Chocolate Mousse Cake (GF)
Simply saintly...or devilishly good ;)
Chocolate mousse cakes are a long-time favorite of mine. The cake consists of two delicious chocolate desserts: dense chocolate cake/torte on the bottom and light chocolate mousse on top, but it is so much greater than the sum of its parts. While the flavor focuses squarely on chocolate, the two forms make for a long-lasting, nuanced, and intensely chocolatey mouthful. The two components bloom on the tongue at different rates, releasing so many layers of rich, yet varied, chocolatey aromas. I always end up eating far more of this than I would if it were solely a cake or mousse.
I have always wondered one thing, though: why don’t chocolate mousse cake recipes just use one batter? I envisioned baking a dense chocolate mousse layer for the bottom and spreading a lightened, unbaked layer on top. Valentine’s Day seemed like the right excuse to test this hypothesis, and it turns out that you can absolutely make your chocolate mousse cake this way. The results are so delicious and indulgent: simply saintly or devilishly good, depending on your perspective ;)
Not only does this version require less cleaning, but there are only 7 ingredients and the whole thing takes just under 1 hour of active time (but please do plan accordingly for an overnight rest).
I certainly think a picture says a thousand words here, so I won’t say much else to try and convince you to make this dessert. I’ll just leave you with this:
P.S. The stencil for decorating this cake is in the recipe below if you would like to use it.
P.P.S. You can easily cut this cake recipe in half if you’re looking for 8-10 slices (it’s also super rich, so you may decide to cut down for that reason). The quantities for a halved cake are at the bottom of the page (I did a half batch for one of my trials, and it turned out just the same).
P.P.P.S. You can bake this cake in a variety of pan sizes, but if you are using one smaller than what’s listed below, make the half-quantity version at the bottom of this recipe.
P.P.P.P.S. This cake lasts for multiple days in the fridge! and forever in the freezer :)
