The first time I made my 4-Layer Chocolate Cake with Strawberry Mousse Filling it was a Valentine’s Day treat for my wife.
But it’s such a delicious and easy-to-make cake it’s made appearances for friends and family throughout the year.
Wouldn’t this cake be a great way to say I love you? Even if you just make it for yourself, self-love is a good thing!
What do I need to make a chocolate cake with a strawberry mousse filling?
Let’s start by gathering the ingredients we need to make my chocolate cake, frosting and strawberry mousse filling. 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 up the cooking process, it also helps ensure you have everything you need to make the dish.
How do I make a Chocolate Cake?
Start by preheating your oven to 350 degrees F. and prepare four cake pans using parchment circles in the bottom of each pan and lightly coating the sides and parchment with butter.
*I use 9-inch cake pans for all my cakes.
- Blend the flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa and sugar together, set aside
- In the bowl of your mixer whip softened butter and yogurt together (make sure all of your wet ingredients, including the eggs are at room temperature).
- Add the eggs one at a time fully incorporating before adding another.
- scrape down your bowl in between each addition.
- Add vanilla and mix until blended
- Add the dry ingredients and mix just enough to blend them into the wet ingredients.
- Divide the cake batter between 4 cake pans,spreading batter evenly using an offset spatula.
- Bake the layers for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Let the layers cool on wire rack for 10 minutes then remove them from the pan to continue cooling.
How do I make strawberry mousse?
To begin start by sprinkling the gelatin over ¼ cup of water in a small bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes.
- Add the strawberris and sugar to the bowl of a food processor.
- Puree the strawberries and sugar until smooth.
- Transfer strawberry mixture to a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Remove from heat, and add gelatin mixture to strawberry mixture, stirring constantly until the gelatin dissolves.
*Cover and chill the strawberry mixture until slightly thickened about 30 minutes, stir the mixture every 10 minutes to keep it smooth.
- Whip cream at low speed until foamy; gradually increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form.
- Fold whipped cream into strawberry mixture until well blended.
- Cover and chill 30 minutes or just until mixture has firmed up enough to be used as filling.
How do I make Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting?
- In a double boiler melt chocolate, set aside.
- Add Mascarpone to a large bowl and beat with ⅓ of the confectioner’s beating until smooth
- Continue adding the remainder of the 10x sugar in two additions beating until smooth.
- When all the confectioners sugar has been incorporated add vanilla
- Gradually add the melted chocolate to the mixture
- Whip the frosting until light and fluffy
- Begin frosting the cake as soon as the chocolate mascarpone frosting is finished. If you wait or refrigerate the frosting it will set and be hard to work with.
- Frost the entire cake and garnish with chocolate chips.
If the frosting sets before you can use it rewhip it until fluffy.
Can’t you picture this on your table? Whether you make it for your significant other or a gathering of friends, it’s sure to be a hit!
This cake was as good as it looks. The strawberry mousse was light and flavorful and offered enough of a distraction from the chocolate to keep the flavors balanced.
Baking tools I use
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- offset spatula (essential for bakers)
- 9-inch USA Pan Bakeware cake pans
- 9-inch parchment cake circles
- silicone spatulas
- wire whisk
- mixing bowls
Recipe FAQ’s:
Yes you can. Cream cheese can be substituted the frosting recipe, I prefer the creamier texture and less pronounced flavor of mascarpone to cream cheese but they are easily substituted.
yes you can. Raspberries or blackberries would make a delicious mousse filling, but you would want to strain the seeds out of the pureed fruit before making the mousse.
You could also make a white chocolate mousse to use as a filling.
Yes you can, just divide the batter between the number of pans you want to use. You will have to adjust to a longer cooking time depending upon how much batter you use in each pan.
Yes you can. Make one and one-half times the recipe to make a thicker layer of strawberry mousse filling.
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
More Cake Recipes You’ll Love!
Chocolate Valentines Day Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 ⅔ cup all purpose flour
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 8 oz unsalted butter softened
- ¾ cup unsweetened cocoa
- 1 cup Greek yogurt
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 large eggs
Strawberry Mousse Filling
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 cups strawberries fresh or frozen
- ½ cup graulated sugar
- 1 envelope Knox unflavored gelatin
Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting
- 4 ounces semi sweet chocolate chopped
- 16 ounces Mascarpone
- 4 cups 500 g confectioner’s sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup mini chocolate chips to garnish top of cake
Instructions
Chocolate Cake
- Prepare 4 cake pans using parchment circles in the bottom of each pan and lightly coating the sides and paper with butter. I use 9 inch round cakes pans.
