My baby daughter turned 16 on Wednesday. Whoah. Time has flown. I cannot believe my baby girl has become so big and is now driving:-(

Since her birthday fell on a Wednesday and it was the middle of the week, we decided to go to a restaurant that night and celebrate her birthday with a fun dinner at home on Sunday. At loss with my menu, I asked what she wanted and she expressed the wish to have raclette. How easy it that;-) All I needed to do was to buy cold cuts, cheese, various pickles vegetables and let my guest cook their own meal.

For dessert I also asked her what she wanted. And since she had a friend over, I thought she could cook it herself. And they did an awesome job following the recipe but they could not assemble the cake because the chocolate mousse was too liquid.  The recipe came from the Chocolate Edition of the Fine Cooking Magazine of Jan. 2010, but was altered by me since it had a few flaws and it did not turn out as expected.

For the three layer cake: 1 1/2 cup of cake flour, 6 tbsp of unsweetened chocolate powder, 2 tsp of baking powder, 1/4 tsp of baking soda, 1/4 tsp of table slat, 1 cup of sugar, 1/4 cup of vegetable oil, 1 large egg, 2 tsp of pure vanilla extract, 1 cup of water.

Turn on the oven to 325. Place the large round mold on the perforated sheet. In a large bowl sift the flour, the cocoa, the baking powder, the baking soda and the salt. Add the sugar and mix well. In a measuring cup empty the oil, the egg and the vanilla extract and mix well. Add the egg mixture to the dry mixture and stir. Slowly add the water and mix until the dry ingredients are moist. Pour the batter in the round mold and cook in  warm oven for 30 minutes or until a pick inserted into the center comes clean. Invert the cake onto a cake rack to cool off.

While the cake is cooling, prepare the mousse. I used my recipe here since the one the girls made was to liquid to become a layer in this cake.

For the Mousse: 1 bag of bittersweet chocolate chips ( 12oz) at least 70% cocoa), 3 oz of butter, 8 eggs ( separated), 1 pinch of salt, 3 oz of sugar.

First separate the egg whites from the yolks. Place the egg whites with the salt and the sugar in a container, and beat until the egg whites form dry peaks. Set aside. Meanwhile, in a bowl melt the butter and the chocolate ( either over simmering water or in the microwave). Mix the egg yolks in the chocolate mixture. When it is well mixed, start adding the egg whites. Add about 1/2 cup of beaten egg whites in the chocolate mixture and very slowly mix in with a spatula. You want to make circular movements from the outside of the bowl to the inside while being very delicate so as to not deflate the egg whites. Continue adding the egg whites in the chocolate mixture as mentioned above until all has been added.

To prepare the cake, cut three layers out of the cake. Find a cheesecake mold, and place one layer at the bottom. Scoop 1/3 of the mousse on that layer. Place another layer, and again scoop another 1/3 of the mousse. Place the final layer and scoop a few tablespoons of the mousse on the top as your frosting. You may smooth out the frosting or add texture by “combing the cake’ with a cake comb or a serrated knife. Refrigerate the cake for a minimum of 6 hours and up to 24 hours. Decorate your cake as you like. I used chocolate shavings for the top of the cake. When the cake is ready, enjoy;-) It is so sinful!!! and yet to easy to make!!! definitely one of my favorite, it is so moist and that layer of mousse is so sinful….

Bon Appetit and Happy Cooking!