Everything is perfect in this dessert: an unusual cut with four layers, a delicate texture, and an amazing creamy chocolate taste reminiscent of melted ice cream. Nobody can refuse such a delicacy - this is not just a cake, but a true pleasure. There is no doubt that the guests will be delighted with him. A photo and a recipe for the Three Chocolate mousse cake are presented in our article. At first glance, it might seem that it is too complicated to complete. But step-by-step instructions will help to master the cooking process even for a beginner.
Dessert origin story
The appearance of the world of confectionery art mousse cake "Three Chocolates" (pictured) is obliged to a French artist named Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. It was he who first proposed to combine chocolate, beaten egg whites and yolks together. A dessert prepared in this way was symbolically called chocolate mayonnaise. But in the history of confectionery art, this delicacy went down like a mousse. From the French language this word is translated as "foam". Thus, the first mousse was prepared in 1897.
As for the Three Chocolates cake in the form in which everyone is used to seeing it, it was first prepared at the end of the 20th century. It was then that the confectioners learned to combine several types of mousses in one product. Today, a mousse cake, in the process of preparation of which several types of chocolate are used, is especially popular among lovers of sweets. Such a dessert can be prepared at any time of the year, for example, in the summer it can be an excellent alternative to ice cream.
How to Make Three Chocolate Mousse Cake
The deliciousness of this unusual dessert is richly chocolate. And if you take apart the cooking process in steps, it will become clear why. So, a step-by-step recipe for the Three Chocolate mousse cake:
- The cake is based on an amazing chocolate biscuit with a pleasant coffee aroma. When kneading dough, it is recommended to use alkalized cocoa for it, then the color of the cake will turn out to be saturated, almost black.
- While the cake sponge cake is cooling, it's time to start cooking English cream with the symbolic name "Angles". He will need good quality gelatin, egg yolks, milk and sugar.
- In addition to Anglez cream, whipped cream will be needed to make the mousse. It is thanks to them that the dessert will have an airy texture resembling foam.
- Then all three mousses for a cake made of white, milk and dark chocolate are cooked sequentially. So that the layers do not mix with each other, they should be laid out in a form alternately. Only after the first layer freezes in the freezer, can a second one be laid on top of it, and then a third.
- The final stage of preparation is the decoration of the cake. In the presented recipe, mirror glaze is used for this. In addition, other options for decorating the cake will be discussed below.
Ingredients and Inventory
At each stage of cooking, a specific set of products is used. To bake a biscuit, you will need the following ingredients:
- flour - 190 g;
- cocoa powder - 45 g;
- egg - 1 pc.;
- sugar - 200 g;
- milk - 75 ml;
- vegetable oil - 75 ml;
- baking powder - 5 g;
- soda - ¼ tsp;
- vanilla sugar - 10 g;
- boiling water - 200 ml;
- instant coffee - 20 g.
To prepare Anglez cream, you must prepare the following products:
- yolk - 3 pcs.;
- sugar - 150 g;
- milk - 240 ml;
- gelatin powder - 24 g;
- water (for soaking gelatin) - 150 ml.
The mousse layer is prepared from the following ingredients:
- cream 33% - 600 ml;
- white chocolate - 100 g;
- milk chocolate - 100 g;
- dark chocolate - 100 g.
For mirror glaze you will need:
- cream 33% - 105 ml;
- sugar - 160 g;
- water - 125 ml;
- cocoa powder - 50 g;
- sheet gelatin - 8 g.
In the cooking process, the following inventory will be used:
- split molds with a diameter of 18 cm and 22-24 cm;
- acetate film;
- cling film;
- mixer.
In addition, you need to prepare bowls of different sizes for kneading dough, making mousses and soaking gelatin.
Chocolate sponge cake
The Three Chocolate mousse cake recipe contains ingredients for making gingerbread sponge cake. To get a small cake base, the number of products is recommended to be halved. But you can bake a large biscuit, and from the scraps to cook cakes or just eat them with tea. And although the cake will be assembled in a ring with a diameter of 18 cm, the biscuit should be baked in the form of a larger size. Then the cake can be cut off, and its edges will be even.
Step by step the process of making a biscuit looks like this:
- Preheat oven to 180 °. Cover the bottom of the baking dish with parchment paper.
- Combine all the dry ingredients: flour, soda, baking powder and cocoa.
- Pour the vegetable oil into the bowl of the mixer and pour sugar. Stir the ingredients until smooth.
- Insert 1 large egg.
- Add a third of the dry ingredients to the oil mixture. Mix.
- Pour in milk.
- Add a third of the dry mixture and re-mix the dough.
- Dissolve coffee in 200 ml of boiling water. Pour it into the dough.
