Chef notes
It doesn't get more decadent than a multi-layer chocolate cake filled with sweet strawberry preserves and rich chocolate mousse and frosted with fluffy buttercream icing.
Ingredients
- 6¾ cups eggs
- 3¾ cups sugar
- 1 cup cake flour
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 cup melted butter
- 4 cups dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 2½ cups warm milk
- 4 cups whipped cream
- 1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon heavy cream
- Strawberry preserves
Preparation
For the chocolate sponge cake:
1.Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease five 10-inch cake pans and line with parchment paper circles on the bottom.
2.Combine egg and sugar in a mixing bowl, heat to 110°F over a double-boiler.
3.Sift flour, cocoa powder and baking soda together two to four times.
4.Whip eggs until foam is three times original volume and starts to recede from the sides of the bowl.
5.Fold in flour, cocoa powder and baking soda; fold in butter.
6.Divide batter into the prepared cake pans.
7.Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.
For the chocolate mousse:
In a double-boiler, add the milk and dark chocolate. Melt while stirring often and when melted thoroughly, cover the bowl and place in refrigerator to cool down completely. Remove from refrigerator and fold in the whipped cream with a large rubber spatula, folding down to bottom of bowl and up.
For the buttercream frosting:
In a mixing bowl, whip butter with powdered sugar, add vanilla extract and continue to whip for 10 minutes at medium fast speed. Add heavy cream and continue to whip for another 5 minutes.
To assemble:
1.Split each cake in half crosswise and set the cake halves side by side.
2.Spread strawberry preserves on five of the halves and spread the chocolate mousse on the other four (leave one plain to top the cake).
3.Stack the halves, alternating between mousse and preserves to form the final cake shape.
4.Fill a pastry bag with the butter cream frosting and pipe the cream to decorate the cake.
