead decided on a nice meal with my family.

This post covers the dessert and afternoon tea cake.  As I was roasting a huge rib of beef on the day, I wanted to pick recipes that could be prepared in advance, would have a broad appeal, would suit the occasion and look good without much faff.  I think the strawberry mousse, and the raspberry and blueberry cake achieved this!

Let’s start with the strawberry mousse: it’s a gelatine set mousse containing both cream and natural yoghurt; this stopped it being too sweet.  I like leaving little flecks of cream in my mousse as they feel delicious in your mouth; the trick is to fold the mousse just enough but not so much that it becomes a single colour and texture.

The darker topping is just strawberry puree, sweetened to taste with some icing sugar.  I served the mousse with shortbread biscuits (the recipe for which can be found here)

The raspberry and blueberry sponge is my attempt to get patriotic by picking out the colours of the Union flag (yes, I am a pedant – it’s only the Union Jack when it’s at sea.  Pedantry over.)  This is a big cake and it serves a lot of people – I used my 23cm round tin which is a tin that doesn’t get a lot of airings in my kitchen!

Raspberries and blueberries are probably my favourite fresh fruits to bake with as they add such a pop of colour and a fabulous texture to any cake as they collapse and squidge into the batter during baking.  All this cake needed was a simple vanilla buttercream to set it off.

I hope everyone enjoys the extended weekend...and please come back and visit early next week to see my other Jubilee bake involving golden syrup and cream cheese (and no – it’s not a cheesecake!)

 

Ingredients for the strawberry mousse

625g strawberries, washed and hulled
Icing sugar – to taste
3 tablespoons runny honey
4 leaves gelatine
250ml double cream
250g natural yoghurt

To serve: shortbread biscuits – recipe can be found here

Method for the strawberry mousse

Take 225g of the strawberries and blitz in a food processor or blender.

Pass through a sieve and taste – add icing sugar if needed.  I added 1 ½ tablespoons to my strawberries.

Pour into a jug and refrigerate until serving.

Now make the mousse: blitz the remaining strawberries and sieve.

Stir in the honey.

Fill a small bowl with cold water and place the gelatine leaves in it to soften.

Pour about 1/3 of the larger puree into a small saucepan and heat until just bubbling.

Remove from the heat.

Squeeze all the water out of the now soft gelatine leaves and whisk into the hot puree.

Put to one side until cool, then whisk into the other 2/3 of puree.

Whip the cream until it forms soft peaks.

Add the yoghurt and whip until combined.

Fold in the strawberry puree.  If you like creamy little bits left in your mousse take care not to fold it too much.

Ladle into four 250ml glasses and cover with clingfilm.

Refrigerate until you wish to serve.

When serving, pour some of the puree on top, and serve with tiny shortbread biscuits.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Ingredients for the raspberry and blueberry cake

For the cake:

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g caster sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 eggs
325g plain flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
150ml milk
125g fresh raspberries
125g fresh blueberries

For the buttercream:

150g unsalted butter, at room temperature
200g icing sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons milk

Method for the raspberry and blueberry cake

Preheat the oven to 180°C/fan oven 160°C/350°F/Gas mark 4.

Line a 23cm round springform tin with baking paper (a 20cm square tin would also work).

Beat together the butter and sugar until smooth, light and whippy.  Don’t skimp on this stage – this is where you get all the air into your batter.

Beat in the vanilla.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

Measure out the flour and then take two tablespoons of it and sprinkle over the fruit – this ensures that the fruit is dry and won’t sink in the cake.

Fold the flour and baking powder into the batter, followed by the milk.

Tip the floury fruit into the batter and gently fold trying not to break the fruit – some will break, don’t worry!

Spoon into the tin and level the surface.

Bake for 50 minutes – 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.  Mine took an hour.

Leave to cool, in the tin, until it is cool enough to handle and safely de-tin.  Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.

Now make the buttercream: beat the butter until it is soft.

Add the icing sugar and beat together – start with the mixer on a low number to avoid dusting your kitchen with icing sugar!

Add the vanilla  and milk and beat until smooth.

Spread over the top of the cake and decorate as desired.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.

Eat.

Double chocolate cheesemoussecake

Another week in May, another birthday – this time it’s the Caked Crusader’s Brother (CCB) who, in his subtle way, made it quite clear that he wanted a chocolate cheesecake.

I feel like I let him down a bit as this definitely wasn’t a purebred cheesecake; it had a mousse-like texture but the unmistakable tang of a good cheesecake. For texture, I added some chocolate chips but these are optional. It would make a good dessert as it was rich but also light in texture.

The base uses chocolate digestives and I remain adamant that hobnobs make a better base, but the CCB was most insistent that I use digestives as he likes the hint of saltiness they provide.

I know I’ve mentioned it before but I’ll repeat myself – there really is no need to melt the butter when you add it to the biscuit crumb base. If you put the biscuits and cold butter into the food processor at the same time you get a lovely smooth base and none of the greasy hot butter seeping out into your fridge! I find it makes the base a nice consistency.

