Alice’s Chocolate Mousse Cake with Cajeta!

Print Print | Print Email this to a friend | October 7, 2009
Filed Under cake, recipe

I made this dessert as an assignment for Target. The store where I buy everything from school supplies to Riedel wine glasses. My friend Betsy Nelson is a food stylist for Target and she asked me to do some of the baking for a photo shoot. As inspiration she brought over the book Bittersweet by Alice Medrich to show me the style of cake they were going for. The thing I love most about working with Betsy is that she’s a chef and insists the food not only be gorgeous for the photo, but delicious enough to eat after the shot is done. I made a large version of the cake for Target, but couldn’t resist using the leftovers to create individual cakes for my own pleasure, pairing it with a rich cajeta and freshly grated nutmeg.

Fast forward a couple of days and I’m at the BlogherFood conference in San Francisco. I met so many people I admire and who have inspired me as a chef and a blogger. It was incredible to put faces, voices and laughter to the people I’ve known only virtually. I promise I will get back to the cake, but let me just spend a second introducing you to just a few of the fabulous folks I met. Helen from the exquisite site Tartelette, Diane and Todd from White on Rice Couple (who gave me a much needed photo lesson during the cocktail party), Shauna, Danny and Lucy from Gluten-Free Girl, Tea from Tea and Cookies, Elise from Simply Recipes, Ree from The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Jaden of The Steamy Kitchen, Heidi from 101 cookbooks, all generously willing to share their experiences and secrets to their success. The reason I brought up BlogherFood in this post is because I also met Alice Medrich, the “First Lady of Chocolate” at the after party hosted by Elise, Ree and Jaden. Alice is a true master of her craft and I have considered her one of my pastry mentors. Here are her wonderfully smooth and perfectly simple mousse recipes, the key to success is really fine chocolate.

The winner of the Aebleskiver Package is at the end of the post.

Makes about 10 individual or 1 8-inch cake:

Graham Cracker Crust (Betsy wanted to a Graham crust to fit in with the caramel colored theme of the Target photo and I’m so glad she did. It added a wonderful texture and flavor to the cake):

11 graham crackers

3 tablespoons brown sugar

5 tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon cinnamon

pinch salt

Alice Medrich’s Mousse Cake from Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate:

Gianduja Mousse layer:

9 ounces Gianduja or Milk Chocolate, finely chopped (Gianduja is a combination of milk chocolate and hazelnut paste – think nutella) I used Gianduja from Cacao Barry

6 tablespoons water (or half water and half eau-de-vie, brandy, or other liqueur)

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

White Chocolate Mousse layer:

9 ounces White Chocolate, finely chopped

6 tablespoons water (or half water and half eau-de-vie, brandy, or other liqueur)

1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream

Cajeta – a rich Mexican caramel made with goats milk. It is fantastic with the chocolate but also a natural fit with apples or coffee ice cream. I put the pot of cajeta on the table and let people add as much as they liked.

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped softly for garnish

Nutmeg, freshly grated for garnish

To start you will need to set up 10-12 3-inch mousse ring molds with acetate on a parchment lined cookie sheet. (The ring molds I have are fashioned out of PVC pipe. They were made by the plumber who built the kitchen in a restaurant I worked in. If you know a plumber or just someone who is handy, you can make your own.)

To make the Graham Cracker Crust: Place the Graham crackers in a food processor, pulse until fine crumbs. Add the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and salt. Pulse until the crumbs are evenly coated with the butter.

Distribute the Graham cracker crust into the ring molds so that they are about 1/4-inch thick. Pack it into the mold, I used a marble pestle. Refrigerate to set the crust, while you prepare the first mousse recipe.

To make the mousse: The gianduja and the white chocolate mousses are prepared in exactly the same way. make the gianduja first.

Place the gianduja chocolate and water in a heatproof bowl. Set it over a double boiler with gently simmering water under it. Immediately turn off the heat and allow the residual heat to melt the chocolate, stirring gently until it is completly melted and smooth. Remove from double boiler and allow to cool to just above room temperature. Whip the cream to a very soft peak, it should just barely hold its shape, almost pourable.

