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
Woow looks yummy 🙂 makin me crave for a chocolate cake I’ll surely make it on thursday 🙂 Thanks 🙂
Sounds great. Let me know how it turns out, Mylene.
Hi there. I made this cake yesterday for my daughter’s birthday and it was a big hit. I spread seedless raspberry jam on each layer before adding the mousse, which gave it a nice pop of tart sweetness, and garnished it with the raspberries on top. Everyone thought it was beautiful and delicious!
I saw that one person asked about how to get the mousse smooth. Mine seized up slightly when I added the cream, but I whisked it until it smoothed out. I’m wondering if that might have been the other baker’s problem rather than not melting the chocolate completely.
Thanks for the recipe! It worked beautifully and was not nearly as complicated and time consuming as some of the chocolate mousse cake recipes I saw. It’s a keeper!
Yay, happy belated birthday to your daughter! I’m so happy to hear that you loved the cake. And raspberry jam filling sounds amazing. I’m definitely trying that next time. Thank you so much for your feedback, Emma!
Hi…. I am planning to try this recipe for a competition…. but wanna know if the cake and mousse filling get really hard when refrigerated?…. and how long before serving it… should I take it out to get the right texture?…. (my travel time to the place is about one hour….. will the mousse filling stay in place or will it melt out?)
Hi there! The cake doesn’t get hard from being in the fridge. I’d advise to take it out 30-60 min before serving. That being said, I think it should handle 1 hour trip just fine, as long as it’s not under the direct sun. Let me know how it turns out and the competition result. Wish you good luck!
Hi Shinee,
I’ve come across your website while looking for a perfect filling for a chocolate cake. Your cake looks amazing and I,m going to try the filling. My question is that this cake will be covered in fondant and it is not recommended to put a fondant cake in the refrigerator. You mentioned it should be refrigerated. What are your thoughts? It has to be perfect for my Dad’s 93rd birthday!!!!!!! Thanks so much!!!
Kerrie, I’m glad you came across my site. This chocolate mousse filling is delicious and it’s our family’s favorite. I hope you all will love it. I’ve made fondant cake a few times before, and I had refrigerated them without problem. Whenever a cake is filled with dairy-based filling, it’s highly recommended to refrigerate for food safety. My advise to you is refrigerate it even after you covered with fondant. Hope this helps. And happy early birthday to you dad! Wow, 93!
Hello, this cake looks amazing and I cant wait to give it a go! Could you please tell me how long it can be stored in the refridgerator for before eating it? Thanks 🙂
Sarah, you can make the cake up to a day in advance.
Hii…can i whisk heavy cream and sigar without mixer?
Hi, Candra. You can definitely whip the heavy cream by hand. It’ll take a bit longer, but it’s possible. Good luck!
Hey Shinee,
I’m from the UK and used this to make my own birthday cake yesterday. I was a bit weary when I realised the recipe doesn’t use butter/oil, but just wanted to let you know the cake turned out amazingly well and no left overs. Thank you so much!
A quick question though, I used double cream as that’s the equivalent to your whipping cream, however the mousse was quite runny. The cream was definitely whipped enough so please could you tell me why this was the case? Thank you
Hi, Ruby!
Happy Belated Birthday! I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the cake.
Double cream should be perfectly fine to use, as its fat content is high. If you have whipped the cream to hard peaks, my only other suspicion would be maybe you have over mixed the mousse after you added the melted chocolate mixture into the whipped cream? Did you refrigerate the mousse for bit?
Can I substitute sour cream for the yogurt?
Lori, I think you can. But I personally haven’t tried that, so can’t say how it might affect the taste. I suspect it won’t make much difference.
Hi Shinee,
Thank you for the awesome recipe. I made it yesterday for my partners birthday and it turned out perfect,. I used 2 size 28 cm spring forms so I added another half of the recipe. 1 of the cakes had a round top which i cut off and used as a 5th layer. It looked really good with a round top after i had poured the ganache over it. We were 9 people for dinner, and still had almost half left as its a very rich cake.
Thank you again, wont be the last time I make it.
Susanne
Susanne, I’m so glad to hear that you all enjoyed the cake. The cake is, indeed, rich. 🙂 Thanks so much for making the recipe and for your feedback. 🙂
Beautiful cake! Your father in law is lucky to have you!
Thank you, Elena.