Chocolate mousse cake
An early Easter is a mixed blessing. Good to have Lent over and done with, but it is a bit of a false dawn. When Easter is in April, there is a chance of a few early fruits and vegetables, but March is basically winter. As for a bit of chocolate to finish, there may not be much symbolism involved but it is certainly traditional. This sounds complicated but it isn’t – and imperfections are easily hidden under the meringue and dustings of cocoa and sugar.
Wine to serve with the chocolate mousse cake: It is not easy to match chocolate with wine, but a tawny Port or Hungarian Tokaji would be suitably rich to cope.
Next, why not try more great recipes from the House & Garden recipe archive?
Yield
Serves 6
Ingredients
For the meringue
For the ganache
Method
Step 1
Place the egg whites in a food mixer with a pinch of salt and squeeze of lemon juice, then whisk briskly (or whisk by hand). As you whisk, slowly add caster sugar until you have meringue that will form stiff peaks. Sieve the icing sugar and cocoa powder together, and fold into the whites in batches until you have thick, glossy meringue.
Step 2
Preheat the oven to 140°C/fan oven 120°C/mark 1. Draw three 25cm circles with a pencil onto greaseproof paper and place on baking sheets. Load a piping bag with a large round nozzle and pipe three discs of meringue. With the remaining meringue, pipe out several long tubes with a diameter of around 1cm onto another sheet of greaseproof paper on another baking sheet.
Step 3
Bake all the meringues for 1 hour 30 minutes, or until they feel dry and crisp. Once cooled, transfer to an airtight container.
Step 4
Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water until liquid. Set aside to cool. Whisk the cream lightly until it thickens, taking care not to overbeat. Once the chocolate is tepid, whisk in a quarter of the cream, then fold in the rest with the alcohol.
Step 5
Spread a third of the chocolate mixture onto a disc of meringue and then cover with the second disc. Spread the second third of the ganache over the second meringue, cover with the third disc and then form a dome of the remaining ganache on top. Break up the tubes into lengths of 3-4cm and attach them to the ganache, building up so that no ganache is visible. Just before serving, dust with a little extra icing sugar and cocoa powder.