- Preheat oven to 350
- Blend flour, salt, baking soda, cocoa and sugar together, set aside
- Make sure all of your wet ingredients are at room temperature.
- In the bowl of your mixer whip softened butter and yogurt together .
- Add the eggs one at a time fully incorporating before adding another, and remember to scrape down your bowl in between each addition.
- Add vanilla and mix until blended
- Add the dry ingredients and mix just enough to blend them into the wet ingredients.
- Divide between 4 cake pans,spreading batter evenly using an offset spatula
- Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
- Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes then remove from pan to continue cooling.
Strawberry Mousse
- Sprinkle gelatin over ¼ cup water in a small bowl and let stand 5 minutes.
- In a food processor, puree 2 cups sliced strawberries and ½ cup granulated sugar until smooth.
- Transfer strawberry mixture to a small saucepan; bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Remove from heat, and add gelatin water mixture to strawberry mixture, stirring constantly until gelatin dissolves.
- Cover and chill until slightly thickened about 30 minutes, stir the mixture every 10 minutes
- Whip cream at low speed until foamy; gradually increase speed to medium-high, and beat until soft peaks form.
- Fold whipped cream into strawberry mixture until well blended. Cover and chill 30 minutes or just until mixture has thickened enough to be used as filling
- Spread about 1 cup Strawberry Mousse between each cake layer, cover and chill 3 hours or until mousse is set.
Chocolate Mascarpone Frosting
- In a double boiler melt chocolate, set aside.
- Add Mascarpone to a large bowl and beat with confectioner’s sugar in three additions until smooth.
- Add vanilla and gradually add the melted chocolate.
- Whip frosting until light and fluffy and frost cake immediately, before chocolate can set.
- Sprinkle mini chocolate chips on top of cake.
- Refrigerate cake until serving, but allow it to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before serving.
Anna
Hi Chef. Can I substitute frozen strawberries for fresh ones? If yes, what adjustments in the recipe and/or procedure do I make? Thank you very much.
Chef Dennis Littley
You can make an even swap with the frozen berries, let them defrost a little before measuring, so you get a full measure. No adjustments are necessary.
Gabrielle
Could the fresh strawberries be substituted for preserves? If so, how would the recipe be altered? Thank you so much!
Chef Dennis Littley
Preserves will work in place of the fresh strawberries. Simply replace the strawberries and sugar with about 1 cup of strawberry preserves. If the preserves are too thick, you may need to thin them out a bit with water. You still need to use gelatin to make the mousse
Gabrielle
Thank you so much for your reply–I’m thrilled to give this a try this afternoon! Again, thank you.
Gimena
After I frost the cake, how long can it be left out of the fridge without collapsing? Making the cake for a graduation party and it will be on display for a while. Thanks!
Chef Dennis Littley
it all depends on how hot it is where the cake will be. If it’s in the low 70’s it should be okay to leave out for a few hours. If its in the 80’s or 90’s it could last an hour
Don Greenberg
Can you use blueberries instead of strawberries? My wife loves blueberries!
Chef Dennis Littley
you sure can, although you may want to puree the berries and run them through some type of sieve to get rid of the skins.
Tracy
Hi Dennis. I am making cupcakes ahead of time and freezing. I want to use your strawberry mousse as the filling. Can I add the mousse ahead of time also before freezing the cupcakes? Thanks!
Chef Dennis Littley
It should work. I’ve never frozen this particular mousse, but have frozen my chocolate mousse on numerous occasions.
Tia
my question is .. i’d prefer cupcakes over cake. it’s just easier for me and my son to eat. i didn’t make cupcakes because of the mousse and this is my first time making it and it mentioned something about setting for 3 hours. how do i do that for a cupcake if i use the mousse as a filling? do i inject them and let them sit in the cupcake for 3 hours ?
Chef Dennis Littley
the only reason it needs to set is to give the mousse time to set up in between the layers. If you’re making cupcakes just frost the cupcakes with the mousse. You can inject mousse into the center of the cupcakes if you like, that would be a nice treat.
