Saturday, November 28, 2009

Chocolate Mint Mousse Wedding Cake

A visitor to my website requested some information about making a chocolate mint mousse cake for her daughter's wedding. First of all, she lives at a very high altitude, so it is necessary to make a few changes when baking the cake. For the chocolate mint cake, I use Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate and add 1 tsp. of mint flavoring to each cake mix. I also add 1/4 cup flour and an extra egg (4 total) to each mix. If I am using 2 mixes (I never mix more than 2 mixes at once), I add 7 eggs instead of 6. Also, be very careful not to put too much batter in the cake pans. Too much batter will also make the cakes sink in the middle. I used to always bake my cakes at 325 degrees instead of the recommended 350 degrees because the cakes turned out moister. At high altitudes, I have to raise the temperature slightly to 335 degrees. Just be careful not to overbake the cake. 


The layers of the cake are torted (split) and filled with a chocolate mint mousse. The recipe is as follows:
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese
Approx. 1/3 cup cocoa powder
Approx. 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 cups of whipped topping
Andes mint pieces


Beat cream cheese until soft and smooth. Scrape bowl and gradually add the cocoa and powdered sugar and beat until smooth and fluffy, scraping the bowl often. Fold in the whipped topping and mint pieces.
I would normally ice this cake in a chocolate whipped cream with Andes mint pieces sprinkled on top, but for a wedding cake, I would ice it in a regular whipped cream. One of my past entries will give you the best recipe for a stabilized whipped cream icing. It is important that the cake stays refrigerated after decorating it until just before setting it up. Here are two pictures...one shows the chocolate mint mousse cake, and the other shows a wedding cake iced in whipped cream.                                           

Chocolate Mint Mousse Specialty Cake

Wedding cake iced with whipped cream icing

4 comments:

cathy said...

Cathy, thank you SO much for posting your recipe. I always heard that it is easier to slice the cake layers if they were frozen... If you don't freeze them, but refrigerate them, how far in advance can you make them?
Also for the mousse filling, is whipped topping like Cool Whip or is it real whipped cream or the packaged whipped topping?
thanks again, Cathy from high altitude

cathy said...

Cathy, also do you use peppermint oil or peppermint extract and does it make a difference?
thanks, Cathy

Cathy Leavitt said...

I use the pure mint extract. I normally bake my cakes 2 nights prior to the wedding, leave them out on the counter covered with a light towel, and then fill, ice, and decorate them the day before the wedding. Then, if they require refrigeration, I put them in the refrigerator until delivery time. I normally use the same whipped cream that I would use to ice a cake; however, you can also use Cool Whip, as long as you use the real thing.

Unknown said...

can you ice with fondant??sorkcli