Three Colours Chocolate Mousse Cake

This recipe is quite easy to make, although quite time-consuming, but it has a great visual impact once it's finished. I made this cake for my daughter's birthday and let me tell you, the children (and their mothers) were impressed, some of them even did not believe it was homemade and not store-bought.

I started out with the base of the cake, which is in fact a brownie recipe. We need:

- 5 eggs

- 200 gr sugar

- 200 ml vegetable oil

- 1/2 cup water

- 250 gr all-purpose flour

- 10 gr baking powder

- 2 tablespoons cocoa

These quantities are sufficient for a 9"x13" baking pan, and I only used about 1/3 of the final composition, and used the rest to make a banana and pudding brownie.

In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder and cocoa and put aside.

Separate the egg whites from the yolks. Beat the yolks with the sugar,

then slowly add the oil, until it resembles a mayo. 

Pour the water and beat for 2 more minutes.

Little by little, add the dry ingredients mixture, beating continuously

until it's all incorporated in the composition

Now beat the whites until they form stiff peaks

pour over the cocoa composition

and with a spatula gently incorporate them into the cocoa mixture. Don't insist too much, be careful so that the air remains in the composition.

I poured about 1/3 of the composition in a 9" springform pan (which I first sprayed with cooking spray) and placed it in the preheated oven at 360F, for about 25-30 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in it comes out clean)

When it was done, I took it out of the form and placed it upside down on a rack, then allowed it to cool completely.

Now, for each mousse layer I used:

- 300 ml heavy cream 

- 300 gr chopped chocolate (white/milk/dark), can be substituted with chocolate chips

- 2 gr gelatin (I used Knox) 

The directions are the same for each layer, only the type of chocolate is different.

I started by melting the chocolate and mixing it with 100 ml heavy cream. Allow the mixture to cool a bit (the gelatin will be destroyed if poured into liquids over 130F).

In a small bowl sprinkle the gelatin over 2 tablespoons of water and let it 2-5 minutes to soften, then mix it in the cooled chocolate mixture.  Whip the remaining 200 ml of heavy cream, 

add to the chocolate composition and mix very well.

Mount a cake ring around the cake base (the brownie), then pour over it the chocolate composition. Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes, until the mousse is set and firm. Do the same for each layer. I actually put the cake in the freezer for 15-20 minutes for each layer. Of course you can arrange the layers any way you want, I started with the white chocolate and finished with the dark chocolate. When I was done, I left the cake, ring still mounted around it, in the freezer overnight.

Now, to the white layer I added some lemon extract, in the milk chocolate layer I put rum extract, and for the dark chocolate one I used almond extract.

I'm sorry for this blurred picture, I was tired and in a hurry to finish with the preparations

Then I covered the entire cake in whipped cream and attempted to decorate a bit

My daughter was thrilled because, she said, "the guests will be tricked and would not know what's inside". She was right, the children were not expecting a chocolate mousse cake, especially not one in three colours!

I'm also sorry I don't have better photos of the cake's section, but I was busy cutting it up whilst others were taking pictures, so this is what I could choose from the pics I received:

Make sure you clean the knife after each cut, so the slice comes out clean.

Now, from my own experience, the white layer turned out softer than the other two, so please consider that if you make this cake. Either add 1 more gram of gelatin, or arrange the colours so that the white layer is on top of the others. Because I kept the cake in the freezer overnight, everything was fine, but the white layer started to soften towards the end of the party. It was no reason for concern though, the entire cake was eaten in 30 minutes!