Chocolate Mousse Cake-Day One

Any cake that takes two days to complete had better be really good.

Remember a while back when I went completely nuts buying Bakers Chocolate for .75 cents a box? Oh, sure my husband rolled his eyes and scrunched up his nose wondering what I would ever do with them. This is what I did with them. The cake part of the recipe alone took 16 ounces of bittersweet chocolate and I haven't even dealt with the coating and melted strips for banding the sides. Oh, he mocked me for all those boxes of chocolate. Happy Valentine's Day, honey.

So here is the first part of the recipe, for the basic cake. It was somewhat tricky to manage, and it took considerably longer to beat the eggs until triple their volume than the eight minutes suggested in the recipe, but eventually they gained height and all was well. I skipped the double boiler bit for melting the chocolate and butter because I have a heavy enamel over cast iron pot that distributes heat well and I'm good with a whisk.

Adapted from The Best Of Food And Wine, 1988

The cake part really needs to be baked a day ahead to set before glazing or topping. The cake will keep a couple of weeks, tightly covered.

You Will Need:

16 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 sticks unsalted butter cut into tablespoons
6 eggs, lightly beaten
Topping (I'll post that tomorrow)

A pot of simmering water for filling baking pan

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch springform pan with butter and line the bottom with a round of parchment. Butter the parchment. Cover the outside of the pan with aluminum foil to prevent leakage.

Combine the chocolate and butter in a large bowl over simmering water and cook until melted, whisking until smooth. Remove from heat.

Also over water, place a bowl with the eggs and heat, not touching and stir for three minutes or until warm to the touch. Remove from heat and beat until eggs have tripled in size. This will take a good twenty minutes. Just keep going. The eggs should mound in soft peaks when the whisk is lifted.

Fold half the eggs into the chocolate mixture and distribute. Add the rest and fold until smooth and no streaks remain. Pour into prepared springform pan and smooth top with spatula. Set into a large roasting pan and fill the pan around the cake 2/3 of the way up the springform pan. Bake five minutes.

Butter a piece of foil and set it over the cake in the oven. Bake ten minutes more.

The cake will still seem unbaked, but remove it from the oven, unwrap the foil (but leave pan intact) and set on a wire rack to cool for 45 minutes. Then, set in the fridge for at least three hours to chill. It really takes a leap of faith to believe the cake will set, but it will.

Carefully run a thin knife around the edge of the cake and invert onto a plate that has been covered with cling film. Reinvert the cake back onto a cake plate that has been covered with waxed paper. Cover, and chill several hours (about six) or better, overnight until set.

Tomorrow, we'll dress this baby up for Valentine's Day. Chocolate ganache is easiest, but I think I'll make a batch of Moro blood oranges in honey to use as an additional topping with whipped cream. We'll see.