CAPPUCCINO MOUSSE CAKE

My Mother bought me a subscription to Good House-Keeping for my 30th birthday. I guess she thought I was a grown-up woman at that stage – if only she’d known.. 😉 However, I found that I liked GH, and so I kept up the subscription, and now it’s been delivered to me every month for almost 30 years. Perhaps I did grow up a little during that time.

Over the years GH has provided me with some excellent recipes. I spotted this one in the August 2017 edition, and I’ve only now got around to trying it. Coffee and chocolate – how can we go wrong with a perfect combination?

A small warning – this is not a cake that you can make and then eat as soon as it’s cool – there’s a 5 hour chill awaiting you at the end of your endeavours. What that does of course, is to make it the perfect cake for making the day before you need it.

One other thing: It definitely tastes best when served at room temperature, so remove it several hours before you intend to serve it – you’ll be glad you did!

I’ve kept strictly to the recipe, but added a few of my own labour-saving moves. The original recipe is on the GH website, so if you like you can read both of them together. Let’s give it a go…

EQUIPMENT:

• Electric beater and bowl
• 7-8 inch loose-bottomed cake tin
• baking parchment
• a couple of extra bowls
• weighing scales
• Sieve
• a small jug
• A tablespoon
• Hand whisk
• wooden spoon.

INGREDIENTS: FOR THE CAKE:                                                                                                

• 100g golden caster sugar
• 3 large eggs, separated
• 50g unsalted butter, melted and allowed to cool
• a capful of vanilla essence
• 2tbsp espresso or string coffee, cooled ( see NOTES below)
• 75g self-raising flour
• 50g cocoa powder

INGREDIENTS: FOR THE MOUSSE:

• 4 sheets of leaf gelatine
• 100g good-quality milk chocolate (I used Black and Green)
• 2tbsp cold milk
• 2tbsp espresso
• capful of vanilla  essence
• 2 eggs, separated

METHOD: This is how I did it..

• Melt the butter and leave to cool

• Make the espresso and leave to cool (see notes below)
• Grease and line the sides and base of your tin with baking parchment. Leave to one side. Cut another set of lining papers (you’ll need them later on, so do it now)
• Start making the cake: heat the oven to 160
• Weigh out the flour and cocoa into a sieve over a bowl
• Whip the egg-whites to stiff peak stage with the mixer, transfer to a clean bowl.
• Put the sugar and egg yolks into the mixer bowl, and beat for about 8 minutes until they’re light and creamy
• Combine the coffee, vanilla and butter together and pour over the prepared egg and sugar mixture and whisk in gently.

• Add one tablespoon of the egg whites, and fold in to loosen the mixture.
• Then add the rest of the egg whites and mix in gently but thoroughly until well combined.
• Sift in the flour/cocoa and fold in gently.

• Pour into the prepared tin and place in the oven for 22-25 minutes.
• When it’s cooked, remove it from the tin and allow to cool on a wire rack
• Clean, grease and re-line the tin as before.
• As soon as the cake has cooled a little, using a sharp long-bladed knife (I used a bread knife), cut the cake horizontally into two layers, then leave each layer to cool on the rack.

• While the cake is cooling, start on the Mousse.
• Put 4 sheets of the gelatine to soak in a dish of cold water for about 5 minutes.

• Put a heat-proof bowl over a sauce pan of barely simmering water, and break the chocolate into it. Allow it to melt gently, then set aside to cool slightly. Don’t discard the saucepan and hot water – you might need it again..

• Combine the coffee, vanilla and milk in a jug.

• Beat the egg whites to stiff peak stage.
• Remove the gelatine from the water, and give it a squeeze to remove the excess water.

• Add the gelatine to the chocolate and mix it in – you might need to return the bowl to the saucepan to help it to melt. Keep stirring until all the lumps are gone (about 5 minutes), but don’t have the water too hot.

• Add the two egg yolks ,and mix in with a hand whisk.
• Fold the beaten egg whites gently into the chocolate mixture.

• Put the bottom layer of the cooled cake back into the prepared tin.

• Pour the mousse over it, and put it into the fridge for about 15minutes to start setting, then gently place the top layer onto the mousse and leave it for 5 hours to set fully.

NOTES:

• You can make your own espresso if you have an aero-press or something similar (which is what I did). Make enough to give you 4 decent tablespoons ( or 6 if you’re making my fudge icing below) of nice strong coffee. Otherwise, buy some espresso at your local coffee shop, or even use a good-quality instant coffee, dissolved in hot water and allowed to cool.
• The recipe calls for a praline topping, but I didn’t fancy that, so I altered the chocolate fudge icing for the All-in-one-Chocolate-cake,https://eatingforireland.com/recipe/hilarys-all-in-one-chocolate-cake/ and added coffee instead of water..