Triple Layer Hazelnut Mocha Chocolate Mousse Cake

by

Triple Layer Hazelnut Mocha Chocolate Mousse Cake | The Novice Housewife

triple layer hazelnut coffee chocolate cake-17

One of the most requested recipes by my family is the triple layer chocolate mousse cake I have posted before on the blog. And seriously, what’s there not to love about this cake. Its every chocolate lover’s dream dessert. Three different layers of chocolate in different forms- a dark chocolate mousse sandwiched between a rich flourless chocolate cake at the bottom, and  white chocolate mousse for the top.

So its not a biggie that every time I have made it, it has been appreciated a lot and thats why whenever I am at my parents, and we have company over that’s the first thing my mom suggests me to make.

A week back we had some guests over, so my mom wanted me to make the triple layer mousse cake again. I did not have access to white chocolate, but for long I have been toying with the idea of a mocha flavored mousse layer for a long time, so thought it would be the perfect occasion to finally try it out.

Since my dad is retiring and my parents are permanently moving to Punjab, my mom asked me to make use of ingredients in the refrigerator in an attempt to clean the fridge before packing it up. She had a bit of cream cheese left and I thought instead of a mascarpone mocha mousse (which was what I had initially planned) I should try a cream cheese based mousse recipe. I found a recipe on the Taste of Home website, and thought it was perfect.  Only change I made to the recipe was increase the amount of instant coffee called for in the recipe and adding gelatin to the mixture, since the original recipe called for it and I wasn’t sure whether the mousse would hold up in a cake form without the gelatin.

Triple Layer Hazelnut Mocha Chocolate Mousse Cake | The Novice Housewife

I had a little apprehensions about how the cake would turn out, since it was the first time I was making this version. The cake turned out perfect. My sister-in-law who has had both versions commented that she actually liked this one more. Well, who doesn’t love coffee and chocolate together!

This is a great dessert, and being fairly easy to make, a perfect way to impress your guests with your baking abilities. One of my sister-in-law’s friend has also made a mango cake version of it, with excellent results, which you can read about in the comment section of the original post.

And since I am posting today, I will also throw it out there that two days back was my Blogiversary. I completed four years of blogging! Yay!! Something that started of as a way to just kill time in the beginning and not really with an intention to have it being read by anyone has grown up to mean something so much more for me. This blog has given me an independent identity, its my creative outlet, and made me discover so much about me that probably would have remain hidden had the blog not been there. I have learnt so much because of this blog and I know I will continue learning so much more. The blog has also introduced me to such inspiring talents out in the blogging community and even though the past few weeks I haven’t been able to catch up with the blogging community, these bloggers continue to be an inspiration to me everyday. And I know I have been slacking with responding to you comments, but I really am grateful to everyone who reads this blog, comments on my posts, or silently keeps a track of my posts, likes me on facebook, follows me on instagram or twitter. It truly means a lot. Thank You and hope you enjoy this recipe 🙂

Read More →

Two old recipes revisited

by

From Arizona to Delhi to Allahabad to Agra to Chandigarh, celebrating birthdays, parent’s anniversary, a friend’s bachelorette, cousin’s engagement and a new year I am again back to Allahabad and am staying put here for the next ten days. Post that I travel to Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur, another visit to Delhi and Chandigarh and a short visit to Jim Corbett National Park for one of my friends’ wedding. This trip has been very busy, and a lot of time has been spent in trains traveling from one city to the other. the trains, thanks to the fog setting in the northern parts of India, have been getting delayed, extending the time spent with the Indian Railways to even more and increasing the frustration that comes along with delays in your schedule. But now I am home, at my parents. 🙂

Being in India has made me lazy and though I have tried a little cooking/baking here and there, there has not been much going on in the novice housewife’s kitchen. And I miss it. I like to be occupied, feel busy, else my mind is a devil’s workshop. Now that I have a kitchen at my disposal (even if it’s for a few days), hopefully the mind will get some rest and some baking can be done.

To me, baking has always been therapeutic, my kind of meditation. Even when the results are not so perfect, the whole process of sifting, mixing, kneading or beating calms my mind. In those moments I forget everything else, forget the issues I might be facing, the small conversations that have pinched me and just let go. Seeing the butter turn pale from a golden yellow when beaten with sugar is an accomplishment for me. The smell of a cake baking lifts my mood instantly and a bite into a warm fresh out of the oven cake just sends me to another world.

