Chocolate Mousse Cake and Trifle

 It's no secret by now that the other members of my household and I love chocolate, so I wasn't surprised when my son requested chocolate mousse cake for his birthday. He had a slice of chocolate layer cake with mouse filling at our favorite local eatery, Blue Sky, and just absolutely loved it. Now, no other kind of cake will do.

Of course, his party was celebrated the weekend before the date of his actual birthday at my parent's house in Michigan with my siblings, niece, and nephew. Transporting a six-layer cake over two hours? Not bloody likely. Thus, we compromised, the boy would accept a chocolate trifle substitute

for the party with a mousse cake to follow closer to his birthday.

I whipped up the chocolate trifle at my mom's the morning of the party. It's super simple and the most time-consuming part of it is waiting for pudding to set.

Chocolate Trifle

What you need:

1 box chocolate cake mix, your preference and necessary ingredients

1 large box of chocolate pudding mix and necessary ingredients.

1 tub of whipped topping

1. Bake the cake according to package instructions, cool, and cut into small squares.

2. Make the pudding according to package instructions and allow to set.

3. In a large, even-diameter bowl, layer half of the cake squares, then half the pudding, then half the whipped topping. The repeat, so that there are two layers of each ingredient.

4. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

This is a holiday stand-by dessert in our family. The kids love it and it's quick and easy to make. Because it was the first time I've been in charge of making it though, it ended up a little sloppy-looking. Usually, Mom makes it. It was hard to get the candles upright, but otherwise, it worked out just fine.

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the mousse cake didn't end up made until the week after the boy's birthday. The husband made the cake and the mousse, I, as usual, made the frosting.

 

Chocolate Layer Cake with Mousse Filling and Chocolate Frosting

For full instructions: click here.

Our cake turned out not quite as pretty as the one in the blog from which we found the recipe, but no worries. A slightly lopsided cake is just as tasty as a perfectly cylindrical one with fancy frosted details.

This cake was super moist and super rich. In a word, it was just criminally decadent. The cake was light and fluffy for a from-scratch recipe, which I usually find a bit on the heavy side. The mousse was creamy and chocolate-y and added a much-needed lightness to the rich chocolate flavors. The frosting was almost too sweet, but not quite and very very, intensely chocolate-flavored. If I could do it over again, I probably would have cut the sweetness with a pinch or too of flour, like I do with my vanilla frosting. There was not a dissatisfied customer at the table after this one.

Of course, the cake is featured on top of our new dining room table, which looks a little something like this: