Serves a Crowd

Chili Chocolate Mousse Cake

by:
June 14, 2011
4.5
11 Ratings
  • Serves 12-16
Author Notes

I volunteered for a Red Cross café when I first moved to Denmark. The head chef made a delicious cake made from chocolate mousse, and I just had to learn how to make it myself. In this recipe, I've used Nigella Lawson's basic chocolate mousse recipe, though I like to use Lindt chili chocolate for a nice kick. You can use all dark chocolate, mint- or orange-infused chocolate, or anything that sounds good. —CarlaCooks

What You'll Need
Ingredients
  • 13 ounces , or 370 grams, chili-infused chocolate (or another dark chocolate of your taste)
  • 6 ounces , or 170 grams, butter, plus more for greasing the pan
  • 8 eggs, separated
  • 1/2 cup , or 90 grams, light brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup , or 65 grams, white sugar
  • 2 tablespoons vanilla sugar (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
Directions
  1. Pre-heat oven to 175 C/350 F. Butter a spring-form pan, both the bottom and sides. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and butter the top of the parchment paper.
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bain-marie/double boiler, stirring to blend. Once melted and mixed, let cool.
  3. Meanwhile, separate the eggs. Beat the egg yolks and sugars (including the vanilla sugar if you have it) until the mixture is very thick, pale, and creamy. If using vanilla extract, mix it in.
  4. Add the cooled chocolate and butter mixture to the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Mix until blended.
  5. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Add a healthy dollop of the egg white to the chocolate mixture from step 4. Fold vigorously... don't worry about deflating the egg whites. Once incorporated, add 1/4 of the remaining egg whites and fold to incorporate. Now is the time to worry about deflating the egg whites! Once incorporated, add another 1/4 of the egg whites and fold. Continue until you have incorporated all of the egg whites.
  6. You should now have a lovely chocolate mousse! Pour half of the mousse into your prepared spring-form pan. Bake, uncovered, for 20 minutes. Keep the other half of the mousse in the mixing bowl on your counter.
  7. After the 20 minutes of baking, remove the mousse from the oven. Pour the remaining (uncooked) mousse into the now baked mousse. If the spring-form looks like it will overflow, wait a few minutes for the cake to deflate, then pour in the rest of the mousse. Allow the pan to come to room temperature, then freeze the cake for 2-12 hours. After a maximum of 12 hours, remove the cake from the freezer and keep in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Tags:
Contest Entries

See what other Food52ers are saying.

  • CarlaCooks
    CarlaCooks
  • Renee B
    Renee B

Popular on Food52

4 Reviews

Renee B.
Renee B. November 17, 2013
This reminds me of a favorite recipe "Chocolate Chili Bites" from chocolateandzucchini.com. I make them often. At the chef's suggestion, I use the delmarle fiberglass muffin cups and they slip right out. Not so with regular muffin pans
 
CarlaCooks
CarlaCooks November 17, 2013
Thanks for letting me know about the chocolate chilli bites! They look a bit more cakey-y than this recipe; this recipe is more mousse like. I've only ever made it as a cake, not as muffins. I think they could work well in silicon muffin forms: using a standard muffin tin, it would be hard to invert the muffins since the soft part (the mousse) is on top. But if using silicon forms, you could just pull down the silicon around the muffins. Whatever you do, happy baking!
 
Renee B.
Renee B. November 18, 2013
Muffin was probably the wrong term. They are tiny, one-bite cups. The batter calls for only 1 T of flour but I omit it. They are very much like mini soufflés—puffy when first removed from the oven but they fall a little. They are not like mousse but not quite like cake either. Yours sounds delicious and would look more formal and be better for a dinner party. I end up with so many chili bites that I share some with neighbors, eat way too many and freeze a lot. Great straight from the freezer. My husband doesn't like them so they're all mine!
 
CarlaCooks
CarlaCooks November 18, 2013
I have to admit, I sometimes make desserts that my husband doesn't like (namely anything with lavender, of which I'm obsessed but the husband hates) just so I can eat all of it!! :) Let me know if you try this recipe; I'd love to hear your opinion and thoughts on how to make it better.