Chocolate mousse cake

[liars_dance]

I love chocolate mousse cake and make it more often than any other chocolate dessert for a dinner party. It is rich and quite dense (because there is no flour) but not too sweet and therefore a little goes a long way! I never ice it but it could be topped with chocolate ganache if you so wished. This version is the one I have used for a few years, being predominantly Rachel Allen's recipe (because it is more simple) with a little bit of Nigella Lawson's thrown in.



Ingredients

• 200g 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100g good quality milk chocolate, also broken into pieces
• 150g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
• 15ml vanilla extract
• 5 whole eggs
• 50g caster sugar
• cocoa powder (for dusting)

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160c fan/gas 4. Line the base of a 20 cm diameter spring-from/loose bottomed cake tin with a disc of baking parchment and grease the sides with butter.
2. Place the chopped chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water and allow to melt, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool. When cooled, stir in the vanilla extract.
3. Place the eggs and sugar in a separate bowl and, using a hand-held electric beater or electric mixer, whisk for 7-10 minutes or until the mixture forms a light, pale mousse. It really does pay off to whisk for this long!
4. Fold the cooled chocolate mixture into the eggs until fully combined, then pour into the prepared tin and bake for 20 minutes or until the cake is almost set. Allow to cool down completely in the tin before removing, then dust with cocoa powder.

I like to pile fresh raspberries on top of the cocoa dusted cake and then dust the rasps with a little icing sugar. Serve cut into thin slices with some good quality vanilla icecream or a dollop of creme fraiche.