If you’re looking for the ultimate chocolate dessert, my Chocolate Mousse Cake with Chocolate Mousse Mascarpone Frosting is just what you’re looking for!
I made this incredible chocolate cake (using my olive oil chocolate cake recipe) with ribbons of rich indulgent chocolate mousse in between the layers, can you say decadent?
But I didn’t stop there. Instead of just using the mousse for the frosting I decided to blend some mascarpone cheese into it! What I got was a light creamy version of the mousse, that didn’t overpower the cake.
What ingredients do I need to make a Chocolate Mousse Cake?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make my Chocolate Mousse Cake with a Mascarpone Mousse Frosting. In Chef Speak this is called the “Mise en Place” which translates to “Everything in its Place”.
Not only does setting your ingredients up ahead of time speed the up cooking process, but it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
How Do I make a Chocolate Mousse Cake?
Start by preheating the oven to 350ºF.
- Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.
- With your mixer on low speed beat in the oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water until smooth.
- Divide the mixture into the three 9″ prepared pans, coated with butter and dusted in flour or sugar.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Do not over bake the cake. It should be firm to the touch, and a cake skewer inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean.
Put the cake pans on cooling racks and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to cool completely
How do I make chocolate mousse?
While the cake is baking or before hand, make the chocolate mousse.
- Place the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl, over a pot of simmering water, stir with a rubber spatula as the chocolate melts, if the pan starts to get too hot, remove it from the heat.
- Continue to stir the chocolate until it has melted completely, then remove from the heat.
- Cut the butter into 8 pieces and mix it into the melted chocolate until it has been completely absorbed by the chocolate.
- Set the chocolate aside to cool to room temperature
When the chocolate has been prepared, the next step is making the sabayon for the chocolate mousse.
- add the egg yolks to the bowl of your mixer and begin to whip them until doubled in size.
- then begin to slowly pour the sugar in a steady stream into the yolks. Continue to whip for another minute.
- add the liquid to the egg yolk mixture and place the mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk the yolk mixture until it becomes very thick.
- When the egg yolks have thickened, continue to whip in your stand mixer until the mixture has cooled.
The final step in making the chocolate mousse is making the whipped cream and combing the ingredients.
- when the sabayon has cooled, fold it into the chocolate mixture until well blended.
- Whip the cream in your stand mixer until it holds its shape, then fold it into the chocolate mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set.
How do I make the chocolate mousse mascarpone frosting?
Divide the prepared chocolate mousse into two portions. use one half of the mousse to make mascarpone frosting.
- Whip the room temperature mascarpone to make it smooth.
- Add the chocolate mousse to the whipped mascarpone and continue to whip until smooth.
- Refrigerate until needed
*if the frosting hardens up too much by being refrigerated use a hand mixer or wire whisk, to re-whip the frosting smooth.
How to assemble the Chocolate Mousse Cake
When the cake has completely cooled, you can now begin assembly.
- start with one layer, then add one-half of the chocolate mousse (not the frosting) to the layer spreading evenly.
- top the first mousse-filled layer with the second layer and repeat the process.
- add the final layer to the cake.
- when the layers have been set, start frosting the cake using the mascarpone chocolate mousse frosting, spreading evenly.
- top with raspberries and refrigerate for 1 hour to allow to set up
My Chocolate Mouse cake did not disappoint, it was rich and chocolaty without being overpowering. I enjoyed mine with a tall glass of ice-cold milk, but it would also go great with a good cup of coffee.
If you’re planning a party and looking for that special dessert to wow the crowd, I can recommend this cake, your guests will be in chocolate heaven, all begging for the recipe!
It would also make the perfect birthday cake for that chocolate lover in your life, but you don’t really need an excuse to make this deliciously decadent cake………. after all it’s Chocolate!
Kitchen tools I use for my cakes
- offset spatula (essential for bakers)
- 9-inch USA Pan Bakeware cake pans
- 9-inch parchment cake circles
- silicone spatulas
- wire whisk
- mixing bowls
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Chocolate Mousse Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 cups sugar
- 6 tablespoons cocoa
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups cold water
Chocolate Mousse
- 13 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate finely cut
- 6 tbsp butter softened
- ½ cup sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- ¼ cup strong black coffee or espresso
- ¼ cup Kahlua
- 3 cups heavy cream
Chocolate Mousse Mascarpone Frosting
- 8 ounces mascarpone
- ⅓ of chocolate mousse
Assembly
- 1 pint raspberries
Instructions
Chocolate Olive Oil Cake
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Mix the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. With your mixer on low speed beat in the oil, vinegar, vanilla, and water until smooth. Pour the mixture into the two 9″ prepared pans, coated with butter and dusted in flour or sugar.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a cake skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Do not over bake the cake. It should be firm to the touch, and a cake skewer inserted in the middle of the cake should come out clean.
- Put the cake pans on cooling racks and cool for 15 to 20 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to cool completely
Chocolate Mousse
- Place the chocolate in a stainless steel bowl, over a pot of simmering water, stir with a rubber spatula as the chocolate melts, if the pan starts to get too hot, remove it from the heat.
- Continue to stir the chocolate until it has melted completely, then remove from the heat.
