Bakers Royale

Chocolate Mousse Cake

By 30 Comments

Grab some milk or coffee and pull on your spanx—it’s time to get indulgent. This Valentine’s Cake is built on a chocolate graham cracker crust, then layered with chocolate mousse and a simple chocolate cake layer, and finished with chocolate ganache and Pirouline cookies.

Chocolate Mousse Cake | Bakers Royale

It’s one of my favorite creations, so much so, I ate two slices while shooting instead of afterwards during clean-up. I love the textured layers of crunchy cookies, silky mousse and soft cake.

Chocolate Mousse Cake from BakersRoyale

And hey, it’s totally perfect for your Valentine’s sweetheart—that is unless you are my sweetheart. So for anyone else who has someone in their life that isn’t a chocolate lover, stay tuned. I have more Valentine’s desserts coming that do not incorporate chocolate.

 Pirouline Cookies | Bakers Royale

Until then, enjoy this cake and don’t leave out the Pirouline cookie topping – it makes the cake!

 

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Yield: Makes one 8 inch cake

Ingredients

  • Chocolate Graham Cracker Crust
  • 12 full-size chocolate graham crackers
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 7 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 2-4 tablespoon of water
  • Chocolate cake
  • ½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not Dutch-process)
  • ¾ cups brewed coffee
  • ¾ cup milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 cups sugar
  • 1 cups all-purpose flour
  • ¾ teaspoons baking soda
  • ¼  teaspoon salt
  • 1large eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • Chocolate Mousse
  • 14 ounces quality semi-sweet chocolate chips’
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • ¼ teaspoon instant espresso granules
  • 1 ½ teaspoon flavorless, granulated gelatin
  • 4 teaspoons cold water
  • 2 cups whipping cream
  • Easy ganacehe
  • 8 oz. chocolate (at least 60% cacao)
  • 8 oz. heavy cream
  • Topping
  • 1 14oz. can of Pirouline cookies
  •  

Instructions

To make graham cracker crust:
Preparation: Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

  1. Place graham crackers in a food processor and pulse to a fine crumb. Add in sugar and pulse until combined. Remove ¼ cup of crumb and set aside for crumb coat finish on cake. Add melted butter in and pulse until mixture starts to clump, add water one tablespoon at time to if needed to help the mixture clump (mixture should stay clumped when pressed between your hands).
  2. Press crumbs into bottom of cake pan and bake for 8-10 minutes or until dry. Transfer to a wire and cool.

 

To make chocolate cake:

Preparation: Heat oven to 325 degrees F. Line an 8 inch cake pan with parchment and lightly cover with bake spray and dust with cocoa powder.

  1. Place coffee, milk, water, butter, and cocoa powder in a medium size saucepan over medium heat, stirring until butter is melted. Remove saucepan from heat, add sugar and whisk until dissolved, about 1 minute. Transfer mixture to a bowl and set aside to cool for 5 minutes.
  2. Place flour, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl place eggs and vanilla lightly whisk to combine.
  3. Slowly pour egg and vanilla mixture into cooled chocolate mixture while continuously whisking with the other hand to evenly incorporate the two mixtures. Add flour mixture and whisk until just combined (batter will be thin and bubbly). Pour batter into cake pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until cake tester inserted in center comes out clean.
  4. Cool cake completely in pan on a wire rack, about 2 hours. Invert rack over pan and turn cake out onto rack.

To make chocolate mousse:

  1. In a heat proof bowl set over simmering water (not on—think bain marie), add in chocolate, butter and espresso granules. Stir until melted then remove from heat set aside to cool for at least 20 minutes.
  2. In a shallow bowl sprinkle gelatin over cold water. Let stand until gelatin has bloomed; mixture will become solid. Place bowl in the microwave on low and heat for 10 seconds or until mixture dissolves and resembles syrup consistency. Set aside to cool slightly. Once cooled stir gelatin mixture into chocolate mixture.
  3. Place heavy cream in a chilled bowl and on medium-high speed beat until medium peaks form. Turn off mixer and stir 1/3 of cream mixture into chocolate mixture to lighten. Add in remaining cream and fold until combined. Do not over mix.

To make ganache:

  1. Place chocolate pieces in a food processor bowl.
  2. Place cream in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 2-3 minutes on high or until it starts to bubble along the edges. Pour cream over chocolate and let stand for two minutes. Pulse 2-3 times or until mixture is smooth. Cool for at least 30 minutes.

