Peter Gordon

Double Chocolate Mousse Cake

Preparation info

  • Serves

    8–10

    • Difficulty

      Easy

Appears in

A World in My Kitchen

A World in My Kitchen

By Peter Gordon

Published 2003

  • About

This is my favourite chocolate cake. I have published the recipe before with the addition of star anise, but a collection of my favourite recipes wouldn’t be complete without it. The double chocolate comes from covering the rich cake with ganache! Serve this with whipped cream, flavoured with a little Cointreau, Tia Maria, chilled strong espresso or rum.

Ingredients

  • 300 g (10 ½ oz) dark chocolate
  • 150 g (5 oz) unsalted butter
  • 6 eggs
  • 100 g (3 ½ oz) caster sugar

    Method

    Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Line the base and sides of a 20 cm (8 in) springform cake tin with baking paper. Melt chocolate and butter in a metal bowl over a pan of simmering water. Separate eggs, and beat egg whites until stiff with 60 g (2 oz) of the sugar. Beat yolks with remaining sugar, then mix this thoroughly into chocolate. Gently fold a third of the whites into chocolate mixture, then gently fold in the remainder.

    Pour into prepared tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 25–30 minutes. It’s ready when a crust has formed, but the cake must be wobbly – if not, it’ll be overcooked and set too hard.

    Remove from the oven and cover tin tightly with foil – the steam keeps the heat in and softens the crust. Once cold, chill for at least 4 hours before removing from the tin and spreading the ganache on top. To cut, heat a sharp knife in a jug of hot water – it will slice easier.