My husband loves mousse desserts. Doesn’t matter what kind of mousse, he just likes that creamy, cool, refreshing mousse and isn’t picky what kind. I didn’t have any fresh fruits on hand but I did have the Jumex nectar juices. That worked pretty good, and made a nice creamy mousse topping for the chocolate cake. The Strawberry nectar wasn’t dark enough in color to make my mousse red, I guess you could use a food coloring to color the mousse if you wanted too. I thought it worked out just fine without coloring. The flavor was wonderful!
Chocolate Cake:
6 Tbsp. Butter, room temp.
1 Cup Light Brown Sugar, packed
1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Eggs, room temp.
1 Cup Plus 3 Tbsp. All Purpose Flour
1/2 Cup Cocoa Powder
3/4 tsp. Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Salt
3/4 Cup Buttermilk, room temp.
Mousse:
2/3 Cup Jumex Strawberry Nectar (Or a flavor of your choice)
1/4 Cup Cold Water
1 1/2 tsp. Gelatin Powder
2 Large Eggs
1/2 Cup Sugar
1 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
3/4 Cup Whipping Cream
Cake Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. while making the cake batter. Grease and flour a 9 inch Spring form pan, line with parchment paper and set aside. In a bowl, beat butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in Vanilla and add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. In a separate bowl, sift all flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add alternately with buttermilk, starting and ending with flour mixture blending gently but well after each addition. Scrape batter into spring form pan, tap on counter to remove any air bubbles and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Cool in pan for 20 minutes, than invert cake to a cooling rack to cool completely. Wash, rinse and dry the spring form pan, and line again with parchment paper around the sides of the pan. Return cake back to pan and set aside.
Pour cold water over gelatin and stir. Whisk eggs, sugar and lemon juice over a pot of simmering water until fluffy and warm. Remove from heat and add gelatin, whisking until melted. Set aside to cool to room temperature. Whip cream to medium peaks, and fold in egg mixture, gently but quickly add strawberry nectar. Pour over the cake in the spring form pan and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight. To serve, remove ring from pan, and gently peel away the parchment paper from the side of the cake. Top with Fresh Fruit if desired. (I just didn’t have any.)