Fold the cream into the chocolate, it will be quite soft, seemingly too soft, but it will set up in the refrigerator. Allow this layer to set for about 20-30 minutes before beginning the white chocolate layer. This will give you time to clean all your bowls and beaters.

Once the gianduja layer is somewhat set, repeat the directions but this time using the white chocolate.

Allow them to set at least a couple of hours or overnight. If leaving them overnight, be sure to cover them with plastic wrap so they don’t develop a skin on the top.

Unmold the mousse cakes, top them with the soft whipped cream, a drizzle of cajeta and grate a touch of nutmeg over the top. Absolutely indulgent!

This was the plate right before I licked it clean!

Aebleskiver Package Winner: First I want to thank you all again for the wonderful Aebleskiver ideas. You came up with sweet (chocolate and nutella the most popular additions) and savory (bacon wins) fillings that I’m really excited to try.Thanks to Nick and Carolyn for sharing their Aebleskiver batter recipes with us. Congratulations to Jaime from Sophistimom who was the random winner of the Aunt Else’s Aebleskiver package! Her idea was superb as well, she wants to make a buckwheat batter and then have a center of caviar. Oh my, I do hope that she will try it and post for us all to see! For those of you who didn’t win Aunt Else’s has a special on the 9-hole pans right now, just in time for the holdiays!