- Cut the butter into 8 pieces and mix it into the melted chocolate until it has been completely absorbed by the chocolate.
- Set the chocolate aside to cool to room temperature
- Sabayon
- add the egg yolks to the bowl of your mixer and begin to whip them until doubled in size, then begin to slowly pour the sugar in a steady stream into the yolks. Continue to whip for another minute.
- add the liquid to the egg yolk mixture and place your mixing bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk the yolk mixture until it becomes very thick.
- When the egg yolks have thickened, continue to whip in your stand mixer until the mixture has cooled.
- when the sabayon has cooled, fold it into the chocolate mixture until well blended.
- Whip the cream in your stand mixer until it holds its shape. Take your time whipping the cream, rushing it will cause it to deflate.
- Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set.
Chocolate Mousse Mascarpone Frosting
- Divide the prepared chocolate mousse into two portions. use one half of the mousse to make mascarpone frosting
- Whip the room temperature mascarpone to make it smooth.
- Add the chocolate mousse to the whipped mascarpone and continue to whip until smooth. Refrigerate until needed*if the frosting hardens up too much by being refrigerated use a hand mixer or wire whisk, to re-whip the frosting smooth.
Assembly
- Place one of the cakes on your cake stand or dish. Add one-half of the chocolate mousse (not the frosting) to the layer spreading evenly. Top the first mousse-filled layer with the second layer and repeat the process.add the final layer to the cake.
- When the layers have been set, start frosting the cake using the chocolate mousse mascarpone frosting spreading evenly.
- Top with raspberries and refrigerate for 1 hour to allow to set up.
- slice cake, serve and enjoy!
Natasha
Hello.
I am making this for my daughter who will be 4 so I’m looking to see if i can replace the Kalua with something else obviously a kids cake shouldn’t really have alcohol lol.
Chef Dennis Littley
You can leave the Kahlua out of the recipe, just add 1 tablespoon of vanilla. The difference in the volume of the liquid won’t matter.
Theo
I followed the recipe with instructions to a T and it came out perfectly! Better than most chocolate mousse cakes that I have had in restaurants and coffee shops. It also beats all those “fancy” cake shop chocolate mousse cakes. Definitely worth baking.
Mr Victor
I’m getting ready to make this and notice that the instructions say to use ½ of the mousse to make the frosting but the list of ingredients say to use ⅓?
Chef Dennis Littley
its one half. I can’t seem to find the 1/3 in the ingredients, that says 1/2.
Theo
Yes it is strange, I use the metric button at the bottom since I live in a metric country, then it says to use 1/2 of the mousse. If you click on US customary then it says 1/3 of the mousse.
Chef Dennis Littley
I’ll check with the people that make the recipe card plugin, hopefully they’ll have some insight. Thanks for letting me know.
Mama Maggie's Kitchen
My mouth is watering. I wish this were in front of me.
Oscar
Wow this cake was amazing. It turned out so well, going to make it again.
Raquel
Such a beautiful and delicious dessert! Chocolate mousse is a favorite and perfect for summer!
Pam Greer
We love a good chocolate cake around here and this is our favorite!
Elizabeth
Great recipe! Will definitely make again!
Alexandra
What a gorgeous show-stopper of a dessert!
Char
Love your tiramisu recipe! This recipe caught my eye…but I’m a bit skeptical about 6 tbsp of cocoa being enough to darken and flavour up 3 cups of flour. Do u use natural cocoa? Dutch process? Black cocoa? I would love to try this….store bought chocolate mousse cakes just don’t cut it!
Chef Dennis Littley
its a lot more than you think. I use natural cocoa powder and most of the time its Hersheys. I’ve been known to purchase Valharona or Ghiradelli as well.
Kathleen Sartini
This recipe came out fantastic! Everyone loved it. The only thing that needs to be fix is the recipe ingredients say heavy cream when it should be heavy whipping cream.
Chef Dennis Littley
Kathleen thanks for the great review and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the cake. There are basically two types of heavy cream, 36% and 40%. Most grocery stores sell 36% which they call heavy whipping cream. The names are basically interchangeable, the only difference being the amount of fat, some of the ones labeled heavy cream may have.
jue
Is it alright to omit the butter from the chocolate mousse, because when I add it to the whip cream if tends to curd up and unable to get rid of the curd-ed texture. I tried many times with same result. Where am I going wrong. Thanks for the great recipe.
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Jue
the butter shouldn’t be clumping up the mixture at all. You can leave out the butter if you like.
shan
will the mas arpone melt as frosting in a tropical country?
Chef Dennis Littley
if it gets too warm yes it can, its best to keep it in the fridge until serving
mech_mech
Thank u so much for this recipe was wonderfull we were on a girl party and they eat all of it saying that the coffee note was emphasing this much chocolate
Karen
Hi. I have just made this for my son’s birthday. The cakes didn’ t rise much, but that worked fine as I just interspersed them with the mousse. I just deviated a little by doing a layer of crushed choc biscuits with melted butter, and then layering condensed milk caramel on top of that, then the mousse, then the cake, more caramel, mousse and cake, finishing with the amazing frosting with ganache swirls. Can’t wait to taste it!! Looks fabulous!