Whenever I pass a bakery or a pastry store I stop and look at the window display; I often go inside the store and look what kind of pastries and cakes are on offer. Here and there I buy something but most of the time I just have a look at the pastry display (sometimes I frustrate and annoy shop assistants with my cake curiosity). It makes me incredible happy just looking at beautiful cakes and I get inspired by the baked goods that I see in front of me.  A little while ago I passed a pastry store which doubles as a café (the cakes from this particular store are so-so, in my opinion) and I caught a glimpse of an older lady through the window of the cafe. At this very moment I passed the window the lady was digging into a little delicious looking mousse cake which had in the center a chocolate core. For me it was such an utterly beautiful cake creation. I went into the pastry store and I had a look at the window display in order to find out what kind of white mousse the "outside" of the cake was. It was a passion fruit mousse. My first thought was "is passion fruit and chocolate a good flavor pairing" but I was intrigued by the beauty of the cake that I decided to recreate the mousse cake. My doubts were unnecessary; the passion fruit mousse - it is not too strong -  goes so well with the chocolate mousse. These mousse cakes are so incredible delicious and I am very proud of my cake creation.




NOTES:

Cake Moulds

I used a silicone muffin pan for this recipe. The size of each mould is: 7 cm / 2.75 inches in diameter; the height is: 4 cm / 1.5 inches. I used little silicone moulds for the chocolate mousse cores as well. The size of each mould is: 2.5 cm / 1 inch in diameter; the height is 2.5 cm / 1 inch.
Whenever I make mousse cakes that need to be frozen I use silicone moulds. Unmoulding silicone moulds are very easy and one does not have to fuzz around dipping moulds into hot water.

Passion Fruits

I used a passion fruit juice - try to use a good quality passion fruit juice - for the  passion fruit mousse. Of course you can use the pulp of the passion fruits but remove the seeds; be prepared that you will need a lot of passion fruits. For the passion fruit glaze I used passion fruits but you can use juice as well.
When buying passion fruits look for fruits with wrinkled skin which indicates that they are ripe. If you buy smooth skinned passion fruits let them ripe for a few days at room temperature. Ripe passion fruits are best kept in the fridge.
Makes 8 to 10 mousse cakes (see my notes above)

Chocolate Mousse Core

  • 50 g / 3 tablespoons heavy cream
  • 15 g / 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 70 g / 1 1/2 ounces chocolate (66%), finely chopped
  • 110 g / 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • Bring heavy cream and sugar to a boil. Set aside. 
  • Place finely chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl. Pour the hot heavy cream to the chocolate and stir until the chocolate is completely melted. Let the chocolate mixture cool down to room temperature. 
  • In the meantime, whisk the heavy cream until creamy. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture. 
  • Pour the chocolate mousse into 8 to 10 little (silicone) moulds.
  • Freeze the moulds for at least 2 hours. 

Passion Fruit Mousse

  • 150 ml / 2/3 cup passion fruit juice
  • 7 g gelatin sheets, soaked or 2 1/3 teaspoons gelatin powder
  • 50 g / 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 30 g / 2 egg yolks (medium sized eggs)
  • 290 g / 1 1/4 cups heavy cream
  • Pour the passion fruit juice into a small pot, add 30 g / 2 tablespoons of sugar to it and heat the mixture; set aside. Add the gelatin to the juice and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. 
  • Mix egg yolks and the remaining sugar (25 g / 2 tablespoons) in a heat proof bowl. In a double boiler heat bowl with the egg sugar mixture, stir constantly, until it has reached 60 °C / 140 °F. Remove the bowl from the double boiler and continue to whisk until the mixture has cooled down. 
  • Add a little bit of the passion fruit mixture to the egg mixture, stir until all ingredients are well combined, add the rest of the passion fruit mixture and mix again until well combined. 
  • Whisk the heavy cream until creamy. Add one third of the whipped cream to the passion fruit mixture and mix well. Add the remaining whipped cream and fold it into passion fruit mixture. 
  • Scoop the passion fruit mousse into (silicone) moulds, almost to the top of the moulds.
  • Unmould the frozen chocolate mousse cores and gently press each core into each the passion fruit mousse cake.
  • Freeze the mousse cakes for at least 6 hours or overnight. You can also leave the frozen passion fruit mousse cakes in the freezer for several weeks.   

Almond Sponge Cake

  • 1 egg (medium size)
  • 15 g / 1 egg yolk (medium sized egg)
  • 30g / 1 egg white (medium sized egg)
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 45 g / 4 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 25 g / 3 tablespoons almond flour
  • 20 g / 3 tablespoons pastry flour, sifted
  • Preheat the oven to 190 °C / 375 °F. 
  • Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
  • Whisk egg, egg yolk and 25 g / 2 tablespoons sugar until fluffy (it takes about 3 to 4 minutes). Add almond flour and pastry flour and mix well. 
  • Whisk egg white and a pinch of salt until almost stiff. Add little by little the remaining sugar (20 g / 2 tablespoons) and whisk until stiff. 
  • Fold in the beaten egg white into the mixture. 
  • Spread the batter onto the baking sheet (25 cm x 25 cm / 10 inches x 10 inches).
  • Bake the sponge cake for 5 to 7 minutes or until light golden brown in color. 
  • Let the sponge cake cool completely. Cut out circles with a cookie cutter (the size depends on the size of your cake moulds; I cut out 7 cm / 3 inches in diameter circles).

Passion Fruit Glaze

  • 75 g  passion fruit pulp, 2 to 3 medium sized passion fruits, a little less than 1/4 cup
  • 10 g / 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1 g gelatin sheet, soaked or 1/3 teaspoon gelatin powder
  • You can remove the passion fruit seeds if you do not like the crunch of the seeds but I personally like the crunch and I think it looks very pretty. 
  • Add the passion fruit flesh and sugar into a small pot and bring it almost to a boil. Take the pot from the heat, add the gelatin and mix until the gelatin is dissolved. Pour the mixture into a small bowl. 
  • Let the mixture cool and let the glaze thicken up a little bit. As soon as the glaze starts thickening assemble the cakes. 

Assembling

  • Unmold the frozen mousse cakes. Place one sponge cake circle on each frozen mousse cake.
  • Spread the passion fruit glaze on top of each cake.
  • Let the cake defrost at room temperature.