For serious chocolate lovers! This decadent chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling is THE thing to satisfy your chocolate craving!
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I have to warn you, this cake is SO delicious it might just become a reason for a fight in your family. 🙂
I made this chocolate cake for my husband for Valentine’s Day. The cake turned out amazing. Rich and moist, irresistibly chocolaty. Although just two of us could have finished the whole cake without problem, we shared it with our family. (Yep, we’re that awesome! 😉
Couple weeks later when I was visiting, my mother-in-law told me about the drama over the last piece of cake. My father-in-law loves chocolate and, apparently, he was savoring the cake one small piece at a time. When he came back to enjoy his last piece of this heavenly dessert, it was nowhere to be found. No one knew where it is, and no one would admit eating it. Yep, just like that, the last slice of the cake had disappeared without a trace. Sadly, my poor father-in-law had been grumpy for a week, wondering about the mystery of the missing cake.
That was a great excuse for me to bake this cake again.
The first one had a small issue that I needed to fix. The problem was that I was lazy and baked the whole cake in one deep 9-inch cake pan, instead of two. This caused an ugly sinkhole in my final cake. See below.
I know it doesn’t really matter, as it still tastes wonderful.
However, I think it’s important to understand the reason behind the problems, so we can avoid them later. So, here is the explanation.
Since the batter is very runny due to high amount of liquid, there isn’t enough structure to hold a high rise even after the cake is baked completely. That’s why it’s important to bake them in two separate pans.
Now, here is the step-by-step instruction for this amazingly delicious cake.
If you don’t have instant espresso powder, use strong coffee instead, or skip it. You really won’t taste the coffee, it just enhances the chocolate flavor.
While the cake is cooling, prepare the chocolate mousse filling.
To assemble the cake:
To slice the cake into even layers, I used this Zenker Layer Cake Slicer Kit. It makes perfectly even layers and I love it. Make sure that the cake is completely cooled before slicing though, otherwise it’ll break easily.
You can find the detailed recipe for chocolate ganache here on my blog.
Voila!
It paired really well with my homemade vanilla bean ice cream!
Hope you’ll try this cake soon. And please don’t fight over that last piece of cake. Enjoy!
Supreme Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Mousse Filling
Ingredients
For cake:
- 2 cups 250gr all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups 300gr sugar
- ¾ cup 90gr unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup 120ml hot water
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso coffee
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup 240ml milk, at room temperature
- ½ cup 120ml Greek yogurt, at room temperature
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
For mousse filling:
- ½ cup 120ml hot water
- 4 tablespoons 30gr unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon instant espresso coffee
- 1 ½ cup 260gr bittersweet chocolate chips
- 2 cups 480ml heavy cream, cold
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1/3 cup Nutella
For chocolate ganache:
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup chocolate chips
- 1 tablespoon softened butter optional
Instructions
- To make the cakePreheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together water and instant espresso coffee. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl with paddle attachment, mix together eggs, milk, yogurt and pure vanilla extract until well combined. Add half of the flour mixture for a minute, then add the remaining mixture and mix until just combined. Stir in the espresso water.
- Pour the batter into two cake pans. Bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool on wire racks for 10 minutes. Then remove the cakes from the pan and cool completely.
- Meanwhile, let’s prepare the chocolate mousse filling. In a small bowl, dissolve cocoa powder and instant espresso powder in a hot water.
- In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips until nice and smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
- In a mixing bowl with whisk attachment, whip the heavy cream with the sugar until hard peaks form.
- Stir in the cocoa mixture and Nutella into the melted chocolate. Add half of the whipped cream and mix everything together with folding motion. Fold in the remaining whipped cream and mix well until no white streaks remain. Refrigerate until the cake is cooled completely.
- To assemble the cake, slice the cakes horizontally into two equal layers, using a long serrated knife. If your cakes got a small hump as pictured, just slice it off.
- Put the first cake layer into a springform pan and spread about a little less than 1/3 of the mousse filling. Then put the next layer of the cake and spread the mousse and so on until the cake is built. Make sure to leave a bit of mousse to cover the top of the cake. A very thin layer of mousse on top is all you need. Refrigerate the cake for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Once the cake is cooled, make the chocolate ganache. In a small saucepan, bring heavy cream to a simmer. Do not boil. Pour hot cream over chocolate chips, and let it sit for good 2 minutes. Then mix well until smooth for couple minutes. Stir in butter to add some shine.
