Strawberry and Chocolate Bavarian Mousse Cake

What was the mood and it was berry-berry soft , with Valentine’s Day just gone by, the fridge had a couple of fresh Strawberry packs, these ofcourse were left after I had finished baking a batch of ‘Strawberry Nutella Cookies’ for my friend and ofcourse a dessert for my Valentine.

Strawberries crave for chocolate and needless to say the combination is just decadent. You can’t just keep your eyes off the ‘rouge’ colour and the promising luscious, sweet  and juicy taste. La Fraise can never disappoint you.

You may not know but you may have fallen in love with strawberries dipped in chocolate.

The sign of strawberries and you know the summer is just about to set in. Thanks to some very smart cultivators in India who realised two decades ago, that Strawberries can be grown in the hills of this tropical country, we have today abundant of fresh strawberries coming our way.

The time was just right, to bake this cake it was the weekend, complimented with a lovely weather and few showers that late afternoon.

I doubted that my new 9 inch mould ring will fit my round baking tin. It was the first time I was using the ring, and I just wished it fit my round baking tin.And guess what it just fit right.

I could have made this cake with the heavy mousse I usually make but I decided to do this with the Bavarian Cream because it is very light. 

The extra layer of strawberries and cream makes this cake heavy and I think the Bavarian Cream was the right choice.

A luscious and moist cake with Bavarian Cream, fresh  strawberries and dark chocolate

Ingredients:

Chocolate Cake

4 eggs

125g caster sugar

90g flour, sifted

30g cocoa

25g unsalted butter, melted

Strawberry Cream Filling

150ml whipped cream

2tbsp powdered sugar

150gm strawberries, chopped

Bavarian Cream

150gm dark chocolate, chopped

400ml low fat cream

3 tsp gelatin

30gm sugar

50ml milk

3 egg yolks

1 tsp Vanilla Extract or ½ Vanilla Bean

Chocolate Glaze

150gm dark chocolate, chopped

200ml low fat cream

1tbsp Corn Syrup

Garnishing

Strawberries, sliced or the sides an few for the top of the cake.

Cocoa powder

Icing Sugar

Method:

Chocolate Cake

Prepare a 9 inch baking tin with parchment paper in the bottom and butter the sides.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.

Sift the flour and cocoa. Mix  well.

Whisk the eggs and sugar together, and then beat over a bain-marie for 8-10 minutes until it doubles in volume and becomes pale yellow, leaving golden ribbon trails. Once it has doubled in volume, remove from water, and continue beating with an electric beater or a stand mixer till the mixture becomes cool.

Gently fold in the sifted flour and cocoa.

Add the melted butter through the sides of the mixing bowl without disturbing the volume of the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared tin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until the sponge is firm to touch, and teaster comes out clean. Cool the cake in the tin to 10-15 minutes.

Strawberry Cream Filling

Combine the strawberries, sugar and whipped cream, to prepare a filling.

Bavarian Cream

Dissolve gelatin in a ¼ cup of cold milk.

Place chocolate in a large bowl.

Heat cream, milk and half the sugar until simmering, make sure you donot bring this to boil. Whisk the egg yolks with the remaining sugar, add one-third of the hot milk mixture over the eggs whisking continuously until well combined. Pour this  mixture back into the pan with the remaining milk mixture. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly until the cream is thickened and coats the back of the spoon.

Remove from heat immediately and stir the gelatin into this hot milk mixture well, then strain this over the chocolate. Stir until smooth. Cool this mixture. You may cover the mixture with a cling film close to the mixture to avoid formation of thick layer.

Chocolate Glaze

Place chocolate in a bowl.

Heat the cream and honey in a pan until simmering. Pour over the chopped chocolate and stir until smooth.

Assembling the cake

Cut the sponge horizontally into 2 layers. Place in the dessert ring on individual serving platter. Top this first layer of cake with the strawberries and cream mix, followed by the second layer of cake.

Line the sides of the dessert ring with sliced strawberries, gently pour the Bavarian chocolate Cream into the ring and gently level it. Cover and refrigerate overnight, or atleast for 4 hrs before serving.

Glaze the Mousse with the prepared chocolate glaze and pour over the set Bavarian mousse.

Chill for another hour, dust the edges with cocoa powder , garnish the cake with strawberries,  and dust with icing sugar to give it that soft snowy look.

Unmold from the dessert ring.