Rocky Road Mousse Cake and Chocolate Crisp mousse cake

*8*

Hi 

Today's post is about the two mousse cakes that I made on Sunday.  I'm very happy with how they both turned out which is a rare occasion which proves that this recipe book is fab!  I was also worried about the cutters I was using as I don't have those circular ring moulds she suggests so I used cutters that I use for scones or anything that needs a straight edge or edge with curves. So instead of making 2 3 inch diameter ones I made 3 of all different sizes and they all turned out well. The beauty is that it's no bake so changing the time doesn't matter it's just about setting it for a little while more or less depending on your change. All three of mine were set in around 1 and 1/2 hours which is super super quick. I was very surprised cos they usually say chill for a couple of hours or even 6-8 hours!!! 

I'm very fussy when it comes to biscuit bases, they have to be thick and dense. I hate it when it's so thin that you can barely see a layer and its all crumbly. I like the crunchy biscuit layer against the creamy mousse/cheesecake so I had a thinner layer of mousse to up the ratio ;). Does that bother you?! 

 See, nice thick base :D

So anyway I made two different ones: rocky road mousse cake that had a digestive biscuit layer and a rich chocolate mousse that had a chocolate crispy layer. I'm not sure if I just made them slightly differently but I got two different textures. Personally I liked both the rocky road was genuinely a mousse, light and melt in the mouth... Yum :D and the other one was more like a truffle so denser and thick but also melt in the mouth. 

Previously I have always used gelatin in powder sachets but this time I tried leaf gelatin instead because every time I've used the powder they've always been unsuccessful hunh ~~~ but now I'm totally converted. Leaf gelatin all the way!!! It works great and easily too which is why I guess it's a bit more expensive. Plus I think they look really nice, the ones I bought had a little pattern on it that looks like those windows with a lattice patten on it. Then where the lines meet there's a little 3D dot, intricate detailing right?! 

Also, this was the first time where I used these ring moulds, set them and when the mousse was set, I had to remove the ring. In the book she says to use a hairdryer, the hot hair coming out of the hairdryer causes the mousse to melt slightly which loosens it from the mould as it is no longer stuck to the sides. Therefore, releasing it should be easy. It took roughly a minute, moving the hairdryer around the entire sides of the mould and the cake slipped off with ease. I thought it would melt so much that it would lose its shape but it didn't. You just see the top melt a tiny amount and then it'll work, if not keep heating. Make sure to return it to the fridge so it can set again and retain its shape. Any chocolate decorations you want, you could make them now and chill in the fridge as well.  

Ingredients for Chocolate Crisp Mousse Cake

Crisp cake base: 30g unsalted butter

                             30g chocolate

                             45g crisp

Chocolate mousse: 100ml double cream

                                100g milk

                                100g dark chocolate

                                 5g gelatin leaf (soaked in water until tender) - follow the instructions 

                                  

2 3inch diameter heart rings are used as moulds but it’s up to you what shape and size, so long as you use up the mixture ;)

Method

1. Melt together the chocolate and butter in a microwave or in a hot water bath, then slowly add to the crisps until you have the desired texture. 

2. Scoop into the base of the moulds and compress with a small spoon. Make sure you press firm enough so that the base will hold its shape when it sets.

3. Beat the cream with an electric whisk until stiff, set aside. 

4. Warm the milk in a small saucepan over low heat, once warm, switch off heat and add the dark chocolate, stirring until smooth. Add the gelatin to the chocolate milk mixture and mix till it has dissolved. Leave to cool.

5. Add the chocolate to the whipped cream and mix using a spatula. Spoon the mixture into the mould and chill in the fridge. 

6. Once set, using the hairdryer method, heat up the mould. Lift the mould up slightly and see if the cake will come off easily but don’t remove it. If it does keep the mould on and sift cocoa powder on top then remove the mould. If not, keep heating the sides. Place back in the fridge. 

    Ingredients for the Rocky Road Mousse Cake (2 3.5 inch circular moulds are recommended)

Digestive biscuit base: 30g Digestive biscuits (I used 8 biscuits)

                                        25g unsalted butter melted and cooled

Rocky Road mousse: 200ml double cream

                                      1 tbsp caster sugar

                                      50g chocolate

                                      5g leaf gelatin soaked in water until tender

                                      2 tbsp hot water

                                      Mini marshmallows for the mousse and decoration

                                      Whole almonds for the mousse and decoration

                                      Chocolate chips

Method

1.     Add the butter slowly to the biscuit crumbs until the texture resembles wet sand, if it isn’t we enough, add more butter. Spoon into the moulds and press down using a small spoon.