- Remove the springform sides. Pour the ganache over the cake while the ganache is still runny, if you want smooth glaze. Or, you can let it cool and thicken a little bit to spread as a frosting.
Nutrition
I read this recipe and I knew this would be delicious. I baked this cake for the first time and won a baking competition. Amazing
Whaaat? That’s awesome, Madiha! Congrats! Thanks for your feedback, I’m so happy you got to win! 🙂
Hello, Shinee! I have a question. Can I use chocolate bars instead of chocolate chips, and how many do I need? 1.5 of cup means 425gr of chocolate, right? Also, which one is better to add – tarag or zuuhii? Want to make this cake for my birthday, so looking forward to your answers. Love ya nad your blog ! 🙂
Hi, Onon! Yes, you can substitute chocolate bar for chocolate chips. You will need 260gr of chocolate. As far as tarag or zuuhii, did you mean to substitute greek yogurt? If so, use any thick yogurt. Good luck, and Happy Early Birthday!
I’m so sorry for what will appear to be a silly question, but when any recipe calls for coffee/expresso…do I use like just the powder? Or actually the drink. As in pour the liquid in?
Hi, Liz! No such thing as silly question. 🙂 It probably depends on what a recipe calls for, whether it’s instant espresso powder, instant coffee powder, or already brewed coffee/espresso. In this recipe, I call for instant espresso powder, and I mis it with water before adding it into the batter. Hope it helps.
Looks great! Almost exactly what I was looking for for my bday cake! Will omit espresso, because frankly I can’t stand coffee flavor/smelling anything. I know I am in the minority in the world! Do you mind if I share on my blog with a link here after I finish?
Hi, Heather! I’m glad that you found what you were looking for here. Omitting espresso is totally fine, just make sure to put the hot water. And yes, you can, of course, share it on your blog. The only thing I would ask is that if you’re sharing the full recipe, please re-write the directions in your own words, or you can simply link to my blog for directions. Happy early birthday, Heather!
Thank you again! This cake was so rich and amazingly delicious (even with my taking out espresso and nutella- rationing our nutella). Sorry my post does not do your cake justice so made sure to add links, how do you get your ganache to look so creamy like above? We loved it and will definitely be making again! My 4 yo wants it for breakfast, and even my dad on a health kick had to try it! http://wholeheartedhomemaking.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/29th-birthday-cake/
Happy Birthday, Heather! I’m so happy you made and liked the cake. Your cake looks delicious though! As far as the ganache, you just need to mix it really well until all the chocolate chips are melted. It looked like there were still some chocolate pieces in the ganache on your cake.
HI Shinee, could you please tell me how many grams would be the 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips. Thanks!
Hi, Dorina. 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips would be around 260gr. I’ll update the recipe with this info. Thanks for asking!
Our family doesn’t drink coffee, do you think I can just leave that out?
Yes, you can. Simply add 1/2 cup hot water without espresso powder.
Hi I made the chocolate mousse cake for hubby for father’s day here in Australia. I used espresso coffee instead of instant and got a fantastic coffee flavour through the cake. Was a very easy cake to make . I left out the nutella . The family thoroughly enjoyed the cake as did our grandson, he had quite a large slice .
Donna, thank you so much for this awesome comment! So happy to hear that your family loved the cake. I will try the espresso coffee next time I make this cake too. 🙂
When it calls for heavy cream is this just the double thick cream or just ordinary thickened cream??
Hi, Steph! Honestly, I don’t know what is the difference between double thick cream and ordinary thickened cream. I’m assuming you’re in UK. Heavy cream is basically a whipping cream with 36% milk fat content. I’m sorry for not being much help here.
Hey, thanks, no I’m from aus. I just looked and thickened cream(what I usually use for whipping) has 35% milk fat content and double thick has 48%. Double thick is just thicker than the already thickened (whipping) cream. So I’ll just be using the normal thickened! Thanks for the info.
Awesome, I’m glad you figured it out. And thank you for letting me know too. Now I know! 🙂 If you’re making this cake, let me know how it turned out.
I made the mouse only last night and it came out perfect. Absolutely delicious and your instructions made it very easy. Thank you for the recipe.
This is awesome to hear, DVader! Thank you for your feedback! 🙂
How come my chocolate mouse came out runny?
Hmm, it’s hard for me to pin point the exact reason. Did you whip the heavy cream until hard peak? If you have whipped the cream well, it should get runny.