Strawberry Chocolate Mousse Cake (Eggless)


We celebrated our 5th anniversary last month. 5 years sounds like such a long time and yet I remember all the details of our wedding like it were only yesterday. I guess we never forget our most special moments:). Manoj surprised me with the best gift ever, my first SLR!! God, I screamed so loud and it was midnight, I'm sure I scared some neighbours:). I can finally stop borrowing from my neighbor!!
 I had friends coming over in the evening, there was dinner to prepare and so much more to do, but all I wanted to do was play with my new toy :). Ironically I was so busy until the last moment, I couldn't click any pictures of the food. Thankfully the cake was made the previous night and the first thing I did in the morning was take pictures of it.
I have been thinking of making a mousse cake for such a long time now. It had to be eggless (a jain couple among friends). I wanted to go chocolate as usual, but another friend is not a fan of chocolate (I know, Incomprehensible!!!) and is always disappointed when it comes to desserts at our home. So I went with strawberry for her and to make me happy I added a thin layer of bittersweet chocolate mousse in the middle. For the cake base, I made a strawberry version of the custard powder snack cake I posted before this. I used strawberry custard powder, the cake had only a slight strawberry flavor, but yummy, and the color was what got me excited...such a beautiful pink!! Since the cake will be refrigerated, it has to be soaked really well with syrup. Some parts of my cake were not soaked that well, so was a little firm for a  mousse cake, so be really generous with the syrup! The end result was one fabulous and delicious dessert, all gone by the end of the evening, except for one slice I saved for a picture.

Eggless Strawberry Mousse Cake

Ingredients:
Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup strawberry flavored custard powder
2 1/4 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
150 gm butter (very soft)
1 cup milk

Strawberry Mousse:
16 oz strawberries, washed and hulled or use frozen
1 1/3 cups sugar
2 tbs gelatin
2 cups heavy cream

Bittersweet Chocolate Mousse:
5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small chunks
3/4 cup cream
1/2 tsp gelatin
1 tbs water

Simple Syrup:
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup sugar

Strawberries - washed, hulled and sliced for decoration
Some melted chocolate for drizzling


Method:
Cake:
Preheat the oven to 350F/ 180C. Grease and line a 9" round spring form pan.
Whisk all the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Add the vanilla, milk and butter and mix until smooth.
Pour into the prepared pan and bake till done, about 35-40 minutes.
Cool in the pan for 10 mins and then remove onto a wire rack to cool completely.
It's best to bake the cake a few hours or even a day in advance. Wrap the cooled cake well in saran wrap and store in the fridge.

Simple Syrup:
Heat the sugar and water on medium heat, just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool the syrup.

Chocolate Mousse:
Take 1 tbs water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it. Keep aside to soften. Heat 1/4 cup of cream till it just begins to boil. Pour over the chocolate. Mix well, if the chocolate has not melted completely heat for a few seconds in the microwave. Mix well till smooth and lump free.
Heat the bowl of gelatin over a double boiler till the mixture is transparent and the gelatin has completely dissolved. Add it to the chocolate mixture and stir well. Keep aside and let it come to room temperature. Do not let it set.
Whip the remaining cream till it just begins to hold soft peaks. Add 1/3 of the whipped cream to the cooled chocolate and whisk gently to lighten the mixture. Gently fold in the remaining whipped cream.

Strawberry Mousse:
Wash and hull the strawberries. Heat the strawberries and sugar in a pan, until the fruit has broken down and the sugar has dissolved. Strain the mixture to remove the seeds and pulp and return to a clean sauce pan. Add the gelatin to the strawberry sauce and heat until the gelatin has dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
Whip the cream till it just begins to hold soft peaks (do not over whip). Fold in the cooled strawberry mixture gently into the whipped cream.

Assembling the cake:
Level the top of the cake. Spray the cake with syrup or spoon the syrup on the cake until it is moist, but it should bot fall apart. The cake should feel very moist. Place the cake inside the spring form pan that it was baked in.
Keep the strawberry slices along the sides of the pan. Spoon the chocolate mousse over the cake and spread it to form an even layer. Cover the pan with a saran wrap and refrigerate while you make the strawberry mousse.
Spoon the strawberry mousse evenly over the chocolate layer. Drizzle some melted chocolate over the mousse. Again wrap the pan with the plastic wrap and refrigerate till set, about 4-5 hours. Carefully run a paring knife along the sides of the pan to remove the cake. Enjoy your fabulous dessert. The cake can be stored covered in the fridge for upto 2 days.

34 comments:

  1. Hi Poornima

    The Cake is simply a masterpiece. That too without egg. Looks simply marvelous.


