Chocolate Mousse Cake For D

This is turning out to be more of a baking blog than a travel blog, but I'm sure once the summer gets under way I'll be doing more of the latter. I guess the end of winter, early spring is just a time to bake, long enough after the holidays to not be paralyzed by guilt but before the summer fruit really gets ripe. Anyhow, D and I are planning our "spring break" for the first week in April. So far we are trying to find cheap tickets to Miami or Puerto Rico so that we can either camp out in the Everglades or in El Yunque (which Elana and Mike did a little while ago and had a really good time). Both will be an adventure, I'm sure! We probably spend as much money on food when we camp as we would on shelter normally, but somehow it seems like a cheap vacation if we can find somewhere warm to do it. I'll keep you posted.

Green and Black's Chocolate Mousse Cake with edible gold dust.

In the meanwhile, it's D's birthday tomorrow. When prodding D for his favorite cake (which you'd think I'd know by now, after 3 years of birthdays) he admitted to liking chocolate mousse cake the best. So I'll be baking him a chocolate mousse cake. I searched high and low (though I haven't looked in Southern Living yet) and it seems that chocolate mousse cake has gone the way of the dodo. None of my baking co-workers know a recipe and a search on the net went from one extreme to the other. Either it's two layers with mousse filling and ganache on top or it's basically a flourless chocolate cake. I found one other recipe that looked good but with no reviews it's hard to tell. Maybe I'll try this one some other time. So, I'm going to try out Green and Black's dark chocolate mousse cake, which I found along with this funny story by J.M. Hirsch. Here's the recipe:



Chocolate Mousse Cake


(Start to finish 1 hour)


1 tablespoon ground almonds, plus additional to dust pan
10½ ounces dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa)
1½ cups sugar
1¼ sticks unsalted butter
Pinch of salt
5 large eggs
Confectioners’ sugar (optional)


Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly spray an 8- or 9-inch spring form pan with cooking spray, then dust it with ground almonds, shaking off any excess. Set aside. In a double boiler set at a low simmer, melt the chocolate, butter and sugar, stirring frequently. Remove from the heat.
In a medium bowl, beat the eggs and ground almonds. Fold the egg mixture into the chocolate and stir until thickened, several minutes. Pour the cake into the pan, smooth the top and bake 45 minutes, or until the top is set and begins to crack. Remove the side of the pan and let the cake cool completely. Dust with confectioners’ sugar, if desired. Makes 10 servings.
(Recipe from Green & Black’s chocolate)

I chose this one because it's all over the internet and lots of people really like it. And it seems easy. Those Green and Black marketers are just big chocolate hussies swaying their chocolatey hips at every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Count me in!

Of course, I didn't have a spring form pan so I bought (for only $13.99) from Whole Foods where I also bought $12 worth of Green and Black's chocolate. Yes, folks, it's $6 per bar of the baking chocolate. I'm sure I could have used other, cheaper chocolate, but this is for D and he loves dark chocolate. I'm thinking I will substitute in some Maya Gold that we still have at home as this is also his favorite, a Mexican spicy chocolate I'm sure will go good in cake. I am hoping that this is not going to be too thick, though it seems like it will be more flourless chocolate cake heavy than light and airy mousse but it does seem foolproof enough that I won't screw it up too terribly. I'm baking it tonight and then taking D out to dinner tomorrow (I want to take him to Itzocan Bistro in our neighborhood but we'll see what he's in the mood for). Then we'll come home and have cake. Maybe candles. I also have a present for him, but shhh, can't write about that yet.

Since baking with the computer in front of me has become normal, I'm putting this recipe from my co-worker Jennifer here for safekeeping. If you like merengue, you'll love this and it seems so easy. Cari had a party on Saturday with an assortment of cookies and alcohol, so I ended up drunkenly eating a handful of storebought merengues. Still yummy, but these are better.

Snow Cookies


2 egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
6 oz. Nestles semi-sweet chocolate chips


1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees

2. Using an electric mixer, beat egg whites until stiff; soft peaks should form when you lift the beaters out of the bowl (make sure no water comes in contact with the egg whites, or else they will not beat well). Do not over beat.

3. Begin mixing again, gradually add in sugar, and again beat until stiff.

4. Fold in chips

5. Place by the teaspoon-full onto an ungreased cookie sheet (the cookies do not expand, so you can put them close together)

6. Place in oven, and turn oven off. Cookies will be done in 1 hour.

Happy baking!