The Goal is Scrumptious: Mocha Mousse

Mmmmm… mousse.

I love the texture of mousse.  It does not sit heavily in the mouth like cheesecake.  Instead it is light and airy, and yet still melts in the mouth.

*Attention cheesecake lovers: Please note that I also adore cheesecake, but for its richness.  🙂

I invariably pair mousse with chocolate.  Cream whipped to perfection and the velvety bittersweet of chocolate.  They were destined to be together.

At my daughter’s request, I recently made an Elsa birthday cake.  I will be posting about this soon, but today I want to focus on the impromptu filling that made this cake so delicious.

I had baked the cake and mixed the frosting.  I was getting ready to start assembly.  As I looked at my bowl of buttercream, I sadly acknowledged that there was not enough to fill and frost the cake.

I thought about mixing another batch of frosting to fill the cake.  I’d made a white chocolate buttercream to frost an already sweet chocolate cake.  Hmm, sugar layered with super sweet sugar and topped with more sugar… I decided that I couldn’t take any more sugar overload.  So I scratched the idea of more frosting and assessed the possible filling ingredients I had on hand.

Cream cheese?  More chocolate?  I needed something light and subtle to tone down the overall sweetness.  Then I remembered I had whipping cream.

Whipping cream is not something I have on hand often, but I buy it every now and then for soups (and my favorite Indian dinner).  It’s a special treat to use up the leftovers in a dessert.

This was just such an occasion.

A few years ago I came across a chocolate mousse recipe that uses a pudding mix, half the milk recommended for the pudding, and whipping cream.  I love this recipe because it’s easy, fast, and delicious with only three ingredients.

Mousse sounded just right, but I did not have a pudding mix, so I resorted to a little creativity.

I decided on chocolate mousse with a hint of coffee.  My hope was that the barely sweetened cream with the coffee would counteract that teeth-biting sweet of the white chocolate buttercream, and the chocolate would bring all the flavors together.

First, I added some cocoa powder, instant coffee granules, and water to a small bowl.

Then I stirred, and behold!  A chocolate-coffee sludge.

I know “sludge” sounds a little disgusting, and if you’re forgetful cool like me, you’ll taste it at this point and realize that it IS disgusting.  (Then you’ll remember you haven’t added any sugar.)  Stick with it and the end result will be phenomenal.  🙂

Then I put my sludge, some whipping cream, and some sugar in a cold bowl…

…and whipped it to a creamy, chocolate-y, coffee-infused (and now sweetened!) heaven.

YUM.

Mocha Mousse

Ingredients:

• 1 TBSP cocoa powder
• 1 TBSP instant coffee granules
• 1 TBSP water
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 3 TBSP sugar

Directions:

1. Put a small or medium mixing bowl and the beaters from a hand mixer in the freezer to cool off.
2. In a small bowl, combine cocoa powder, instant coffee granules, and water.  Stir until completely (or almost completely) dissolved.
3. After the freezer bowl is nice and cold (5-10 minutes), set it out and pour in the heavy whipping cream.  Add in the sugar, and cocoa mixture.
4. Whip with a hand mixer a few minutes until it is no longer a liquid consistency, but light and fluffy (and looks like mousse).
5. Serve as a cake filling, or as a dip for fresh fruit (or, like my husband ate the leftovers, with animal crackers).  🙂

I hope you get to make something scrumptious today!
~Katie