Strawberry Mousse Cake with Mirror Glaze

Brighten your Christmas dinner table with this creamy creation that can be made as light or as rich as you like.

The recipe can easily be classified into three parts. The first is making the sponge cake layer. This is where you can choose to make your cake light or rich. You can choose a chocolate flavored cake and make the cake as dense or light as you like.

The second part is the light, airy and creamy mousse that tastes like ice-cream. Fresh strawberries make a very tasty mousse but you can also use store-brought puree. The final part of this dessert is the glaze which is not as difficult as it looks and you will soon find that out and there are many ways to make your glaze.

Fresh or frozen strawberries both work well for this recipe. Depending upon your choice, you may also add red food coloring to the glaze or mousse. We omitted it in both places. For garnishing, you may choose to drizzle white chocolate or use fruits.

Ingredients Required:

• 22 cm/9inch Sponge Cake Layer about 1.5 cm in depth

For Mousse

• 350g strawberry puree
• 4 tbsp icing sugar
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp kirsch
• 17g gelatin powder dissolved in 3 tbsp boiling water
• 300ml whipping cream + 3 - 4 tbsp icing sugar

For the Mirror Glaze:

• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp kirsch
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp unflavored gelatin
• Few drops of red food coloring
• 1 ½ pints of strawberries(18 oz)
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¾ cup water

Special Equipment:

• 9” Cake Ring

Making the Mousse

1. Dissolve gelatin in 3 tbsp of boiling water.

2. Boil puree with icing sugar in a saucepan. Cool.

3. Stir warm gelatin solution into strawberry puree. Stir in lemon juice and kirsch.

4. Whip cream with icing sugar till it resembles the texture of mousse.

5. Stir cooled strawberry puree into whipped cream till well mixed.

Making the Glaze:

1. Make Strawberry Juice: Place chopped strawberries in saucepan and crush them to start juices flowing. Place over low heat, add sugar and water and simmer slowly for 10 minutes. Pour juice and pulp through damp jelly bag or cheesecloth-lined colander and drain into a bowl.

2. Place lemon juice, kirsch, and water in a small bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over this mixture; set aside until spongy and soft.

3. Measure 1 ½ cups Strawberry juice into a small saucepan and bring to a simmer; pour over gelatin mixture and stir to dissolve gelatin. If required, tint to desired color with red food coloring. Place bowl over bowl of ice water and stir occasionally until the mixture is syrupy and just beings to thicken (do not let jell); remove from ice water.

4. When mixture is syrupy, pour a 1/16-inch layer over the top of cake. Refrigerate until set.

Assembling the Mousse Cake

1. Place the cake ring on the plate you would like to serve your dessert on and trim the sponge cake layer to fit right in.

2. Soak the cake with leftover strawberry juice or syrup to make it moist.

3. Spoon mousse over the cake and flatten with a spatula. If you do not get a perfectly even finish, freeze the cake for 20 minutes and then spread some more mousse over the frozen layer to get an even finish.

4. Freeze the cake for 30 minutes before adding the glaze. When the mousse is completely set, pour the warm syrupy glaze over the cake. Refrigerate until the glaze is set.

Garnish

Let the mood and theme of your party decide the garnish. You could go in for a soft white chocolate drizzle or if you are opting for a chocolate sponge base, you can garnish with chocolate shavings and shapes and even chocolate dipped strawberries.

This article first appeared in the 'Celebrating Christmas PDF Magazine' which is a FREE magazine that you can download and even print out.

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