Hazelnut Raspberry Mousse Cake

Pure delightful moist tangy sweet amazingness
Source: Cake adapted from “Celebration Cakes” by The Australian Women’s Weekly, Hazelnut Berry Delight; Raspberry mousse adapted from Bakers Royale blog; Chocolate Chantilly from “Chocolate - more than 50 decadent recipes” by Dominique and Cindy Duby.

Taste: 6 (out of 5)

Difficulty: 5 (out of 5)

Ingredients
For the cake (2575 cal)
- 125 g butter, chopped (895 cal)
- 1 cup icing sugar (775 cal)
- 3 eggs (210 cal)
- 1/4 cup self – rising flour (110 cal)
- 1/2 cup hazelnut meal (345 cal)
- 75 g sour cream (160 cal)
- 150 g fresh or frozen raspberries (80 cal)
For the mousse (830 cal)
- 3/4 cup whipping cream (615 cal)
- 1 1/2 cups / 150g frozen raspberries (80 cal)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar, not packed (135 cal)
- 1 packet / 7g gelatin
- 3-4 tbsp cold water
For chocolate Chantilly (550 cal)
- 0.9 oz/ 25 g 70% dark chocolate, finely chopped (140 cal)
- 1/2 cup / 250 ml whipping cream (410 cal)
Total: 6 inch round cake, 3955 cal, 8 servings, 495 cal / serving

Instructions
For the cake
1. Grease a deep 6 inch / 17 cm cake pan, line the base and sides with parchment paper.
2. Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined between additions (mixture may curdle at this stage). Sift in sifted flour, hazelnut meal, sour cream, raspberries and blackberries.
3. Bake the cake at 350F for about an hour until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out dry. Let the cake rest in the pan for 5 minutes before removing onto the wire rack to cool.
For the raspberry mouse
4. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water and let it bloom for 20-30 minutes until you prepare the raspberries.
5. Heat raspberries with the sugar in a small saucepan; let simmer for 10-15 minutes. Puree warm simmered raspberries in a food processor. Push puree through a fine mesh strainer to remove seeds. Set aside.
6. Whip heavy cream until soft peaks form.
7. Warm up the blooming gelatin in a microwave for 10 seconds until the gelatin melts. Mix well and pour into the raspberry puree mixture. Whisk until mixture thickens to syrup consistency. Fold raspberry gelatin mixture into soft peaked cream.
For the assembly
8. Cut the cake horizontally into 3 parts (this is called "torting" the cake). Here are my tips on how to cut perfectly horizontal layers without any special equipment.
9. Line the sides of a 6 inch spring-form pan with parchment paper. Place the lower layer of the cake into a spring-form pan, pour a third of the raspberry mousse on top and spread evenly. Repeat with the remaining 2 layers. Leave the cake in the refrigerator until the mousse sets completely. It might take an hour or two.
For the chocolate Chantilly
10. Bring whipping cream to a boil in a saucepan. Pour the boiling cream on top of the chocolate and mix well until combined and uniform. Let cool in the fridge; overnight is best, but several hour would also work.
11. Once cool, whip with an electric mixer until medium peaks.
12. Remove the set cake from the spring-form pan, carefully peel off the parchment paper off the sides of the cake. Spread cream Chantilly in a thin layer over the sides and the top of the cake. Refrigerate for one more hour.

Afterthoughts
1. This cake tastes absolutely amazing. It is so soft, moist, has a slight hazelnut flavor, hint of sour from the raspberries, a tiny bit of bitterness from the chocolate Chantilly, and all these combine in a perfect melting in your mouth bliss. I will certainly be making it again.
2. The cake turned out very tall, much higher than I expected, about 3 inches – I was lucky to have a tall spring-form pan, otherwise it might have turned out into a huge muffin :-). I prefer lower cakes, so next time I will use half of the amount in this recipe and shorten the bake time. This will give 2 layers, and would use 2/3 of the raspberry mousse. I will keep the same amount of the chocolate Chantilly though, because it was barely enough this time. I had to literally scrape the bottom of the bowl ;-).