    Deepa
    Hamaree Rasoi

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  2. cake looks amazing and delicious,perfectly done.Following you dear,please do drop at my space.....
    Cheers
    Nalini

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  3. Congratulations on your Anniversary! Same pinch... coz last month on our anniversary my husband too gifted me an SLR.

    The cheese cake looks great...n its eggless too..

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  4. This looks really delicious..I m feeling like grabbing that mousse cake slice off d screen...

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  5. Congragulations on your anniversary and wishes for many more! Cake looks awesome and hard to say it is eggless. Lovely!

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  6. Looks so perfect and delicious...yummmy

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  7. Amazingly prepared....awesome....

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  8. Congratulations on your Anniversary POornima, cake looks seriously amazing,prefect and irresistible..

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  9. Quiet late to wish your anniversary-Congrats! The SLR is a wonderful gift, the cake is very pro Pourni :) Like the fruit and choco flavor!

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  10. Happy anniversary! The cake looks very elegant and delicious.

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  11. Happy Anniversary! That's a stunning looking cake.. LOVE the beautiful layers.

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  12. Yum Yum Chocolate Mousse.Luks wonderfully crafted

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  13. Happy Aniversary...The mousse cake luks stunning..Good job.

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  14. This is the best blog I have come across.. such a great collection of recipes.. Happy to follow you..

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  15. Hi Poornima
    First time here n amazed at your wonderful recipes. Glad to follow you.U are most Welcome to my space :)
    This mousse cake is awesome, you have done it very well.Thanks for linking it to Bake Fest..
    Spicy Treats
    Ongoing Event : Bake Fest # 2
    Do participate in My 300th Post Giveaway

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  16. hi happy anniversary dear...is time here.& u have a nice blog...the cake is looking delicious & mouthwatering

    can u link it to my ongoing event Yummy desserts for new year...

    http://pran-oriya-recipies.blogspot.com/2011/12/eee.html

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  17. Poornima,
    very tempting !Thanks 4 eggless version!

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  18. Happy anniversary dear...
    Amazing color n delicious cake!!

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  19. Happy belated anniversary! each anniversary we remember the crazy wedding times too.. running from one city to the other! remembering names and so on .. strawberries and chocolate.. and mousse yummm! i keep adding all these delicious sugary things to make this month! one perfect holiday season!

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  20. wow...ur cake looks stunning and delicious. and the layers are perfect. thanks for linking with my event..i wonder how i missed ur blog for so long

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  21. Belated wishes on ur 5th anniversary Poornima...May god bless u guys with millions of beautiful tomorrow's together !
    Congrats on the new gear :-)..
    That cake looks adorable..!

    Merry Christmas !

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  22. Happy anniversary and a nice gift too :). Chocolate mousse looks irresistible and inviting. Thx for linking to the event.

    Vardhini
    Event: Sinful Delights
    Event: Stuffed Paratha

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  23. thanks so much for linking this lip smacking dish to Jingle All The Way. Looks really good :)
    -
    Kavi (Edible Entertainment)

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  24. Hey Poornima,
    Looks absolutely wonderful and delicious. I have book marked this one to make for my mother when she comes to visit me in feb :)

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  25. Love Love Love this! Very beautiful cake.

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  26. It is a spectacular looking cake.Love the pictures.
    Thank you for dropping by my blog. I love your space here.

    Congrats on completing 5 years ( belated).

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  27. Hello :-)

    I love the cake! I am going to ATTEMPT to make it in the coming weeks. I have one question which may sound silly... Do you pour the syrup over the cake for it to soak? OR Do you just place the cake in a bowl already full with the syrup?

    Thank you :-)

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    Replies
    1. I just use a spray bottle to spray the syrup all over the cake until its really moist, you could even use a spoon to drizzle the syrup all over, make sure you get the edges too. Hope you like it!

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    2. Thanks! Also, I can not find strawberry flavour custard powder in Australia. What can I use instead of the this? I can only find vanilla custard powder

      Thank you :-)

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    3. I just realized that I never wrote down the recipe for the syrup, I have updated it in the recipe now. Also you could use vanilla custard powder or even cornstarch, but that would taste totally different. Instead you could use any other light sponge cake for the base. I love the one here...http://poornimastastytreats.blogspot.in/2013/04/mango-cream-cake.html. You would only need half the recipe.

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    4. Thank you! I will let you know how it turns out once I make it in the coming month - I will try an find a substitute for the strawberry custard powder. We do have the vanilla custard powder, I am thinking of flavouring it with strawberry essence if I can find it :-)

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  28. Apologies I asked the wrong question.

    I will ask again

    How much strawberries and how much water and how much sugar do I need to make the Simple Syrup?

    Thank you :-)

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Poornima