The cheesemoussecake has chocolate chips in it, but also marbling provided by a rich dark chocolate ganache. You can see the different colours in these slices:

This wasn’t the easiest cake to cut...in fact I had a bit of a disaster. I’m not the world’s most confident cake cutter anyway so something like this makes me go to pieces somewhat. I include the following picture; the slice was cut by the CCB and he returned from the kitchen with – it must be said – a rather smug expression, extra proud that he’d kept it upright on the plate!

Happy birthday CCB!

Ingredients

For the base:
125g chocolate digestives - I used milk chocolate
75g unsalted butter

For the filling:
4 gelatine leaves
60ml milk
500g cream cheese – I used Philadelphia
110g caster sugar
2 eggs, separated
250ml double cream, plus 2 tablespoons extra
150g dark or milk chocolate – I used Green and Blacks milk chocolate which is 34% cocoa content and like a halfway house between dark and milk
100g chocolate chips – use dark, milk or white. I used milk
100g dark or white chocolate – if you make a dark chocolate cheesecake use white for this as it provides the marbling; because I made a milk chocolate cheesecake I went for dark

To decorate: chocolate decorations of your choice

Method

Use a 20cm round pastry ring (make sure it’s quite deep) or remove the base from a 20cm springform deep baking tin and use that. Place it on your serving plate and line the sides with a ring of baking paper.

Start by making the base: place the biscuits and butter into a food processor and blitz until you have fine crumbs. Alternatively, melt the butter and break the biscuits by placing them in a bag and crushing with a rolling pin. Tip the crumbs into a bowl and stir in the butter.
Press the crumb mixture onto your plate ensuring that you press it right up to the edge of the pastry ring.

Refrigerate.

Now make the cheesecake: place the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water until they soften.
Place the milk in a saucepan and heat until nearly at boiling point. Remove the pan from the heat and, when you’ve squeezed all the water out of the gelatine leaves, whisk them into the hot milk until dissolved. Put to one side.

Beat the cream cheese, sugar and egg yolks until smooth.

Beat in the cream.

Beat in the melted 150g chocolate and gelatine mixture.

Stir in the chocolate chips, if using.

In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until at the soft peak stage.

Fold the egg whites into the cheese/chocolate mixture.

Pour into the prepared pastry ring and level out over the biscuit base. Put back in the fridge.

Melt the 100g of chocolate and stir in the double cream.

Retrieve the cheesecake from the fridge and spoon the melted chocolate in a pile on the middle of the cheesecake. Using a skewer swirl it into the cheesecake so that you get a marble/feathering effect. This is why it’s best to use a contrasting colour chocolate.

Refrigerate overnight and, before serving decorate as desired.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.

Chocolate mousse millefeuille

For a real ‘hit’ of cocoa you can’t go far wrong with this one! The chocolate mousse is rich, creamy and almost on its way to being chocolate truffle-like. It was one of the nicest chocolate mousses I’ve made – a perfect balance of cocoa and richness but without being bitter.

I was less convinced by the millefeuille aspect of this dish, as you cook the puff pastry weighed down by a baking sheet so it can’t rise. I thought the whole point of millefeuille was that you got a thousand leaves! Next time I make this mousse I’d be tempted to put it on a cheesecake-style crushed biscuit base.

Here’s the cooked sheet of puff pastry:

The chocolate mousse contains uncooked egg so be aware of this and serve it to an appropriate audience only. The chocolate mousse also contains lots of whipped cream...which should please most people!

Ingredients

375g all butter ready-made puff pastry
250g chocolate 50% cocoa content (I couldn’t find any 50% so used half 70% and half 34% and this roughly came out at 50%)
6 eggs, separated
2 tablespoons black coffee or rum (I omitted this)
150ml whipping cream
30g icing sugar

To decorate: cocoa powder and any decorations of your choice

Method

Preheat the oven to 200˚C/fan oven 180˚C/400˚F/Gas mark 6.

Roll out the puff pastry so that you can cut two 30cm squares.

Place a square of puff pastry on a baking sheet (lined with baking paper) and sit another baking sheet on top of the pastry; this is to stop it puffing up too much when it cooks.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes until crisp and golden.

Repeat the process with the other sheet (if you have enough baking sheets you can cook both at the same time)

Leave to cool.

When the puff pastry squares are cool use a 20cm round loose bottomed cake tin or a pastry ring to cut out 2 discs.

Take the plate you intend to serve the dish off and place the pastry ring or the ring (not the base) of the cake tin in the centre of it. Sit one disc of pastry in the bottom.

Now make the chocolate mousse: break the chocolate into chunks and melt, either using the bain marie method (i.e. in a bowl over a pan of simmering water) or microwaving. I’ve really come around to microwaving chocolate as I feel I have more control over it.

Leave the melted chocolate to cool, then stir in the egg yolks.

Whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks then fold into the chocolate mixture.

