Mango Mousse Cake

My friends recently commissioned a cake to celebrate their son's graduation from MBA school.  When I asked what kind, they responded, "something with mango."  The first thing I thought of was a light and refreshing Mango Mousse Cake.  The profile I was after was something that had intense fruit flavor without being overly sweet and a mousse cake fits the bill perfectly.

I searched the internet for inspiration but to be honest none of the cakes I saw particularly captured my fancy. In the end I went the Frankenstein route for my mango mousse cake, i.e., I took components of different recipes to come up with my creation.   I'm pretty thrilled with the results!

Here's the recipes I used:

Vanilla Chiffon Cake
Mango Mousse Filling
Ladyfingers
Mango Gel Topping

Now I'm inspired to use other fruits to make mousse cakes.  I'm thinking raspberry for next time.  Plus I also want to try my hand at wrapping the cake in a joconde imprime, an almond flavored sponge with a piped design.  Or maybe I'll finally get around to attempting a mirror glaze cake.

Raspberry-White Chocolate Bombe

I've been wanting to make this Raspbery-White Chocolate Bombe for a while now but was waiting for the right occasion.  Mother's Day fit the bill perfectly.  I can't think of any mother - or grandmother, aunt, sister or daughter for that matter - who wouldn't love to receive a beautiful cake like this. 

"Pretty in pink" is the first thing that comes to mind when I see this cake.  The pink and white colors just make me smile.  This showstopper is yearning to be the center of attention at your next  celebration, e.g., bridal shower, baby shower, christening or birthday to name a few. 

Underneath a blanket of white chocolate curls lies fruit-studded raspberry mousse and moist, tender white cake.   Now I admit that I'm not much of a fan of white chocolate; it's just too sweet for my taste.  If you feel the same follow my lead and eat around it; the cake and filling are delicious!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!!!

FYI: The cake stand is a 2012 limited edition from Martha Stewart Collection that I bought at Macys.  I added the ribbon embellishment.  The chocolate curls were purchased at my local cake decorating store,  Sugar 'N Spice.

Triple-Chocolate Mousse Cake

When I saw the picture for this cake in the Nov/Dec 2009 issue of Cook's Illustrated I knew I had to make it. Visually, it just looked so stunning. And I know several choco-holics whom I'm sure will have no trouble being my taste testers. The base layer is flourless chocolate cake, the middle layer is a dark chocolate mousse and the top layer is white chocolate mousse.

I used a 72% dark chocolate for the base and middle layers. Next time I think I'll use a more sweet chocolate, maybe 60% cocoa. I haven't really tasted the cake but I'm afraid it might be too bitter for some since there's not a lot of sugar in the cake itself. Hopefully the sweetness of the top white chocolate layer will compensate. The preparation itself was really straightforward. Just required a bit of time since you have to wait for each layer to cool and chill completely before adding the next layer.

Another great thing about this cake is that it's naturally gluten-free . One of my friends is gluten intolerant and it can be difficult to find desserts that don't have flour, but still taste good. Luckily, with this cake you don't even have to worry since there's not a speck of flour to speak of!