Karin
Your recipe states 2 eggs but the video shows using 3 eggs. When I prepared it with 2 eggs it was too sticky and dry-more like cookie dough. I added an extra egg (total 3) after finding it too dry. It baked up beautifully using 3 eggs.
Is it supposed to 3 eggs?
Chef Dennis Littley
thank you so much for catching that. I updated the recipe and that was my mistake on the amount of eggs.
Sandy
Hi Chef – I’m using your strawberry mousse as filling for another cake and it blended well but it’s not setting up as firmly as I’d hoped. I’ve refrigerated for almost 2 hours – is it okay to whip more even though the strawberry puree/gelatin have been incorporated? I don’t want to risk breaking down the gelatin and ending up with a liquid mousse!
Chef Dennis Littley
hi Sandy
you can try it, at this point you have nothing to lose. If it didn’t firm up on the first go, it probably won’t. But instead of wasting it, you could always freeze it as a pie, or make a layer in a springform pan and create another dessert with it.
Sandy
Disregard my earlier question. After sitting in the fridge for several hours, the mousse set into a perfect texture!!!
Chef Dennis Littley
thanks for letting me know Sandy
Nev
Thanks for this recipe! Could I use the mousse to lightly frost the outside of a cake? Making a 3 layer 6″, so there should be enough. Will then top with a chocolate ganache drip. I think the pink / chocolate will be a nice contrast but would prefer not having to make another icing. This would kinda be like a stabilized whipped cream, or too thick?? Thanks for your advice!
Chef Dennis Littley
I have used the mousse as a frosting, it works well, you just need to do the frosting soon after you’ve made the mousse, so it doesn’t firm up completely.
Sehrish Owais
Perfect recipe, I was looking for a long time… just a question, can I reserve the mousse in fridge and pipe mousse dollops with round 1cm tip over the cake?
Chef Dennis Littley
you should be able to do that fairly easily. The chocolate in the mousse will make it firm up really well, you may want to let it warm up a bit before starting.
Christi
Could I use fresh, frozen strawberries in the mousse or would it be too watery?
Chef Dennis Littley
because you’re using gelatin it should be okay. Make sure to let the strawberries fully thaw and discard any juice that leaves the berries.
Nathalya
Hi Chef Dennis!
Thank you for this recipes!
I was searching strawberry mousse filling. Your recipe is my first tried and it was GREAT!!!
Your strawberry mouse will be my recipe to go!!!! Thanks a lot!!! Cheers!!!
Evah
Can I assemble this cake a day in advance?
Chef Dennis Littley
Yes you can, just keep it refrigerated.
Diane
This sounds amazing! May attempt for granddaughters bday this weekend? She asked for a strawberry cake, which I found and gave it a test run but it was horrible! She has agreed to a chocolate cake and finding yours with strawberry mousse… Sounds like the perfect cake!!!! I, however have not ever used mascarpone in a recipe? Could you tell me the difference of taste if using that compared to cream cheese? And without owning a food processor, will a electric food chopper work to purée the fresh strawberries or how can I purée the strawberries? (That may be a silly question but I had to ask) thanks so much and for sharing
Chef Dennis Littley
Mascarpone is an Italian cream cheese but without the tang, its smooth, creamy and works well with frostings. You can replace it with regular cream cheese if you like.
the strawberries need to really be pureed (do you have a blender), you might want to buy frozen sliced strawberries a let them defrost overnight they will be easier to mash up.
Diane
Thanks so much!!!
Diane
I did my best to what I thought was a good purée? I missed the last line in the cake recipe section about the water and gelatin😕 I’m assuming that was to be put in the removed pan of purée? I was wondering why my gelatin didn’t or wouldn’t dissolve and had clumps? I did my best and have it chilling overnight! I did taste it and it’s great! But…sort of lumpy?? Not sure if it should be that texture or I should try filling again?
Chef Dennis Littley
I would try it again letting the gelatin dissolve
Jessica Formicola
Those layers are absolute perfection! That strawberry mousse is calling my name and I can’t wait to make this for Valentine’s Day!
Swathi
This perfect treat for Valentines
Sabrina
Wow, this is great. That strawberry mousse is really special!
Maur
Omg! Strawberry mousse! What my dreams are made of. That looks stunning, and perfect for The coming week.
Sunrita
This is pure indulgence and pleasure cake
Capri
Such a decadent and delicious cake!!