Perfection: Chocolate Truffle Mousse Cake

Over 50 guests sampled my cake and I received many compliments and requests for the recipe...I consider that a success! The cake was delicious and the presentation was lovely, and I'm very proud of how far I got in developing my recipe.

Each component of the cake was perfected and decided as such:

• Base: moist, dense chocolate brownie, baked evenly in a mini-springform pan
• Truffle: most simple combination of half cream, half very good dark chocolate, melted together, thickened, spread on the brownie and cooled
• Pecans: one half of the turtle flavor--chopped, toasted, and sandwiched between ganache and caramel
• Caramel: delicious and sweet caramel sauce, tasting just like that from the jar or ice cream shop (but homemade! and so simple too!)
• Chocolate Mousse: whipped cream and dark chocolate; I found it was actually easier to warm the cream, pour over the chocolate to melt, combine evenly, chill, then whip--it yield a smooth mousse since you are avoiding the chance that the chocolate will cool and harden upon being whipped with the cold cream

It was a wonderful process, searching and continually recreating what I knew would be a decadent chocolate treat. I'm so glad I did it, and I can't wait to find another pastry project to work on in the same way!

Trials 2-6: Modify, Modify!

Well, the end of the semester caught up with me, so while the tasting fair for my final mousse cake has come and gone, my blog remains the same. I do want to post the final project and mention how I came upon the decision for the final recipe.

• Trial 2: Changed cake base to a brownie base-this yielded a denser bottom, a nice ending place to land your fork after sliding though layers of mousse, caramel, nuts, and truffle. An excellent choice!
• Trial 3: Flavor change to mocha-this added a subtle coffee flavor in the brownie and mousse, which was good, but I eliminated the nuts and caramel since I didn't want such a crazy medley of flavors. I employed the use of mini-springform pans which helped tremendously with the ease in preparation and look in presentation.
• Trial 4: Even though I loved the mousse, for the sake of modification, I changed it to incorporate some cream cheese. I had seen recipes with cream or mascarpone mousse, so I gave it a try. It was ok, but too thick and sticky for my liking.
• Trials 5 & 6: I combined these trials together to change the truffle ganache to add some cream cheese (again, something that I had seen for a truffle recipe online) and to change a flavor component by adding Oreo's (from a friend's request). I preferred the traditional ganache, but I got great reviews with the Oreo's, so I had to really evaluate and decide what would be best for the final recipe.