I created this yoghurt mousse cakes with a mandarin orange core and an almond sponge cake for the Easter holidays. I planned on sharing this recipe with you before the holidays. As you can see this did not happen and I am a little mad at myself. My options were to post this recipe next year, forget about the recipe or post the recipe after the holidays and feel a little bit stupid. I was pondering about these three options and I decided for the latter one an be a fool. Although I decorated each cake with a marzipan bunny and an Easter egg it is not neceessarily a Easter cake. It is delicious any time of the year, though I think it is perfect for the spring season. Compared to rich chocolate mousse cakes these petite cakes are light, not too sweet and not too heavy because the mousse consists partly of yoghurt. This is the perfect dessert for a full course dinner because I think it is never a good idea to end a dinner with a heavy and decadent cake. These yoghurt mousse cakes are probably "the lightest" mousse cake recipe that I have posted so far on my blog. It taste different from a chocolate mousse cake but I do like the lightness of it.
Enjoy the recipe and forgive my dilatoriness.
NOTES: I used a silicone muffin pan for this recipe (I used the same one for my Passion Fruit Mousse Cake recipe and White Chocolate Raspberry Mousse Cake 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 mandarin orange cores. The size of each mould is: 2.5 cm / 1 inch in diameter; the height is 2.5 cm / 1 inch.
Use 10 % Greek yoghurt. I made one version with non-fat yoghurt and it did not taste that great.

Makes 8 mini cakes (7 cm / 2.75 inches)

Mandarin Orange Jelly

  • 115 g / 4 ounces mandarin oranges (tangerines), canned and unsweetened
  • 35 ml / 2 tablespoons and 1 teaspoon mandarin or orange juice
  • 10 g / 2 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
  • 1 1/2 ( 2.3 g) sheets gelatin, soaked or 2/3 teaspoon gelatin powder
  • Puree the tangerines for a second or two or until the tangerines are roughly pureed. I like having a few chunksin my jelly but if you like it smooth pureed the tangerines a bit longer.
  • Pour tangerine or orange juice into a small saucepan and add sugar to it. Bring the mixture almost to a boil. Set aside, add the soaked gelatin  or gelatin powder and stir until the gelatin is dissolved. Add the tangerine puree to it and mix well. Pour the mixture into small (silicon) moulds, see my notes above, and freeze the moulds for at least four hours.

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).

Yoghurt Mousse

  • 125 g / 7 tablespoons Greek yoghurt (10%)
  • 15 g / 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 2 1/2 gelatin sheets (3.7 g), soaked or 1 1/3 teaspoon gelatin powder
  • 15 g egg yolk (1 medium egg)
  • 15 g / 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 175 g / 2/3 cup  and 1 tablespoon heavy cream
  • Mix egg yolk and granulated sugar in a heat proof bowl. In  a double boiler heat the egg mixture - stir constantly - until it has reached 60 °C / 140 °F. Remove the bowl from the double boiler and continue to whisk until the egg mixture has cooled down. Set aside. 
  • Mix the Greek yogurt with the powdered sugar. Place two tablespoons of the Greek yogurt in a small saucepan and heat the yogurt. When the yogurt is warm remove from the heat and add the gelatin and stir until the gelatin is completely dissolved. Let the yoghurt cool. 
  • In the meantime whisk the heavy cream until creamy. 
  • Add the yoghurt (with the gelatin) to the egg mixture and mix well. Add the remaining yoghurt and stir again. Add one third of the whipped cream to the yoghurt mixture and mix well. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream to the mixture. 

Assembling

  • Fill the yoghurt mousse almost to the top of each mould.
  • Unmold the frozen tangerine jelly and gently press each core into the yoghurt mousse. 
  • Freeze the moulds for at least 6 hours or overnight. You can keep the mousse cakes in the freezer up to two weeks. 
  • Unmould the yoghurt mousse cakes. Place one sponge cake circle on each frozen mousse cake. Let the cakes defrost at room temperature which takes about 1 to 2 hours. 
  • Decorate the cakes to your liking. I decorated each cake with roughly chopped unsalted pistachios, a marzipan bunny (I dyed marzipan and cut out bunnies with a cookie cutter) and added an chocolate Easter egg.