Chocolate cake with Mousse filling

This was a very rich chocolate cake with mousse filling I made for very good friend's Father- in- law's 70th birthday. 
My friend 'Renu' loves all the cakes that I make. Since Chocolate is her fav, I had once made a death by chocolate cake for her. Ever since she had that she had decided to give all her cake orders to me:) She dint want the cake to be decorated in fondant so I used butter cream & ganache for the decoration. This cake came out very well. It was a super rich yummy cake. In fact I am still craving for some:) I have used Hersheys chocolate chips to make this cake. Everyone loved this cake & most of them had 2nd, 3rd serve:) I was very happy to see people enjoying my creation. I also got 2 more orders for this cake, which I will be making next week. Here is the recipe & I hope you will try this recipe soon.

Chocolate cake with Mousse filling

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup Cocoa powder
• 1 Tbsp baking powder
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup cooking oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 Tspn Lemon Juice
• 1/4 Tsp salt

Method: Heat oven to 350°F. Grease 9-inch round baking pan. Stir together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder in large bowl. Cream the oil sugar with a spoon or whisk. Add beaten eggs and vanilla.Add in the dry ingredients & Mix the hot water. I used the electric beater to get the right consistency. Pour batter into prepared pan & bake for 45 to 55 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Cool completely. Now cut the cake into 3 layers & frost with chocolate mousse.

(Note: Since I have a small Oven I made 2 batches of 9 inch cake & 2 batches of 6 inch cake to serve around 25 people. )

Chocolate Mousse Recipe

Ingredients 

• cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 Cup melted chocolate (Good quality semi sweet chocolate)
• 1/2 cup Icing sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp of agar agar (Mix this well in 1/2 cup of hot water)

Method: Beat the whipping cream to stiff peaks,  fold in the melted chocolate & agar agar  into it. Refrigerate it for about 1 hour until its all set. 

Note: To make the cake really juicy & moist ,I add in sugar syrup on each layer of the cake before frosting.

For the Moss green Butter cream frosting for decoration

Ingredients

• 500 gms Salted Butter
• 800 gms Sifted icing sugar
• 1 Tbsp Vanilla Essence
• Green  Edible Color (I used Wilton color)
• Petal tip
• Piping Bag

Method:

Beat butter to a smooth consistency, add powdered sugar , color& Vanilla Essence, Beat this well with an electric mixer until its very creamy & fluffy. Fill this in the piping bag & decorate the entire cake.

Assembling the cake:

Cut each cake into 3 layers , build a butter cream dam around & fill the mousse inside. Layer all the cakes one on top of the other. Once all the cakes are layered. Spread the butter cream outside the cake & crumb coat it. Let this set in the fridge for  at least 20 mins. Now remove it & start the decoration with Green butter cream icing. 

Note :

I covered the 9 inch cake with chocolate ganache instead of butter cream crumb coat. I also used some ganache to decorate the top of the cake. I used a big star tip to decorate.

Chocolate Ganache: 

• 2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tbsp butter

Method: bring heavy whipping cream to a rolling boil. turn off the stove, now add in the chocolate chips & butter to the cream mixture. Let it rest for 5 mins. Keep stirring it in between. Once the chocolate chips are melted well, allow it to cool & than pour this mixture on top of the assembled cake. (While doing this, make sure the cake is on the wire rack & a plate or parchment paper is kept underneath to avoid any wastage of ganache) I also refrigerated the remaining ganache for 2 hours & used this for decorating the top of the cake.

Few Notes:

• After assembling the cakes with mousse, I put the cake in the freezer for 20 mins for fast setting. 
• I also freeze the cake after crumb coat for 10 mins
• I have used Wilton gel color for decoration
• After the complete decoration, I again kept the cake in the freezer for about half an hour.
• If you are freezing your cakes, keep the cake in room temperature before 1 hour of cutting.
• You can also use gelatin instead of agar agar