- Enter the remaining flour mixture. Stir the dough for the last time and pour it into the mold.
- Bake a biscuit for 45 minutes. Willingness to check with a toothpick.
Cool the finished sponge cake in the form, then put it on the wire rack. Once it has completely cooled, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 6 hours. Then, using a mold with a diameter of 18 cm, cut out a cake with a height of 2 cm. Put it on the bottom of the same form, and line the side walls with an acetate film.
English cream for cake
Anglez cream is an essential component of chocolate mousse. It should be prepared as follows:
- Soak gelatin in cold water for at least 30 minutes.
- Pour milk into the stewpan and bring it to a boil (until the first bubbles appear on the surface).
- In a separate bowl, egg yolks are grated with sugar.
- Constantly stirring with a whisk, pour hot milk into the yolk mass.
- Pour the resulting mixture back into the stewpan and put it on the stove.
- Cook the cream with constant stirring to a temperature inside of 85 ° (or until the appearance of the same first bubbles). When it is ready, pour it into a clean and dry bowl (you need to weigh it empty first on the scales).
- In a water bath or microwave, heat the gelatin so that it becomes liquid. Introduce it into a hot cream and mix.
- Now you need to weigh the container with cream and subtract the weight of the bowl from the obtained value. Divide the difference into three (number of layers).
- In the third part of the still hot cream, add dark chocolate (100 g). Stir it with a silicone spatula so that the chocolate melts and the mass becomes homogeneous.
Leave the remaining English cream at room temperature for the entire time the cake is cooked so that the gelatin does not freeze.
Whipped cream
For its preparation, you will need cold and fat cream, a powerful mixer and a suitable size container. It is advisable to cool the whisks and utensils for whipping. Cream should begin to be whipped first at low speed, gradually increasing speed. As soon as soft peaks appear on the surface, the mixer can be turned off. For mousse this will be enough.
According to the recipe for the Three Chocolates mousse cake, whipped cream must be divided into three parts, like English cream. For a while, until the first cake is cooled, they should be placed in the refrigerator, and 20 minutes before the start of use, the next time they are taken out of the refrigerator again.
Assembling Cake Layers
Chocolate cake, an English cream with dark chocolate dissolved in it and whipped cream should already be prepared for this step.
The assembly of the Three Chocolate mousse cake is as follows:
- Angles cream with dark chocolate to combine with the third part of whipped cream and mix gently with a spatula.
- In a detachable form, directly on the chocolate biscuit cake, put the resulting mass and smooth on top.
- Send the form to the freezer for 1 hour.
- At this time, prepare the mousse for the second layer. To do this, melt milk chocolate in a water bath and combine it with half of the remaining English cream, and then with whipped cream. Put the resulting mass on a frozen layer and again send the form to the freezer for 60 minutes.
- In a similar way, cook and freeze white chocolate mousse.
How to decorate the Three Chocolate mousse cake?
There are several options for decorating the finished product:
- Make a chip from the dark chocolate bar and sprinkle the top white chocolate mousse layer with it.
- Without removing the product from the mold, generously crush it on top with cocoa powder. Then disassemble the demountable form. As a result, the sides of the cake will remain “striped”, and the top will be a beautiful chocolate color.
- Pour “Three Chocolates” mousse cake with mirror glaze. It will ideally lie on the frozen mousse, as a result of which the surface will turn out to be even and smooth.
Step-by-step preparation of mirror glaze
This is the final touch in the Three Chocolate mousse cake recipe. The ideal icing for this dessert is prepared in the following way:
- Soak sheet gelatin in very cold water.
- Pour water and cream into the stewpan, pour sugar and cocoa. Put it on medium heat.
- Bring the mass in a saucepan to a boil, then reduce the heat to a minimum. Cook the icing for 10 minutes until it becomes much thicker.
- Press gelatin in hand and add to icing. Stir and wait until it dissolves.
- Strain the icing through a fine sieve.
- Cool to a temperature of 35-37 °, covering with cling film close to the surface.
- Remove the frozen cake from the mold and place on top of the wire rack. Pour it with icing.
Secrets of cooking and recommendations
The recipe for the Three Chocolates mousse cake has some nuances:
- To make the mousse layers easily move away from the walls of the form, they need to be closed with an acetate film. But since it is not possible to buy it in every city, instead of the film, some housewives adapted to use a dense stationery file, fastened at the top with a stapler.
- When adding cream to an English cream, it is important that the ingredients are at the same temperature. If the cream is hot and the cream is too cold, they may curl.
- If gelatin is used in the preparation of Angles cream, then it does not need to be preheated in the microwave. It diverges perfectly in a hot environment without additional manipulations.