Whisk the cream and icing sugar to stiff peaks and then fold this into the chocolate mixture.

Pour the mousse onto the pastry disc sitting at the bottom of your mould.

Top with the other pastry disc, trimming with scissors if it won’t fit easily.

Sieve a tablespoon of cocoa powder over the top, then cover and refrigerate until you wish to serve.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have made.

Eat.

Strawberry mousse cake

This cake has been haunting me. Whenever I’ve planned to make it something has always come up that has thwarted me – everyone around me is sick of hearing about how I’m going to make it ...and then don’t. Well, the hex is gone – here is the strawberry mousse cake!


The English strawberry season is at its peak right now with luscious berries for sale everywhere you look. Sorry Rest of the World, but I don’t think anywhere can match England for strawberries – lots of strawberries look beautiful (I’m constantly disappointed by stunning looking but tasteless imports) but none have that strong satisfying juiciness and sweetness that you get from growing a strawberry outdoors in the English summer climate. I even love the aroma – that lovely fresh unmistakeable smell that hits you on opening the fridge!

I see this as a dessert cake; a slice of elegance to conclude a lovely lunch or dinner.

The mousse sits on a sponge base. I used the recipe for basic vanilla cupcakes and simply cut the sponge to size; I sliced the domed top off leaving a sponge disc of approximately 2cm tall:


What happened to the dome that I sliced off? Well, I’d like to say that I put it aside to use in a trifle or some such, but the truth is that I made a cup of tea, had a sit down and ate the excess sponge. Perks of the job!

As I knew this would be a tall cake I used a 9cm deep patisserie ring which I purchased from Amazon. You could use a springform cake tin and build up the height with foil but it might not be as effective.



The cake has to sit very snugly at the bottom of the ring – this is why an adjustable ring is helpful:


As desserts go, this is summer on a plate:



Who wants a slice?


Two things I learnt this week:
1. The smell of powdered gelatine makes me feel quite ill to the extent that I had to throw it away.
2. You can convert between leaf and powdered gelatine quite easily if you remember that 1 leaf = 3.5g powder.


Ingredients:
For the sponge base:
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
2 eggs
125g self raising flour
2 tablespoons milk

For the mousse:
350g strawberries, hulled and washed
4 tablespoons icing sugar
5 gelatine leaves (if you want to use powdered gelatine this equates to 17g + 3 tablespoons of boiling water)
300ml whipping cream
3 tablespoons icing sugar
Optional: Additional strawberries to set in the mousse

For the topping:
100g strawberries, hulled and washed, plus additional whole strawberries for decoration
1-2 tablespoons icing sugar
3 leaves gelatine (or 10g powdered + 2 tablespoons boiling water)

How to make:

- Preheat the oven to 190°C/fan oven 170°C/375°F/Gas mark 5.
- Grease one 20cm loose bottomed sandwich tin.
- First make the sponge base. Beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in the eggs, flour and milk and ensure all the ingredients are well combined.
- Spoon into the sandwich tin and level the surface.
- Bake for approximately 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out cleanly. Mine took about 23 minutes.
- Leave the sponge to cool in the tin on a wire rack.
- When it is cool, use a knife or wire to cut the “dome” off the sponge as you need a nice flat surface for the mousse to sit on. I cut mine so I had a sponge disc that was 2cm tall.
- Sit the sponge disc on a plate and place a 20cm patissiere’s ring over it. I used this because it was much deeper than a cake tin. If you don’t have a 9cm tall patissiere’s ring then use a 20cm springform tin (without the base) and build up the height using foil or baking paper. However you achieve it, what you’re aiming for is the sponge sitting very snugly at that bottom of a 20cm ring with 9cm depth.
- Now make the mousse: Puree the strawberries (I used my food processor to do this) and place in a saucepan along with the icing sugar.
- Soak the gelatine leaves in a bowl of cold water for 4-5 minutes.
- Heat the puree and icing sugar until it just reaches boiling point. Taste, to ensure it is sweet enough. If it isn’t, add icing sugar to taste. Leave to cool slightly.
- When the puree is cooler (but still warm) squeeze out any water from the gelatine leaves and stir into the puree ensuring all the gelatine has been fully integrated. Put to one side.
- Whip the cream and icing sugar until the soft peak stage.
- Stir the cooled strawberry puree mix into the cream. Don’t panic that it looks very runny!
- If you choose to, cut some strawberries in half and sit them up on the sponge base so the cut side is pressed against the metal ring. This looks pretty when you come to serve it.
- Pour the mousse gently over the sponge base, taking care not to disturb the halved strawberries (if using).
- Refrigerate until set – at least 2 hours.
- When the mousse is set, you can make the topping. Puree the strawberries and stir in the icing sugar.
- Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for 4-5 minutes.
- Heat the puree. Squeeze the water from the gelatine leaves before stirring into the warm puree.
- Place some strawberries on top of the set mousse, then pour the puree topping over.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
- Bask in glory at the wonderful thing you have made.
- Eat.