Triple Chocolate Cake and a Happy New Year from Cafe Coco!

Happy New Year everyone!! Do I even have any readers left??!!

The new year is a great time to renew yourself...and those long lost resolutions.

I was never big on making New Years resolutions. Maybe because I never felt I had reason to. But since becoming a mom, I've become so much busier in life that I forget about a lot of things. A lot of things I had TIME to remember! So my New Year's resolution is to make more time for myself, more time to 'love' cooking, and to make more time for my poor neglected blog!

A little update on me: Motherhood has grown on me. In the beginning, I wasn't really sure it would. It's a lot of work and leaves little time for things I once took for granted. Like making last minute runs to the grocery store when I forget something! I've grown so much as a person, and a wife in the last 10 months. I've learned to not sweat the small stuff (ok I still do, but certainly not as much). I also value the 'small stuff' my little girl does....because everything is so new and only lasts months, if not weeks. As I watch my little one grow, it's apparent that she enjoys being with me, especially when I am in the kitchen. She follows me everywhere I go. I look forward to her 'helping' me more in the near future. For now, as I make anything, I feel her pull up on my pant leg and tug at it until I pick her up. She watches my every move. I love that. She loves licking the bowl of chocolate cake batter just as much as I do. And the look on her face when I let her try frosting off the whisk was completely priceless. I don't know that she will love cooking as much as I do. But I have a good feeling she will enjoy eating as much as I do!

As for New Years Eve this year, you can imagine, it was quite laid back. Finding a sitter for the evening can be quite daunting! Besides that, I've always enjoyed spending the night at home entertaining other people. The last few years we've hosted NYE, and I've always tried a new dessert recipe. This year, as I flipped through pages of a few neglected magazines, I noticed a triple decker cake I've had my eyes on since I gave birth. I figured, what the heck. I have nothing to lose.

I'll warn you. This cake is not for the faint of heart. It's truly a chocolate lovers' dessert. It's rich, it's creamy, it's chocolaty. It's truly quite amazing. The bottom layer is a flour-less chocolate torte, the middle layer is deep dark chocolate mousse, and the top is a fluffy white chocolate mouse--which balances the chocolate quite nicely. I've never been one for white chocolate, but in this instance, it really works in this dessert's favor.

While the recipe is rather easy, it's a bit time consuming. If that bothers you, you could always break it up and make the cake portion the night before and make the mousse the following day (which actually does not take much time at all).

Overall, the effort is well worth it. As one of my guests said "Why is it that paparazzi always show up when you bring out food. That never happens at my house." Perhaps they should make this cake! It's certainly photo worthy! (Forgive my photos as I did not cut the cake until my guests came and it was dark!)

For the recipe, click here. (you will have to register on the site to see it, but it's free)

Happy New Year!

Cafe Coco

Dark Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Mousse Filling, Chocolate Italian Meringue Buttercream Frosting and Chocolate Shavings

Both my husband and brother in law had a birthday last week. I took the liberty of throwing a joint birthday party for them and since my brother in law doesn’t eat sweats…my husband…the chocoholic got to choose the cake flavor.

This was the essence of our conversation.

C: “Hey husband, what kind of cake would you like me to make for your birthday?”
J: “Um, you know that cake from the Townsend?”
C: “Yea…”
J: “Well, I want that cake. The chocolate one.”
C: “You want me to go buy you the cake?”
J: “No, I want YOU to make it.”

So there it is….the cake challenge. (For those who don’t know what the Townsend is, it’s a swanky hotel with an even swankier bakery a few blocks from our house that any celebrity, The President and the alike stay when they come to the Detroit area). I didn’t panic too much because quite honestly, I can handle chocolate cake, I can handle a meringue buttercream, and I can handle chocolate mousse. But all the components together I knew would take me at least a day to do…and maybe a few hours to assemble. Plus hosting the dinner party for 20? No sweat…

So not only could I handle all the components, I had the golden ticket….I have GREAT go to recipes for all of these…so I knew the cake was sure to be a hit as long as I didn’t drop it.

I used this ‘go to’ chocolate cake recipe in 2 8-inch round cake pans, and after baking cut each layer in half to create 4 layers of cake.

I used this ‘go to’ Chocolate Italian Meringue Butter cream to frost the outside of the cake.
I filled the cake with dark chocolate mousse and topped with about 4 oz. of chocolate shavings. You can use any mix of chocolate (Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, semi-sweet etc). I used a mix of chocolate bars that I had in my pantry.

The cake verdict: In addition to the cake, I made homemade peanut butter cups, chocolate covered strawberries, and chocolate cups filled with chocolate mousse, berries and whipped cream so my thought was….there will be SO much cake left over. We barely had any cake left. The cake was RICH. The chocolate cake layers were deep, dark, moist and fudgy, the chocolate mousse kept the cake light, and the Italian meringue buttercream topped off the heavenly chocolate flavor of the cake. This is the ULTIMATE chocoholic’s cake…and everyone that had it made a point to tell me it was by far their favorite cake they ever had. I will take that as a success!

A bottle of Pinot Noir was being passed around to go with the cake (you know...to pour some in your glass)….my husband took the liberty of having the bottle stop with him. And as we had run out of forks from the dinner—he dug in my utensil drawer for a ‘spoon’ (AKA a pasta skimmer). That is just Klassy with a “K” honey…klassy…

Dark Chocolate Mousse
Recipe courtesy of Mirepoix Cooking School

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
½ cup granulated sugar
1 oz. coffee liquor
8oz. dark chocolate, melted
4 egg whites
1 ½ cups heavy cream

Directions:
In a double boiler, melt chocolate. Set aside but don’t let it cool too much or else it will not mix well.

In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks, sugar, coffee liquor until pale yellow and thickened, set aside.

In a separate bowl, beat heavy cream until stiff peaks form. Set aside and refrigerate until ready to use.

In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form.

With a rubber spatula, fold the melted chocolate into the egg yolk mixture. Then fold in the whipped cream. Then, gently fold in the egg whites.

If the mousse seems a bit ‘loose’, you can refrigerate for a few hours to stiffen.

Semi-Homeade Vanilla Bean Mousse

If I had my way, I would always eat my dessert first. It’s by far my favorite part of the meal to prepare, and also eat. But sometimes coming up with time to make a dessert can be difficult and I am not always willing to skimp on this very important part of the meal, just because I’m skimped on time.

That’s when I turn into semi-homemade mode. I don’t do this much because I am no fan of boxed food, but if I can turn it into my ‘own’ in some way then I somehow feel better about myself.

During the holidays, I was REALLY pressed for time. As I was browsing the grocery isle, I curiously picked up some boxed mousse by Dr. Oetker. I was quite surprised because these are inexpensive, but good. Homemade mousse isn’t really difficult to make, but it has been known to dirty a lot of dishes. Another thing I just did not have time for.

So what I did to change it was by adding seeds from a vanilla bean, fresh blackberries and shaved dark chocolate curls. Put it in a fancy martini glass…and now you have a fancy dessert that only takes minutes to prepare.

Semi homemade Vanilla Bean Mousse

Ingredients:
1 Dr. Oetker French vanilla mousse supreme mix
1 cup of cold milk
½ vanilla bean
Fresh blackberries
Shaved dark chocolate bar

Directions:
Follow the directions on the package using the milk. Cut vanilla bean crosswise and scrape out the seeds. Put the seeds in the mousse mixture and mix well. Put mix into martini glasses and chill for 2 hours. Before serving add fresh blackberries and chocolate curls.

Tip: To make the chocolate curls, just shave the side of a chocolate bar with a vegetable peeler.