Recipe(tried): Chocolate Mousse Cake

This recipe is fabulous, I have made it many times and it is worth the effort. One cake serves 15-20. Good luck!

Chocolate Mousse Cake

Mousse:
11 oz semisweet chocolate
3 oz butter
4 eggs
15 oz whipping cream

Melt chocolate and butter together in microwave, stirring to mix thoroughly. Separate eggs. Whisk whites in large bowl until a bit more than frothy, not holding a peak. Combine the yolks with the chocolate and butter, stirring quickly with a spatula so as not to scramble! Fold the whites into this mixture. Whip cream to a soft peak. Fold into the above and refrigerate until needed.

Chocolate cake:
1 1/4 c sugar
4 oz butter
3 oz melted unsweetened chocolate OR 135 g unsweetened cocoa powder and 3 tbs oil
1 tsp pure vanilla
1 1/4 c all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 c milk

Cream butter and sugar in mixer until light and creamy. Add the chocolate and mix. Mix in the vanilla and the eggs. Sift the dry ingredients together. Alternately add the dry ingredients with milk into the batter. Periodically stop mixing to use your spatula to bring up the batter from the bottom to get an evenly mixed batter.

Use 3 seven inch pans or 2 eight inch or 2 nine inch pans. Butter the bottoms and side of you pans, dust with cocoa or flour and line bottoms with parchment circle.

Bake at 350 F for about 15 minutes for smaller pans or 20-25 minutes for larger pans. After layers are out of the pan, put them in the freezer for at least an hour. Take out of freezer and spoon on about 2 inches of the mousse. Using a metal spatula or knife, smooth the mousse and use it to fill in the sides. Place back in the freezer for at least 2 hours.

Frosting:
1 lb chocolate
4 oz butter
1 c heavy cream

Melt chocolate. Melt butter and heavy cream and let come to a light boil. Add cream and butter to melted chocolate and combine. Keep it in a bowl on the counter until ready to frost. Place cake on a cardboard round, on a wire rack with a bowl underneath to catch the ganache. Pour the ganache over the cake, smoothing with the spatula. After it has set up, you can put remaining mousse into a pastry bag fitted with any tip you desire and go around the top and or sides of cake.

Store cake in freezer, placing cake in refrigerator a couple of hours before using.