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Comments

32 Responses to “Alice’s Chocolate Mousse Cake with Cajeta!”

10/8/09 4:48 am	Heather Peskin said... How delightful – I love the elegant shape.
10/8/09 5:56 am	Jessica @ How Sweet It Is said... Wow not only is that BEAUTIFUL but I would like to jump through the screen and eat it! I hope I am talented enough to make something like this!
10/8/09 6:28 am	Paula said... Those look as elegant as they do delicious! I’m sure they were devoured after the photo shoot!
10/8/09 6:33 am	Rachel said... Looks absolutely terrific, but I have one question: whenever I melt chocolate together with water over a bain-marie, the whole thing becomes a sticky mess and will never ever reach a smooth consistency. What am I doing wrong?
10/8/09 6:37 am	zoe said... Hi Rachel, Especially with White and milk Chocolate it is important to turn off the heat under it while it melts, or the chocolate will cease up. Also if you let the water and chocolate sit, undisturbed for about 30 seconds, to warm up with each other it is often easier to combine them well. The water to chocolate ratio will also make a difference. I hope this helps! Zoë
10/8/09 6:47 am	Barbara said... Those are beautiful. The photos show every nuance of your mousse- especially the last one- all gone!
10/8/09 7:44 am	Caitlin said... My favorite part? That you used PVC pipe for ring molds – totally what I’d do too! But how cool was it to meet Alice Medrich? So exciting!
10/8/09 8:02 am	Aunt Else's Aebleskiver said... Looks amazing as usual Zoë! Can’t wait to try! Congrats to Jaime!
10/8/09 8:13 am	Dragana said... Fabulous dessert! I’m sure Target was thrilled with the result. I’m making it with my favorite – nutella.
10/8/09 9:36 am	zoe said... Hi Caitlin, It was so nice to meet you at Blogher as well! Zoë
10/8/09 3:39 pm	Jaime said... First of all, those cakes are absolutely lovely. And secondly . . . THANK YOU!!!!! I will be making all kinds of Aebleskivers soon! I can’t wait!
10/8/09 3:41 pm	clumbsycookie said... My mouth is watering Zoe! All my favourite flavours in one dessert! Will we be able to see the shot for Target?
10/8/09 5:49 pm	Darline Grant said... Looks wonderful, great job, was it really hard to do?
10/9/09 7:18 pm	Danielle said... Adorable! I think I am in love with this dessert!
10/10/09 3:37 am	deeba said... I absolutely love Alice Medrich’s recipes, & this dessert is heavenly Zoe. Oustanding & beautifully made. WOW!! I love doing individual servings & you did it brilliantly. The flavours are singing to me!
10/10/09 10:02 am	maris said... These sound to-die-for! I’ve never had white chocolate mousse but one of these days, I might have to try some!
10/10/09 11:12 am	Newmicon said... Ummmmm…. YUMM!!!!
10/10/09 6:13 pm	Y said... Wow what great looking mousse cakes! Don’t think I’ve tried cajeta before, and now feel like I’m missing out!!
10/11/09 10:34 am	Aparna said... I love, love chocolate and this would one of my perfect desserts.
10/12/09 2:16 pm	daniela said... wonderful, both foto and dessert! you’re great!
10/12/09 2:17 pm	Helen in CA said... How do you get the cakes to release from the ring molds? The acetate part I “get” (peel it off)….but I’m concerned about scrambled mousse instead of little “cakes”. Thanks
10/12/09 2:34 pm	zoe said... Hi Helen, The mousse never touches the ring molds, just the acetate. If you are doing this without the acetate then you will have to run a knife around the edge and slightly heat the metal rings to slide them off the mousse, a much trickier adventure. Does this answer your concern? Thanks, Zoë
10/12/09 3:36 pm	Isabelle said... c’est une recette pour moi ! trop trop beau, et ça doit être excellent ! merci, je note
10/15/09 11:06 am	Miss T said... That sounds amazing!
10/20/09 9:39 am	Amy J in SC said... Goodness gracious this looks good. This is definitely one of those “hide-it-from-the-kids-cause-they-could-never appreciate-it-like-an-adult-would” kinda desserts. It would be regarded as pudding around here – imagine! Although my 14 year old daughter is quite the food connoisseur – probably more than me. So maybe I’ll get her to help with the prep. Thanks for being so detailed with the directions too.
10/23/09 9:36 am	Elisabeth said... Zoe, What a lovely website! I’ve recently become a convert to your carrot cake after years of claiming I didn’t like carrot cake – it turns out I had not found the right one! Where, may I ask, are the small jam jars from which you used to display the cajeta in the above photo? They are so lovely! Also, I am not so familiar with cajeta; having grown up on dulce de leche, I assume it’s much the same and would be a good substitute? Thank you!
10/24/09 4:10 pm	zoe said... Hi Elisabeth, Thanks for stopping by. The jars are from a company called weck http://www.weckcanning.com/ Aren’t they wonderful! dulce de leche would make a fabulous substitute, but you really should try the cajeta, it has a flavor all its own! Thanks, Zoë
10/27/09 2:22 pm	Bren said... i love cajeta on crepes! sooo good. dulce de leche is even better! glad to have found your site!
10/29/09 5:04 pm	Lubayna said... Wooooow,such an amazing desserts,Looks yummmy. I have a Q : If i don’t have Acetate Strips what other thing that i can use ? Second Q : How do you get the mousse release from the ring molds? By the way i’ve searched everywhere store for the Acetate but know one knows about it Thanks so much
10/30/09 9:02 pm	zoe said... Hi Lubayna, Yeah, it is tough to locate unless you have a shop that specializes in baking supplies. I link to it on Amazon and that may be the easiest way to find it. You can try using parchment paper. Just coat the paper very lightly with oil first. I’ve never tried this, but it may just work. If you use the acetate or the parchment you won’t have the worry about the mousse releasing from the molds, it will just slip out. Thanks, Zoue
11/1/09 2:41 pm	Todd said... Please warn people not to use PCV for anything that comes in contact with food. You use the acetate as a barrier, which is probably sufficient, but at least one poster asked about going without. PVC contains chlorine (that’s the C — chloride — in PVC) and is stabilized with any of a number of heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium — you name it). Nothing you’d want infusing into your otherwise good eats.
11/22/09 9:38 am	TeenieCakes said... I love cajeta! I look forward to trying to recreate these mousse cakes. Beautifully presented!