For the recent International Women's Day, I made a new mousse cake for guests (and for myself too, why not :). The base is a sponge cake — I used the same one as in Apple Sponge Cake with Cream. On top I made two mousse layers: the bottom one is raspberry, but if you don't have raspberries, you can easily swap it out for another flavor — strawberry or blueberry would work beautifully here as well. The top mousse is lemon, made from the lemon curd that many of you are already familiar with (for example, Lemon Ice Cream, Tartlets with Lemon Cream, Meringue Cake with Lemon Curd), folded together with whipped heavy cream and gelatin. If you've already made the lemon ice cream I mentioned, you'll have a good idea of what the top mousse tastes like. It's not tart at all — it's incredibly delicate and creamy with a light, pleasant(!) tang, and the bright lemon aroma is simply out of this world! The cake turned out so delicious, tender, and fragrant that the guests devoured it in an instant! So, so good!
Ingredients:
- Sponge cake:
- 2 eggs
- 60 g sugar
- 40 g flour
- 10 g starch (I used cornstarch)
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
- 0.5 tsp baking powder
- Soak:
- 2 tbsp water + 2 tsp lemon juice + 2 tsp sugar
- Raspberry mousse:
- 300 g raspberries (frozen or fresh)
- 200 g heavy cream 33%
- 100 g sugar
- 10 g gelatin
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Lemon mousse:
- 250 g heavy cream 33%
- 120 g sugar
- 70 g lemon juice + zest (≈ 1 lemon)
- 50 g butter
- 3 egg yolks
- 7 g gelatin
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar
How to cook lemon-raspberry mousse cake
Make the sponge cake exactly as described here — Apple Sponge Cake with Cream. My cake is 20 cm in diameter! Place the sponge in a pan or ring mold, porous side up. Soak with the prepared soaking syrup.
Make the raspberry mousse. Place the raspberries (frozen — no need to thaw) and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil, mashing them with a potato masher to speed things up. Add the lemon juice and let it boil for a couple of minutes. Then press the mixture through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Let it cool. Bloom the gelatin in 70 ml of water, let it sit for 10 minutes, then heat until the gelatin is fully dissolved, and let it cool completely. Pour into the raspberry mixture, stirring as you go.
Pour in the raspberry mixture while continuing to whip. Taste and add powdered sugar if needed. Refrigerate the raspberry mousse until it starts to thicken (stir it occasionally).
Make the lemon mousse. Zest the lemon using a fine grater, then squeeze the juice from the lemon. In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, lemon juice, zest, regular sugar, and vanilla sugar.
Strain through a fine-mesh sieve and place over heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened. The mixture may bubble actively, but the egg yolks won't curdle. Add the butter and stir until melted.
Whip the heavy cream to soft peaks, then add the curd and whip together. Bloom the gelatin in 50 ml of water ahead of time, let it sit for 10 minutes. Heat until the gelatin is fully dissolved, then let it cool. Pour the gelatin into the lemon mousse while whipping. Be sure(!) to taste the lemon mousse and adjust to your liking, adding powdered sugar if needed.
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