Cheesecake Mousse & Strawberry Cake
Today I whipped up this delicious dessert from leftovers. Yes, leftovers!! But, you know what? I actually think it deserves to be a dessert in its own right. It really is that good. Plus with Mother’s Day only days away, I think it makes quite a fitting dessert for the awesome mum in your life, don’t you? So I’m going to let you in on one of my best kept secrets, well until now anyway ;) That secret is my cheesecake mousse. It's bloody amazing and I use it for so many things! (If you’re wondering how this came about from leftovers, it’s because I had an un-used vanilla mud cake tier in the freezer along with some of my cheesecake mousse and voilà, delicious dessert was born)
So, here I give you the recipe for my Vanilla Mud Cake and my Cheesecake Mousse. Both of which I use for my tall cakes (I use the mousse in place of buttercream frosting - I hate buttercream….just a thing I have, lol).
Note: One last thing, this cake recipe will give you 1 regular sized cake, which you will then cut through the middle, essentially giving you 2 cakes. So either use both halves and make two of these lovely cakes if you have the crowd for it (the mousse recipe will give you more than enough to cover both), or you can stack them to make a taller cake, OR you can freeze the leftovers and then one day make a fancy cake out of leftovers too!
Cheesecake Mousse & Strawberry Cake
makes 2 cakes (see note above) | begin mousse day ahead, or at least 4 hours prior to assembly
Ingredients
Vanilla Mud Cake
125g butter, softened
220g caster sugar
1tsp vanilla paste
4 eggs
135g cup plain yoghurt
180g white choc, melted
235g plain flour
1/4 tsp bicarb
1/2 tsp baking powder
Cheesecake Mousse
480g white chocolate
30g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
150g milk
6g gelatine leaf, titanium strength
250g cream cheese, softened
450g thin (pouring) cream
Strawberry Soak
150g fresh strawberries, hulled and chopped (frozen will work too, just defrost first)
2 tsp rosewater
Garnish
Fresh strawberries
Edible flowers
Macarons, gold leaf etc (optional)
Method
Mousse
Start by preparing the mousse, preferably the day before, or at least 4 hours prior to assembly.
Put the chocolate in a bowl and set aside. In a bowl whisk the eggs and sugar together. In a saucepan bring the milk to boiling point and then slowly pour the hot milk over the egg mixture, whisking constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens slightly. Remove from the heat.
Soak the gelatine sheets in cold water for around 5 minutes until soft. Squeeze the excess liquid from the gelatine and then add them to the milk mixture. Pour the hot mixture over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool to around 25C.
Whip the cream to soft peaks and then gently fold the cream through the cooled chocolate mixture. Cover and refrigerate until set.
Cake
Preheat oven to 150C. Grease and line an 8” cake tin.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add eggs gradually and mix well between each addition. Add yoghurt and melted choc and mix until well combined.
Sieve dry ingredients and add to wet mixture. Mix on slow until ingredients are all incorporated, then turn mixer to high and mix for 30 seconds or so until mixture is smooth.
Pour into cake tin and level out, run spatula along side between tin and batter so that the batter doesn’t catch as it’s rising.
Bake for ~ 1 hour, or until the cake springs bake when you press in the middle.
Once cake is cool, cut the top off so that the cake is level and then cut it through the middle so that you end up with two halves. Set aside until required.
Strawberry Soak
Blend the strawberries in a food processor. Pass them through a sieve to remove the seeds. Add the rosewater to the puree and set aside.
Assembly
Place your cake half on your serving plate. Spoon the strawberry puree over the cake, a little at a time, and using the back of the spoon, spread the puree over the cake leaving around 5mm gap from the edge of the cake so that it is not running over the edge. Allow it to soak in a little before adding more. Add as much as you can - this soak gives the cake a beautiful flavour and keeps it moist. Fill a piping bag, fitted with an 11mm or larger tip, with some of the mousse and pipe dollops all over the cake. I find it best to go in a circular direction around the cake to do this. Garnish with fresh strawberries and flowers and whatever other lovely things your heart desires.
Enjoy!
Mel xoxo
