Strawberry Mousse Cake

There was a quickly organised night at a friend's place last night. We had a good friend coming home for the weekend for a quick visit and decided to get together last night for dinner. I was charged with bringing dessert. I wanted to try something a bit different. I wanted to make something fruity. I considered making something from Bill's Sydney Food but none of the desserts really grabbed me. Nothing that would really suit adults as well as young children anyway. I had seen a couple of recipes for a strawberry mousse cake but none of them were exactly what I wanted so I decided to get a little bit creative. Thankfully, it all worked out. and everyone really enjoyed it. It all held up and and tasted great. Lovely and fresh and light. I will definitely be making this one again. 

First I made a genoise sponge using a recipe from The Australian Women's Weekly Cook. It was a really easy sponge to make. It collapsed a bit on me towards the end of the cooking time, so would reduce that slightly next time. Although I did put the mixture into a 23 cm springform instead of a 20 cm one as I couldn't find my 20 cm one.  Plus that was the size I wanted for my final product.

Genoise Sponge 

• 4 eggs 
• 110g (1/2 c) caster sugar 
• 100 g (2/3 c) plain flour, double sifted
• 60 g butter, melted and cooled 

Method: 

• Pre-heat oven to 160 C (fan-forced).
• Put eggs & sugar in a large bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and beat continuously using electric beaters until thick & creamy, about 10 minutes. 
• Remove bowl from the heat and continue beating until the mixture reaches room temperature.
• Sift over half the flour and fold in, add remaining flour and fold though. 
• Quickly fold in the butter. 
• Pour mix into pan and bake for 15 - 20 minutes. 
• Turn out immediately. 
• Once cool refrigerate until required. 

Strawberry Mousse

• 500g strawberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 100 g caster sugar
• 6 leaves gelatine (gold strength), softened in cold water (I think this would be about 4 or 5 tsp of gelatine) 
• 250ml (1 cup) Greek yoghurt
• 250 ml (1 cup) double cream

Method 

• Place the strawberries and lemon juice in a food processor and process until smooth. 
• Heat the purée and sugar in a saucepan over a low heat until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat. 
• Squeeze water from the soaked gelatine and add to the strawberry mixture. Stir well until dissolved, then cool.
• When cool whisk in the yoghurt and cream, chill in the fridge until slightly thickened. 

To assemble: 

•  Line the base of the clean springform tin with glad wrap. 
• Carefully slice sponge cake in half and place one half in the cake tin. 
• Spoon over half of the strawberry mousse (a ladle worked really well).
• Top with the other half of the sponge cake and then the remaining mousse. 
• Refrigerate overnight or until set. 
• To unmould, run a knife under hot water, dry completely and run around the inside of the tin then quickly remove the outer ring of the tin and slide onto a serving tray. 
• Top with a punnet of sliced strawberries combined with the pulp of one passionfruit and 1 tsp of caster sugar. (The sugar is optional, if your strawberries are sweet enough don't worry about it) 
• Refrigerate until serving. 

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