For serious chocolate lovers! This decadent chocolate cake with chocolate mousse filling is THE thing to satisfy your chocolate craving!
Table of Contents
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
This seriously looks so amazing!
Thanks, Karen!
Thanks Shinee..I just found a home made version of cream that whipps !
Awesome! Let me know how it turns out. If you take a pic, I’d love to see it. You can post it on social media with #sweetandsavorybyshinee, or send me an e-mail.
Hi shinee..another question…heavy cream here is very expensive ..so I go through internet and searched for homemade version..
but it says it doesn’t whip…is there any substitutions ?
Unfortunately, I have no experience with homemade cream. But you have to be able to whip the cream till hard peaks, otherwise it won’t work.
Hi Shinee…I just wanted to try this recipe and I’m bit difficult to find some bittersweet choco chips and even normal chocolate chips…can you please give any ideas on substitutions please ?
Thank you! !!
Hi, Shasha. You can use regular dark chocolate bar instead. Hope you enjoy.
Hi!!
I was looking for a cake to bake for school and this looks amazing, and I was wondering how long this cake would last if it’s not refrigerated for a few hours, because of a mousse?
If not is there any way to make it last longer?
Thank you!
Hi, Roweena! It’ll be fine if the cake sits at room temp for a few hours. Just make sure to keep if refrigerated until you’re ready to bring it out.
I will!
Thank you very much for you time, I’m definitely looking forward to making this!! 🙂
I have never liked chocolate cake, but this cake looks so delicious to me. So delicious that I want to make one myself. And I will make one tomorrow!!!! Thank you. Just a quick question, if I use cake flour, will it taste better?
Yeah, you can use cake flour, but I don’t think there will be much difference. Let me know how it turns out, if you make it, Jenny.
Thank you Shinee, I made the cake today and it is soooo good! It is so moist and soft. The only change I will make if I make it again will be cutting some sugar out, I am Chinese, we like desert with very little sugar. Strongly recommend it to chocolate lovers!!!
Yay, so glad you tried and loved the cake, Jenny!! I wouldn’t suggest cutting the sugar though, as it’ll affect the texture and rise of the cake. If you happened to have a picture of the cake, I’d love to see it. You can share it on social media with #sweetandsavorybyshinee, or simply e-mail me.
I am making this cake now and the mousse is very thick and lumpy with chocolate and is not smooth. The cool whipped cream seems to have cooled the chocolate into chunks.
Hmm, that’s really weird. It never happened to me, so I have no idea. Did you add whipped cream in 2 batches?
yes I did. I believe I followed instructions exactly. Had to toss is. Looking for a new mousse recipe now to save the cake. thanks for your reply!
Hi. I had the same problem the 4th time I made the cake. My chocolate had cooled too much, and had started to seize (tried and failed to save it!). I just called it a choc bits and cream cake! Lol. Still went down a bomb!!
Rudy, thanks for the input. Now we know what causes the chocolate to seize. And I’m so glad you didn’t waste the failed mousse. 😉
Yayy!! I found it! OmG you dont know how excited i feel right now. So last year i stumbled upon this recipe of yours and i tried it, my husband loved it and my brother-in-law too. I always had it in my freezer. But then i didnt bookmark the page and didnt write down the recipe and i changed phones so i totally lost it, and forgot the name of the blog. I had been trying to find it ever since and today i got lucky so yay! I’m off to make cake!!
Yay, so glad you found it!! 🙂 And happy to hear you and your fam loved the cake! Hope you subscribe to my monthly e-mail update so you never miss it again. Thanks for making my day, Walida!
HI, this cake looks amazing and i just made chocolate mousse last night that i would like to add to some kind of cake for valentines day for my girlfriend…this cake looks perfect. I had one question though, i don’t keep plain greek yogurt on hand what could i use as a substitute?
Thanks
Hi, Brittney! I think you could use sour cream? I didn’t test the recipe with it, but that’s be my best guess.
I found this recipe 2 months ago and I have made this cake atleast 9 times since. I sometimes just make the sponge and then I switch the frosting up, Most recently I made a white chocolate buttercream and topped it with caramel sauce, And before that I made a passionfruit mousse.
I have also substituted the yoghurt and milk with buttermilk. Came out fine.
thank you so much for this recipe, I will cherish it forever!!! xx
Wow, 9 times? That’s awesome! And your passionfruit mousse sounds divine!! I bet it paired beautifully with chocolate cake. Thanks for coming back and leaving your feedback, Stella! It totally made my day!