There is a brownie base, filled with strawberries and chocolate mousse, topped with chocolate ganache and strawberries.
Of course, if you have your own normal mousse recipe, you could substitute it in here, but for this one, I have made it dairy free. It's a recipe I have made often, usually in this recipe here.
Chocolate Mousse and Strawberry Cake
Ingredients:
Brownie Base
*(this makes enough for this base, and an extra tin of brownies)
200g butter
200g dark chocolate
3 eggs
250g light brown or caster sugar
100g self raising flour
25g cocoa
125g dark chocolate chips
500g strawberries
Chocolate Mousse
400g dark chocolate
2 x tin coconut milk - chilled in the fridge, use the solids only
1 tablespoon icing sugar
Ganache
200g dark chocolate
1 x tin coconut milk - solids only
Method:
Brownie base
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C and grease and line a 20 cm springform tin (base only) and a small square tin for the extra mixture.Melt the butter and chocolate over a pan of simmering water. Take off the heat once melted and stir until smooth. Whisk the sugar and eggs together and add the chocolate. Stir in the flour, cocoa and chocolate chips.
Pour half the mixture into the round tin, and the remaining into the square tin.
Bake in the oven for 35 mins (round tin) and 40 mins (square tin).
Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin.
Strawberries
Slice the tops off the strawberries to make a flat top. Slice enough in half to line the outside edge of the brownie base. The rest will stay whole to fill the tin.
Chocolate Mousse
Chop the chocolate into small pieces and melt in the microwave, in 30 sec bursts, stirring until smooth.
Remove the solids only from the tins of coconut milk and place into a bowl with the icing sugar. Using a hand held electric mixer, whip until light and fluffy. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix gently until all combined. If you over mix, you will cool it too much and it will start to set. This can be easily fixed by putting the bowl in the microwave for 10 secs to melt it slightly. Mix again by hand.
Place a few spoonfuls of the mousse in the round tin on top of the brownie base and then arrange the cut strawberries around the edge. This thin layer of mousse will help stop the strawberries from making the base too soft.
Pour the remaining mousse mixture over the strawberries making sure it gets into all the crevices between the strawberries. An alternative is to pipe the mousse on, but I found if the mousse is a bit runnier, it is easier to just pour and then tap the tin on the bench to help the mousse fill the spaces.
Chill in the fridge until set, about 30 mins.
Ganache
Chop the chocolate finely and place into a bowl. Heat the solids and a dribble of the liquid from the tin of coconut milk, in a small saucepan until simmering but not boiling. Pour over the chopped chocolate, stir slightly and then leave to melt. After a few minutes, stir until smooth and glossy.
Pour half over the top of the mousse so it is smooth and then return to the fridge to set, about 30 minutes. The rest can be kept in an airtight container to reuse.
(You could, of course, also use the remaining ganache like a fondue and dip in marshmallows, strawberries, raspberries etc). We may or may not have done that last night!
Top with strawberries.
Remove it all from the fridge for about an 45 mins before serving to allow the mousse to soften slightly.
Enjoy!