 

Assembly:

  1. Place a parchment collar around the inside of the cake pan for easy cake removal.
  2. Divide mousse mixture in half and place each half in a pastry bag fitted with a large round pastry tip. Pipe first bag onto graham cracker crust. Then layer mousse with cake. Pipe remaining bag of mouse on top of cake layer.
  3. Transfer cake to refrigerate and chill for about 2 hours. Remove cake from refrigerator and pour ganache on top, using an offset spatula evenly spread and cover top of mousse. Finish with sliced Pirouline cookies. **Optional: Add strawberries on top if desired.
  4. To remove cake from pan. Place cake directly on top of a can or glass that is at least 3 inches or higher and pull sidewall of cake pan down. Remove parchment collar.

Notes

A few notes:

  • For best results use a removeable bottom cake pan or a springform pan.
  • If you do not have a food processor to process graham crackers, , place crackers in a plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin until a fine crumb is reached.

© Naomi Robinson | Bakers Royale
Category: Cakes

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Pirouline as part of an ongoing relationship. However, all opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting brands like this that help make this site possible!

Comments

  2. Belinda@themoonblushbaker says

    I am think about valentine’s day too and cake is always welcome. I made a milk chocolate mousse cake too this week; but mine is decorated in pocky sticks and a lot more strawberries. However the deep darkness of that mousse you used has me craving big time.

    Maybe I need a valentines this year, just so I can make this!

  3. Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says

    Naomi this cake is gorgeous!
    The only issue I have is the spanx suggestion….I feel like it might restrict my belly from fitting an extra slice of cake in!
    Here’s to eating all the cake in my sweatpants!
    Pinned!

  15. Ala says

    Bookmarked! Mousse, crunch, and rich chocolate is the perfect combo, especially since I’m a total texture freak. Who do you feed these awesome decadent cakes to?! (Because if it’s nobody in particular, I volunteer as tribute…) ha!

  20. Brian @ A Thought For Food says

    Guess I’ll need to pick up some Spanx for Men. ‘Cause I totally want to dive in!

  24. Tracy | Pale Yellow says

    Love the chocolate graham crackers! Love cakes that require a big glass of cold milk!

  26. Brenda says

    Gorgeous!…so want to make for Father’s Day…that actually was the only gift my husband asked for…a chocolate cake! One question on the crust though. How does the crust become a “chocolate graham cracker crust” when there is no chocolate called for in that part of the recipe. See the final product has a chocolate crust. Did you use chocolate graham crackers? Or maybe I am simply missing something! Love to hear back…this is definitely the cake to make for Father’s Day!

  30. Phillip says

    I made this for my birthday this week, to mixed results. To my great dismay Nabisco has recently (possibly temporarily?) stopped manufacturing chocolate graham crackers! The substitute I made with Dewey’s Bakery brand “brownie crisp cookies” was very tasty all the same, though those crumbs didn’t absorb as much butter as graham cracker crumbs would have, and didn’t need any water to clump.

    The mousse was wonderful! I was worried that I had seized the chocolate in my bain marie, but the addition of the warm gelatine mixture smoothed it right out and it incorporated into the whipped cream with no problem. The balance of gelatine was just right for a stable mousse that was tender as it warmed to serving temperature.

    The ganache worked very well for me, but I can’t really understand the advantage of using the food processor here. After sitting for two minutes in the hot cream, a simple stirring (or at most a gentle whisk) is plenty to pull that together. The food processor seemed like overkill, splattering all over the bowl— with many extra parts to wash. 60% Chocolate was just the right level of dark here.

    The cake layer simply didn’t work out for me at all. It was such a loose batter that I was double checking I hadn’t missed another cup of flour somewhere. It was about the texture of hot cocoa as I poured it into the pan. I was surprised when it rose up at all for me and for a moment I thought it would work out. After an extra 25% of the baking time (a little more than 50 minutes, total at 325º) I convinced myself —wrongly— that my cake tester was clean. As it cooled fell into a dense rubbery slab with no crumb to speak of, clearly under baked. I don’t know how much longer I should have tried to leave it in, but it was more than I did.

    The other elements are delightful; I’ll just be skipping over the cake layer in my next slice.

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