Recipe#4033

Title: Chocolate Mousse 01

Newsgroups: rec.food.recipes 
 From: kdeck@epaus.island.net (Karen Deck) 
 Subject: Chocolate Mousse Cakes 
 Message-ID: <1995Jan2.225146.22857@midway.uchicago.edu> 
 Date: Mon, 2 Jan 1995 22:51:46 GMT 

8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse
 6 tb unsalted butter,cut into pieces, softened
 8 eggs, separated, room temp
 1 c sugar
 2 tb orange flavored liqueur
 1 tb orange rind, grated
 1/4 ts salt, plus a pinch
 1 pn cream of tartar
 2/3 c cake flour, sifted
 9 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse
 6 egg yolks, room temperature
 3/4 c sugar, + 1 tb
 2 tb water
 10 tb unsalted butter cut in pieces and softened
 1 c  heavy cream
 8 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped coarse
 2 tb orange flavored liqueur
 oranges, halved and sliced thin into half rounds, about 14 slices
 Butter two 9" round cake pans and line the bottoms
 with wax paper, then butter the paper. Dust the pans with flour and
 knock out the excess. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
 In the top of a double boiler, heat the chocolate over hot water,
 stirring, until just melted. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in
 the butter, one tablespoon at a time. Continue to stir the mixture
 until smooth. In the bowl of the mixer, beat the egg yolks until
 combined. Add 3/4 cup of the sugar, a little at a time, and continue
 to beat the mixture until it falls in a ribbon when the beater is
 lifted.
 Beat in the melted chocolate mixture, the liqueur and the orange
 pinch of salt until frothy. Add the cream of tartar and beat the
 whites until they hold soft peaks. Add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar, a
 little at a time, and beat the whites until they are stiff. Sift the
 flour with the remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt onto a sheet of wax paper.
 Stir one fourth of the whites into the batter. Fold in the remaining
 whites and sift and fold the flour mixture in batches into the egg
 mixture until just combined.
 Pour the batter into the cake pans, smoothing the tops, and bake
 the layers in the middle of the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until
 a cake tester inserted into the centers comes out clean. Let the
 cakes cool in the pans on racks for 5 minutes, invert the cakes
 onto the racks, and remove the wax paper carefully. Let the cakes
 cool completely.  The cakes form a thin crust that will flake off.
 In a small saucepan bring the cream just to a simmer.  Remove the
 pan from the heat, add the chocolate and let the mixture stand,
 covered, for 5 minutes. Stir in the liqueur and continue to stir
 the ganache until smooth and tepid. Strain through a fine sieve
 into a small pitcher or a bowl with a lip.
 Cut an 8" cardboard round and put one teaspoon of the mousse in
 the center of it, then set one of the cake layers, bottom side up
 on the cardboard. Cover the cake with some of the mousse, smoothing
 it into an even layer, and top it with the remaining layer, bottom
 side up. Cover the top and the sides of the cake with the remaining
 mousse, smoothing it with a spatula, and chill the cake until it
 is cold. Set the cake on a rack over a jelly roll pan and pour the
 creme ganache over it, smoothing it with a spatula to completely
 cover the top and sides of the cake. Let the cake stand at room
 temperature for 10 minutes and scrape any excess chocolate glaze
 from the jelly roll pan back into the saucepan. Heat the excess
 ganache, stirring, until smooth, cool it to tepid, and pour it over
 the cake, smoothing it with a spatula over the top and sides of
 the cake. Chill the cake until the glaze is set. Transfer the
 reserved chocolate mixture to a pastry bag. Arrange orange slices,
 rounded sides up on the top of the cake, so that one end of the
 slice is toward the center and the other is toward the edge of the
 cake. Pipe the chocolate mixture along the base on each side of
 the orange slices. Arrange the remaining cream decoratively around
 the bottom edge of the cake. Let the cake stand at room temperature
 for at least 15 minutes before serving.