Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows, Part 2 was every bit as good as I knew it would be.
I also knew I would cry during the movie, just not for the whole last hour. Geez….lucky my eyes were covered with those goofy 3-D glasses.
So, if you haven’t seen the movie I highly recommend it. I also highly recommend this chocolate cake. I made it for my son’s birthday last week. The cake is very easy to make, but looks like you slaved away.
Chocolate Cake With Strawberry Cheesecake Mousse Filling
Ingredients for cake:
2 cups flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
1 cup brewed coffee
1 cup milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
Directions for the chocolate cake:
1. Sift together dry ingredients. Add oil, coffee and milk. Whisk until combined. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix until well incorperated (about 2 min). The batter will be quite runny.
2. Grease and flour two 9 inch round pans.
3. Pour the batter into the pans and bake at 325ºF for 25-30 min until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely.
Ingredients for strawberry cheesecake mousse:
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup puréed strawberries (plus some more strawberries to garnish cake)
3/4 cup cold heavy cream
Directions for the strawberry cheesecake mousse:
1. Whisk together the cream cheese and sugar until completely smooth (I did this in the food processor). Mix in the puréed strawberries.
2. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold into the strawberry cream cheese mixture.
3. Line a 9 inch round pan (the same size you used for the cakes) with plastic wrap and pour the mousse inside. Freeze until solid.
Ingredients for ganache:
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 cup heavy cream
Directions for the ganache:
1. Bring cream to a boil over medium heat. Pour over chocolate. Let sit for a moment then stir until smooth.
Let cool to room temperature.
Directions to assemble the cake:
1. Remove mousse from freezer and unwrap.
2. Place one cake layer on serving platter. Position frozen mousse in the center and top with remaining cake layer.
3. Allow to thaw for 30 minutes.
4. Drizzle cake with ganache and garnish with fresh strawberries.
Serves 12
Recipe from KitchenSimplicity.com
It was a very festive birthday cake.
My latest song obsession is It Takes A Thorn To Remove A Thorn.
I want to don a crown of flowers, dress like Stevie Nicks, then skip through the fields.
This song has got that kind of vibe. It makes me happy.
Klifton Filente-It Takes A Thorn To Remove A Thorn
You can check out Klifton Filente on his Myspace page. The whole album ‘Common Ground’ is available as a free download on the Bandcamp page.
Cheers!