And that is what I plan to do the next few days. Bake. Cook. Experiment. And blog. So while I am gearing for the prep of my mom’s birthday cake, I thought to share two recipes that I revisited over the last few months. I will leave you with these for now, with the promise that I will be back soon.

One is the Chauhan family favorite Triple Layer Chocolate Mousse Cake. That’s the first thing my brother and his wife request when they meet me. That’s the first thing my mom asks me to make for dessert if she is calling someone over. The name says it all- three layers of chocolate goodness- a fudgy, flourless cake topped with a dark chocolate mousse layer and finished off with a white chocolate mousse topping. For the recipe, either click here or on the picture.

The other is a favorite of many- Butter Chicken.

I have slightly revised the recipe that I had earlier and now I am pretty satisfied with the results I get. In fact I like them a lot. The addition of roasted red bell pepper is what makes this dish special. Again for the recipe, either click here or click on the picture.

TRIPLE LAYER CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE

by

This picture is from the original post- taken with my beloved iPhone:)

So 19th/20th was our first wedding anniversary. V and I completed one year and would you believe it, we could not celebrate it together! I am in India and he is in the States and though he tried he could not get leave from office.

The reason why I mention two days is because we had our Hindu wedding (V is Hindu) on the 19th of March and our Sikh wedding (I am Sikh) on 20th March. Lot of people are kind of taken aback when I tell them ours is an arranged marriage because generally in Indian culture arranged marriages happen within the same religion and only in cases of love marriages, people of different religions marry. While his family and most of my family consider our anniversary to be on the 19th, my grandparents take 20th as our wedding anniversary. I don’t mind it because it gives me two days to celebrate! It also is a good save for people who forgot or couldn’t wish me on the 19th, and a few did use that as an excuse.

Now, since I am at my in-laws and it was our first anniversary and my first trip to India after marriage, my in-laws wanted to invite V’s relatives so that I could meet all of them. My in-laws always hire a cook when they throw a party at home. So the main course and snacks were all the cook’s responsibility. I was pretty impressed by the speed with which this guy cooked. He came at 12 in the noon on the day of the party and within 5 hours prepared 4 different snacks and 6-7 main course dishes! I wish I could work so fast. I guess that’s how the real professionals work.

Since the food was the cook’s responsibility, I thought of making the dessert. I had been itching to make this triple layer chocolate cake for days, and had luckily saved the recipe. I also wanted to try these chocolate roses I had seen on Cake on the Brain a while back. Unfortunately, I did not save the tutorial for the roses and when I sat down to make the cake I did not have the recipe nor the method to make the roses as there was some problem with the internet. I did remember that the recipe called for dark chocolate and corn syrup but had no idea about the proportions. Nor did I have corn syrup on hand so I used sugar and water instead. As a result, I did end up goofing the roses a bit but nonetheless was able to pull off some passable roses.

I think I did over bake the bottom layer a tad bit even though it was in the oven for less than 14 minutes but since I was using a microwave oven I think it baked faster! So do keep an eye on the bottom layer while baking as different ovens will vary in temperature and baking time. Also, as suggested by some on Annie’s Eat, I did not butter the sides of the spring form pan as mentioned in the recipe. But, I feel because of that and over baking, the cake cracked on top. I would still suggest you to not butter the sides, since by greasing, the bottom layer retracts from the sides giving way for the second layer to fill the gaps, resulting in just two layers to be shown on the outside.

I was double minded to post this recipe since the pictures did not come out too great (*update*: I have updated the pictures and they are definitely much better than the original one I posted) as 1) the cake could have been prettier and 2) I hurriedly took the pictures as I had to rush for a “phoolon ki holi” party (it was my first time at such a party and the concept behind it is that people play Holi- a spring time Hindu festival – by throwing flowers at each other!). But, the cake was such a big hit at our party and everyone just loved it. I have to admit it does taste heavenly- c’mon! three different chocolate layer- how could one go wrong! So, despite not-so tempting pictures I would still insist you should try this cake out- you will surely not be disappointed! Promise!

Read More →