This is one of my old posts with a recipe I made up. It looks like such a mess, but it tasted good and definitely made the angel food cake more exciting. In hindsight, I think the best elements of this recipe are the mock mocha mousse (which is really tasty) and the cocoa whipped cream. You could use them in some sort of angel food creation, or put them on a totally different cake.
Old Post
I've been on an angel food cake this week, and after making several variations, I decided to share this mocha version. It's good as is, but if you have any suggestions on how to improve it, let me know.
I'm thinking about swapping out a couple of angel food layers with devil's food layers (similar to the famous Heaven and Hell Cake by Stephen Pyles) or putting a layer of chocolate graham cracker or chocolate wafers between the layers of mousse and cake just for textural contrast. Or maybe I'm being picky and it doesn't need anything...
To make it as is, you cut a whole angel food cake into three layers and stack them in a 9 inch springform pan to keep them straight. Here's the first layer in the pan.
As you stack the cake in the pan, you fill the layers with mocha "mousse". It's about as mock as you can get for a mousse, but it tastes surprisingly good.
To make the cake easy to frost, you put a layer of plastic wrap over the cake and freeze it until firm.
And then you cover the whole thing in a rich chocolate whipped cream, which is of course, the best part! I’d never made chocolate whipped cream, but I found a recipe on Epicurious that was perfect and tasted like chocolate ice cream. If you don’t make the cake, at least try the chocolate whipped cream on something.
The end results looks like this.
We've been enjoying the cake, but next time I'm going to try adding a layer of devil's food cake or cookies just for some texture variation.
Recipe
Mocha Mousse Angel Food Cake with Chocolate Whipped Cream
Ingredients
- 1 box Duncan Hines Signature Angel Food Cake or one pre-made Angel Food Cake of any kind
Mocha Mousse
- ¼ cup boiling water
- 1 tablespoon instant coffee or 2 packets Folgers or Starbuck’s instant the type in the little tubes
- 7 ounce jar marshmallow crème (210 grams)
- 8 oz tub regular or light whipped topping
Chocolate Whipped Cream
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- ½ cup unsweetened natural cocoa powder or your favorite
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 packet Folgers or Starbucks instant coffee use 2 if you like
- 1 Pinch of cream of tartar
- 2 cups chilled whipping cream
Instructions
- Prepare the angel food cake as directed on the package. Let cool. With a serrated knife, cut it into three even layers.
- Prepare mousse. Put boiling water in a mixing bowl. Add the coffee and stir to dissolve. Add the marshmallow crème and beat on low until blended and smooth. Fold in the whipped topping.
- Line a 9 inch round springform pan with foil and place the first layer of your angel food cake in the pan. You may have to squish it in a bit. Spread about ½ of the mocha mousse over the cake. Top with second layer of cake. Add remaining mocha mousse. Top with remaining layer of angel food cake. Put plastic wrap over the cake and put the whole thing in the freeze for about 3 hours or until frozen.
- As soon as you put the cake in the freezer, go ahead and start preparing the chocolate whipped cream since the chocolate mixture requires some chill time too.
- Whisk confectioners' sugar, cocoa powder, milk, coffee powder and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer until smooth. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled, about 1 hour or up to 4.
- Set the stand mixer bowl back on the mixer and with the whisk attachment, beat on medium, gradually adding the cream. Continue beating, increasing speed slightly, until stiff peaks begin form -- be careful not to overdo it.
- Remove frozen cake from freezer and unlatch sides of pan. Peel away foil and set frozen cake on a cake tray. Spread chocolate whipped cream over entire cake. You’ll have plenty of chocolate whipped cream and possible even a little left over. Store cake in the refrigerator.
bluzjazz says
My Mom use to make one similar to this but instead of slicing the cake in half she use to hollow out a tunnel and fill that with a filling of frosting or whatever she wanted so there was no concern about the center oozing out! It was always one of our favorites and now we do it with the Pineapple Lush! But I'm thinking this recipe with a crunchy toffee crunch or something in the tunnel with the filling would be yummy!
Chewthefat says
Wow! When I was a kid, my favorite restaurant dessert was Black Forest cake--only the cake at my local restaurant used to use CHOCOLATE whipped mousse frosting rather than traditional vanilla and it looked exactly like the frosting on your cake! I'd never seen a recipe for it until now! Like others have said, the cake looks 'magazine cover worthy.' It seems like a perfect dessert for a warm spring picnic or birthday party!
Sue says
That looks so impressive. The first photo made me think of Tiramisu. So maybe a Tiramisu flavored version?
Rose Mary Mogan says
I will take your suggestion and serve them on the side too, but that frosting really does look amazing, makes you want to jump into the computer screen. Thanks again, & I will keep you posted when I make it.
Rose Mary Mogan says
I will take your suggestion and serve them on the side too, but that frosting really does look amazing, makes you want to jump into the computer screen. Thanks again, & I will keep you posted when I make it.
Anna says
Great suggestion! I like strawberries with just about everything! Rather than put them in the cake, I might just serve them on the side, though. That way they won't get too mushy.
Rose Mary Mogan says
How do you think strawberries would work between the layers or raspberries or blueberries. to add a little stability. Then of course use a serrated knife to slice & serve it. It might help some. I like your recipe and think I will be trying it in a day or so, at the moment I have a 6 flavor pound cake in the oven.