This Valentine’s Day I decided to make a heart shaped mousse cake. This thing is super decadent and rich.

And best of all it’s made with recipes that are readily available on this blog.

I used my fudge brownie recipe as a cake layer,  my chocolate mousse recipe as the filling, and a different variation of chocolate ganache that I made a bit thicker as a glaze on top.

chocolate mousse cake recipe

Chocolate Mousse Cake Recipe -The Elements

Preparing The Pan – Heart Shaped Mold

This dessert will all go into a heart shaped mold or pan.  This will give it a cute valentines day shape for you special occasion or just romantic date night in.

Chocolate Mousse Cake Recipe – Fudge Brownie

This brownie recipe is incredibly easy. It’s a very simple one bowl mix.

The most difficult part of this is using a double boiler to melt the chocolate and the butter. The rest of this is just adding ingredients one by one and mixing in between to incorporate.

Thing you should know

  1. You don’t need to worry so much about over mixing like I usually say for this recipe because that pretty, papery top will be covered anyway.
  2.  You should take extra care in making sure that every layer but especially the brownie layer is as flat as possible.  Structural Integrity must be created in this dessert.  Don’t worry, you don’t have to be an engineer. Just make sure that each layer has a flat surface to sit on top or your the whole thing will fall apart when the walls of the springform pan are taken off. I may or may not have made this recipe more than a few times for that reason.  Oops… This was almost an installment of cake fails, guys.  
  3. My best tip is make a small dip in the center of the batter when you put it in the pan.  This way when the brownies bake and puff up, they won’t make a dome in the middle.
chocolate mousse cake recipe

Heart Shape Mousse Cake Recipe – Chocolate Mousse

This recipe can be a little tricky. You have to be super delicate with it to be sure to not knock air out.

Mousse is basically starting with melted chocolate and then adding fluffy and airy substances to make it almost a pudding of sorts.

But WAY better. There is nothing better than a really good mousse.

I found that my regular mousse recipe wasn’t sturdy enough. So I added some gelatin. I essentially added stabilized whipped cream in place of regular whipped cream in the mousse.

Things You Should Know

  1. Like I said, be extremely careful when folding to be sure that you don’t knock any air out.
  2. When whipping up the cream, whip it to medium peaks add the dissolved gelatin and beat until you get stiff peaks.  Fold that in.
  3. Again, make sure that the chocolate mousse layer is level in the pan.

Chocolate Mousse Cake Recipe: Chocolate Ganache

    Chocolate ganache could not be simpler.  All you gotta do is heat up the cream and the instant espresso powder. Then add the chocolate chips and wait about 30 seconds.

    Then stir, stir,stir.  I love to watch it come together.  There is something about it that is so satisfying to me.

  I intended this ganache to be a little thicker to give this cake more creamy and chewy texture but if you don’t like that, you can make it thinner.

     I hope you all enjoyed this recipe and I hope you all have an amazing holiday!  Follow this blog to make more messes with me and follow me on Instagram, Facebook ,  Twitter and Snapchat this holiday season for everything I am up to and I’ll see you all next time. Bye Guys  

chocolate mousse cake recipe

Chocolate Mousse Brownie Cake

Yield: 1 9 inch cake
Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 50 minutes
Additional Time: 8 hours
Total Time: 9 hours 50 minutes

A heart shaped cake in three layors - a brownie base, chocolate mousse and then topped with chocolate ganache. Then decorated with sliced strawberries.

Ingredients

Layers

Chocolate Ganache

  • 1 1/2 cups of Semi Sweet Chocolate Chips
  • 1 Cup of Heavy Cream
  • 1 tsp of instant espresso powder

For Decoration

  • 1/2 Recipe of Chocolate Ganache
  • 4 Strawberries thinly sliced

Instructions

Prep

  1. Separate the eggs into yolks and whites for the chocolate mousse.
  2. Preheat the oven to 350•.
  3. Prepare a heart shaped springform pan by spraying the bottom and the sides with nonstick spray and lining the bottom and the sides with parchment paper. (See Notes)



Brownies

  1. Start by melting the chocolate and butter over a double boiler.
  2. Pour the melted chocolate and butter mixture into a large bowl.
  3. Add in the sugars to the chocolate and stir to combine. Then let the mixture cool to room temperature before the next step.
  4. Add the eggs one at a time and stir between each addition.
  5. Sift in the cocoa powder ,flour, and salt and stir to combine.
  6. Add in the vanilla extract and instant espresso powder and stir to combine.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and level it off.
  8. Bake for 30-45 minutes or until a toothpick in the center comes out with moist crumbs but not wet batter.
  9. Let cool to room temperature.


Chocolate Mousse

  1. Bring a medium sized pot of shallow water or a double boiler to a simmer.
  2. Place a bowl with the chocolate and the butter on top or place the butter and chocolate in the top of the double boiler.
  3. Melt the chocolate and the butter until smooth.
  4. Let the chocolate cool until slightly warm. Add the egg yolks and vanilla extract and stir until incorporated. Set aside.
  5. Add the cream of tarter to a large bowl with the egg whites and whip until frothy. Add the sugar gradually and whip until you get stiff peaks.
  6. Add about a 2 tsp of water to a small bowl. Sprinkle the gelatan overtop. Wait 5 minutes for it to bloom. Then add about 1/2 tsp of boiling water. Stir to dissolve.
  7. Whip the cream in another medium sized bowl until you get soft peaks then add in the gelatin solution and beat until you get stiff peaks.
  8. Add a third of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and mix that in to lighten up the batter.
  9. Add another third and gently fold until there are just a few streaks of unincorporated egg white.
  10. Add the remainder of egg white and repeat step 8.
  11. Add the whipped cream all at once and gently fold until completely incorporated.
  12. Pour the chocolate mousse on top of the cooled brownie layer.
  13. Cover with plastic wrap and place the cake in the fridge overnight to set.


Chocolate Ganache

  1. Heat the heavy whipping cream and the instant espresso powder to a simmer under low heat in a small saucepan.
  2. Shut off the cream and add in the chocolate chips. Let that sit for 2 minutes.
  3. Whisk the mixture together until combined.
  4. Once completely cooled, pour half of the ganache over the mousse and spread out evenly.
  5. Cover once again with plastic wrap and let the ganache set for 1 hour in the fridge.


Decoration

  1. You can decorate however you want but I just sliced 5 large strawberries or you could also do rasperries and covered one half of the top with them in layered rows.
  2. Take the remaining ganache and place it in a piping bag. Pipe a shell border around 1/2 of the heart.
  3. Immediately slice and serve.
  4. Place any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week.
© Aimee DiPasquale
Cuisine: French

If you have any questions or comments please don’t hesitate to leave a comment down below, message me on instagram, facebook or leave me an email.  

Leave A Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.