Secret Recipe Chocolate Indulgence (no spring form pan needed)

If you have tried making mousse with whipping cream and your mousse ends up lumpy and watery, fret not as I have the solution in making easy and fail-proof mousse for cakes. 

The secret to making the mousse without having to wait for the cake to set in the spring form pan is to use whipped topping. Whipped topping is non-diary whipping cream and is sturdier and fluffier than diary whipping cream. Though many have their reservations on non-diary whipping cream, I still feel it's better to use whipped topping because it's easier to handle and getting it wrong too many times is just discouraging. 

With this recipe, you can make Secret Recipe's signature cake from your own home.

Chocolate Indulgence 

This cake is made popular by the famous Malaysian café chain, Secret Recipe. This version is a chocolate lover's dream made up of luscious dark chocolate and white chocolate mousse between layers of light chocolate sponge soaked in rich coffee liqueur, topped off with rich dark chocolate ganache.

Preparation time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 40 minutes
Utensils needed: 7” round cake pan and pastry brush

Serves 10 

Level of difficulty: **

Ingredients 

Sponge Cake: 
3 eggs
85g caster sugar
2 tsp chocolate emulco   
25ml 60ml corn oil
60ml milk ~ whisk together ingredients highlighted in pink ~
50g SR flour  
25g cake flour 
1/2 tsp baking powder
10g cocoa powder  ~ sift together ingredients highlighted in yellow ~

Syrup: 
1 tbsp instant coffee powder (mixed with 7 ½ tbsp milk) OR
3 tbsp Tia Maria (mixed with 4 ½ tbsp. milk)

Mousse: 

125ml whipped topping (non-diary whipping cream)
80g dark chocolate (melted)
250ml whipped topping 
80g 160g white chocolate (melted) 

Frosting: 
100g whipped topping

Chocolate ganache: 
200g whipping cream
200g dark chocolate (chopped)
15g butter

Method 
1. Whisk eggs, sugar and corn oil and emulco until thick and creamy.  Fold in flour.

3. Bake in preheated oven at 165C for 35 minutes. Remove cake and allow to cool. Slice into four layers with a serrated knife. Set aside.

4. Whisk 125ml whipped topping until slightly thicken. Stir in cooled melted dark chocolate into thicken cream and continue whisking till soft peaks form. Repeat steps but with 250ml whipped topping and melted white chocolate.

5. Place a layer of cake on a cake board. Brush cake with syrup. Spread a portion of white chocolate mousse, top with a layer of cake. Repeat steps with chocolate mousse followed by the rest of white chocolate mousse and ending with a layer of cake on top.

6. Frost the whole cake with a thin layer of whipped topping and chill the cake overnight or for at least 6 hours. 

7. To make chocolate ganache, heat whipping cream over simmering water (using double boil method), add in chopped chocolate and stir until smooth. Add in butter and stir until well-combined.

8. When chocolate has cooled to room temperature, remove cake from fridge, pour chocolate slowly on cake to coat the whole cake with chocolate. Chill until chocolate sets before serving.

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If you are avoiding alcohol, you can always substitute coffee liqueur with coffee milk. Personally, I prefer coffee liqueur over instant coffee in my cake any day.

It was a bit tricky pouring the chocolate ganache over the cake. I didn't get the chocolate consistency right. It was a bit thick so the chocolate solidify before it could cover the sides of the cake completely. I got the chocolate dripping down the sides of the cake which was nice but not what I wanted for this cake. The cake was saved with a second coat of chocolate ganache. You can see the uneven surface on the sides. Also, the chocolate at the top of the cake was rather thick.

I would prefer the cake to be moister. Maybe the sponge cake recipe needs to be tweaked a bit. Maybe I should use a chiffon cake recipe next time? I have adjusted the sponge recipe by adding more oil and some milk to the cake to get a moister cake. If you do try it, let me know how it turns out.

As for the mousse, the chocolate mousse was delicious, the white chocolate mousse however didn't have much white chocolate taste. Perhaps, I should double the amount of white chocolate next time since the portion of cream for the white chocolate mousse is double the portion for the chocolate mousse. I have a bar of Toblerone -the epitome of white chocolate- why didn't I think of using that.

Happy Baking! xx

***UPDATE***

The above recipe for the sponge cake have been tweaked a bit by adding more oil and some milk. Yesterday we tried this and the chocolate sponge turned out cottony soft. I would recommend using the altered version of the recipe rather than the original recipe from the book. I find that Amy Heng's chocolate sponge from Y3K Delicious Cakes is on the dry and hard side. I've tried baking the chocolate cake for the German Blackforest and it turned out quite hard as well.