 

2.   Whip the cream until almost stiff, add the sugar and whip until stiff. Set aside.

3.      Warm the chocolate in the microwave/hot water bath until melted. Leave to cool and once done so, add to the cream. Mix together. 

4.     Dissolve the gelatin in the hot water and then add the gelatin solution to the chocolate cream, mix well using a spatula. Add the marshmallows, almonds and chocolate chips (chopped to sizes of your preference) and stir 

5.   Spoon the mousse mixture into the moulds and chill in the fridge. 

6. Once the mousse is set, remove from the mould and decorate with mini marshmallows, almonds and chocolate chips and return to fridge to set further.

Serve when set and eat immediately :D Hope you liked the posts!!! My next upcoming posts will be an ulzzang inspired make up look, some cute outfit pieces I bought in Hong Kong plus a review on Etude House's Sweet Recipe choux base which I have been using for ages now and you'll find out why.

Thanks for stopping by <3

Follow me on instagram @mylittlebitofheaven to keep updated!

I'm back!!! ^_^

*7*

I'm finally back into the blogging world...

Sorry for the long delay, I have written a post for almost two months I think and that's because I've been really busy whilst holidaying in Hong Kong. I took a lot of food pictures whilst away so ill make then into food collages before posting them in a separate post. However in this post I wanted to show you several cosmetics/beauty products that I bought it received as samples when I went shopping in Hong Kong. The products ill mainly be reviewing are Korean companies such as Holika Holika, Etude House and Tony Moly so I hope you'll like it. There's a lot to get through so ill try posting a new review each week (sometime in the weekend because ill be busy with school work on weekdays- just started A levels and I'm taking maths, English literature, philosophy and psychology) 

So I hope you like the reviews and in the mean time ill leave you with some pictures of the upcoming products. Oh and what I really loved about these beauty and skincare shops when I went to Hong Kong, apart from actually getting to there :3 was there generosity. Some of them are just super duper nice and offer you free products when you spend a certain amount which is really great because then you can test out even more products. When I went to Etude House, I got several little samples, at Holika Holika, because I went with my sisters and aunties we all spent a lot and put the bill together so receive a crazy amount of gifts (they were very kind :D) and at Skinfood instead of giving us lots of little samples they gave us an option of two full products. One was a suncream protection lotion and another a deep sea water brightening toner. No doubt I chose the toner to hydrate my skin in the cold weather in London. The bottle is large, no joke and i'll be able to use it for a looong time. 

Some samples I received, there were more but I shared with my sister and some of them aren't suitable for me, so I gave them to my mum for her to use

Some products I bought and received as presents from my relatives

Oh and tomorrow i'll be making 2 different mini mousse cakes- a rich chocolate crisp mousse cake and a rocky road marshmallow cake so ill also have a review on how they go. I bought this little cake book in Hong Kong that I just found too adorable and each of the little cakes are only about 3.5 inches in diameter so you make about 2 each time. It's a great way to make more things and use up ingredients so that you don't waste which is what I'm doing! 

What I love about this book is not only its compact size (smaller than a4 but bigger than a5) but that it's really pretty and decorated inside. A lot of thought has obviously gone into this book and with each recipe comes a picture. I personally don't like it when there aren't any pictures for a recipe because I want to see how it turns out and how it should look. 

There's a huge variety in cakes within the book ranging from chocolate, fruit, caramel, cheesecake, sesame and tea flavoured!!! So there's bound to be several that you like, I know that I've found tons in here that I'm dying to try and I'm going to go through them one by one. >•< plus it even has recipes for steamed cakes and the presentation is just WOW. There are simple designs that look great but are still easy to do and slightly more difficult ones that are fab looking but none of them I'd say are challenging which is great right?!

 I'm not sure if you can buy this book online but if you're in Hong Kong go to big book stores and you'll probably be able to find it (it'd be helpful if I remembered the name but I can't so sorry). Urm but I haven't actually noticed it in the shop PageOne so you could look there but...

See you in my next post!

Follow me on instagram to keep update @mylittlebitofheaven

Thank you <3