I’ve made this cake countless times, and it has been a roaring success everytime. One time I took it to a friend’s birthday and someone I’ve only just met told me they had an orgasm in their mouth after the first bite. I know it was a compliment, albeit an overwhelming one, but the image that it conjured up immediately afterwards was not pleasant.
The bottom layer is a flourless chocolate cake, with a layer of dark chocolate mousse in the middle and white chocolate mousse on top. Having said though, if you didn’t want to bother with separating eggs and making a meringue etc, you could so easily replace the flourless chocolate cake with my brownie recipe in the chocolate blog, and perhaps make ¾ of the recipe, depending on how thick you want the bottom layer to be. But as it is, the cake is gluten free. J
What makes this cake so popular, I’ve been told, is that the mousse layers are extremely light; which means you can eat lots of it without feeling sick. Though I’m sure many of you wouldn’t think of that as a positive attribute of the cake. I do have to mention however, that the top layer of white chocolate mousse contains gelatine, so if you are cooking for vegetarians, replace with agar agar; though I won’t be held accountable for the difference in texture.
Ingredients:Makes one 9 inch cake
Bottom layer:
85g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate
¾ tsp instant espresso powder (instant espresso not instant coffee!)
1 ½ vanilla extract
4 large eggs, separated
Pinch salt
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar
Middle layer
2 tbsp cocoa powder
5 tbsp hot water (75 ml)
200g dark chocolate
1 ½ cups thickened cream
1 tbsp caster sugar
Pinch salt
Top layer
¾ tsp powdered gelatine
1 tbsp water
170g white chocolate
1 ½ cups thickened cream
Method:
Bottom layer
Line the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan with baking paper. Preheat oven to 160 degrees.
Melt butter, chocolate and espresso powder together using whichever method you like (refer to my chocolate post). I used (surprise, surprise) a microwave. 2 minutes at medium. Then whisk to smooth. Let cool.
Whisk in vanilla and egg yolks.
Beat egg whites with the salt in a stand mixer or hand-held electric whisk till foamy and loses its yellow tinge. Crumble in the brown sugar with the motor running and whisk till shiny and stiff. That is, you should be able to invert the bowl and nothing will move. Don’t be scared... live dangerously.
Whisk 1/3 of the meringue into the chocolate mixture. You don’t have to do this gently, it is only to lighten the chocolate to make the folding easier later on. Combine with the remaining of the meringue mixture and fold through until no streaks remain. Make sure this time that you are gentle.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Don’t worry, it will look as if the cake takes up the entire pan after coming out of the oven. As it cools it will sink.
Once the cake is cooled to room temperature, you will realise the middle has sunk, but the sides are still up high, like a crater. If you wish, you can unmold the cake and cut off the sides so the surface is even, but make sure you clip the side of the springform pan back. Or leave it as it is.
DO NOT top with the mousse layers until the bottom layer has cooled completely, or else the mousse will melt in the residual heat and you end up with a mess. To some people, this is common sense, but I’ve seen Masterchef finalists make this mistake, so I thought it would be helpful to at least mention it.
Middle layer
Whisk together the hot water and cocoa till no lumps remain. Set aside to cool.
Melt chocolate, however you like. Let cool slightly.
Whisk cream, sugar and salt until soft peaks (ie holds shape but still floppy). Add the cocoa mixture and whisk till combined.
Again, vigorously whisk in 1/3 of the cream mixture to the melted chocolate to lighten it. Fold in the rest. Pour the mousse onto the cooled cake layer, smooth the top with a spatula. Put in the fridge as you make the top layer.
Top layer
Sprinkle gelatine over the water in a small bowl. Let stand until the gelatine has swollen.
Chop the white chocolate finely and place in a medium bowl. Bring ½ cup of the cream to a boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, and stir in the gelatine until dissolved. Pour over the white chocolate and let stand for a minute. You can swirl the bowl but do not stir during this time.
Whisk till smooth. If the chocolate has not fully melted, put it in the microwave at medium for 10 second intervals until melted and smooth. But you must make sure the melted chocolate is cooled to room temperature before mixing with the whipped cream.
Whisk the remaining cup of cream till soft peaks. Again, whisk in vigorously 1/3 of the cream to the melted chocolate. Then carefully fold in the rest of the cream. Pour into the pan over the dark chocolate mousse layer, and smooth the top.
The white chocolate layer will be a lot runnier than the dark chocolate layer. So don’t panic. It will still set in the end.
Leave in the fridge for at least 6 hours or overnight.
When unmolding, run a hot knife around the side of the pan, and carefully unclip the springform. Then marvel in the chocolate creation that is an orgasm in edible disguise.
Source: Cook's Illustrated
