RASPBERRY CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE

As its the Easter weekend, and I’m back home visiting my family in Scotland, I wanted to make something special to eat on Easter Sunday, something to round off our Sunday roast. All of last week I was trying to think of what to make, then my trusted BBC Good Food weekly email popped into my inbox with this recipe for Raspberry Chocolate Mousse Cake. SOLD! It was easy to make (essentially just an assembly job, no baking) and it looked fantastic.

I knew I had a lot of cooking ahead of me on Sunday so I made the biscuit base on Saturday night and chilled it overnight, making the mousse on Sunday morning. This really is a great cake to have up your sleeve. You can make it ahead of time, there is no cooking involved and it definitely has the wow factor when you bring it to the table. Plus, with its crunchy, chocolatey biscuit base, its rich, smooth, creamy mousse and the sweet raspberries on top, it tastes amazing!

INGREDIENTS
For the base:
100g 70% plain chocolate, broken into pieces
100g unsalted butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
200g Hob Nobs

For the mousse:
300g 70% plain chocolate, broken into pieces
4 x 150g punnets raspberries
1 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp crème de framboise (raspberry liqueur) or crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur), or 1 tsp vanilla extract
600ml whipping cream
double cream, to serve

You will need a 23cm springform tin for this recipe.

Start with the base. Simply melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup in a bowl over barely simmer watering (make sure the bowl isn’t touching the water) or on a low heat in the microwave.

Put the biscuits in a bag and crush with a rolling pin until they reach a crumb consistency, or alternatively blitz them in a food processor. Then add to the melted chocolate mixture.

Combine the two and spread over the base of your tin, making sure to press the mix into the edge.

Once you have done this, place in the fridge to set for at least an hour.

While your base is setting in the fridge, start on your mousse. Again, melt the remaining chocolate (300g) over a bowl of simmering water or in the microwave, and allow to cool until lukewarm.

Add 1 punnet of raspberries to your food processor with the icing sugar and framboise/vanilla (I used vanilla extract) and blitz to make a quick raspberry coulis.

Beat roughly two thirds of the whipping cream until its soft and leaves just a trail with the whisk. Be careful not to overwhisk the mixture, it’s better to whisk too little than too much.

Fold in the cooled chocolate very gently, making sure to scrape the bottom of the bowl. The chocolate sinks right to the bottom and its easy to miss it.

The mixture will start to get firmer once the chocolate is fully incorporated. Then stir through the remaining whipping cream. Finally, swirl in the raspberry coulis.

Spread over the biscuit base and return to the fridge for 1 -2 hours to set.

Make sure to really press the mousse mixture down so you’re not left with air pockets around the side when you remove it from the tin.

After a couple of hours in the fridge, take it out and release from the tin. Then decorate with concentric circles of raspberries.

If, like me, the side of your cake looked a little rough, dip a palette knife into some hot water to heat it, wipe off the water and simply smooth the sides with the heat of the knife. This leaves you with a smoother finish.

Dust with icing sugar (if you wish) and serve with double cream.

If you want a clean slice, again, just dip a sharp knife into some hot water. Wipe the blade so its dry and make the first cut. Wipe the chocolate from the blade, dip into the hot water, dry the blade and then make the next cut.