White Chocolate Strawberry Mousse Cake

This cake is a great alternative to the simple strawberry shortcake. Even if you don't like white chocolate, the white chocolate is not a strong flavor and instead is just a complementary flavor that enrichens the simple vanilla cake and balances the sweetness of the strawberry. The cake is composed of two dense white cake layers with a white chocolate strawberry mousse filling and a white cream covering. The mousse filling is super sweet from the strawberry puree that is used, without any additional suger, so if you are looking for a less sweet cake a I would reduce the amount of sugar that goes into the cake. Because of its natural sweetness, this will be a cake loved by your kids!

Ingredients

Cake:

3.5 oz white chocolate, finely chopped

1/2 cup whipping cream

1/2 cup plain yogurt (usually this is sold in stores as Greek yogurt)

1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick), softened but not melted

1/2 cup granulated sugar (I would recommend using half this amount just to counteract the sweetness of   the mousse)

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 cups flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup milk

Strawberry Mousse:

1/2 lb fresh or frozen strawberries

1 Tbsp lemon juice

4 oz white chocolate, finely chopped

3/4 tsp unflavored gelatin (I was intimidated by the fact that this recipe called for gelatin, but it was actually super easy to use)

1 cup whipping cream

1 Tbsp powdered sugar

Red food coloring (optional because the strawberry puree turned the mousse an unnaturally pink color by itself so food coloring is not necessary)

Fresh strawberries, diced

White Chocolate Cream:

6 oz white chocolate

1 cup whipping cream

Instructions

White Chocolate Cream:

The recipe I have provided on this blog is the one that came with the cake, which I found was way too much like whipped cream to properly ice the cake (it basically just fell off the sides). I would recommend only icing the top and not the sides of the cake, but this means that your cake must have very nice looking sides and the layers must be very even for the cake to look nice. If you have a favorite vanilla frosting recipe of white chocolate buttercream, those would work well too, they would just be a little heavier than using the whipped cream.

The cream must be prepared first so it has time to cool. Heat cream in a heavy saucepan and then pour over the chopped chocolate. Cover chocolate with plastic wrap for 5 minutes and then remove the plastic wrap and stir until the chocolate is melted. Place cream and chocolate mixture in the fridge until it is much cooler (usually takes a few hours). If you don't have a few hours, stick it in the freezer until cold.  

Cake:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a heavy saucepan, bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chopped white chocolate. Cover with plastic wrap for 5 min and then remove plastic wrap, stir, and then let the mixture cool. While yogurt mixture is cooling, beat the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until creamed. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. Mix in the vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix together the sifted flour, baking soda, and salt.

Once the white chocolate mix has cooled, add in the yogurt and then add this mix into the butter. Then add in the flour and milk and mix slowly until combined. The batter should be very thick, closer in resemblance to cookie dough then cake batter. Add cake batter to 2 prepared, 9 inch round pans. I prepare my pans by first buttering the entire pan, then adding in parchment paper to the bottom, buttering over the parchment paper, and then adding a thin layer of flour over the inside of the pan. This may seem like a lot of work, but it ensures that the cake comes easily out of the pan, which avoides the chance of them cracking or getting stuck in the pan. Cook the cakes for 30 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Strawberry mousse:

Before you do anything else, stick a large bowl and beaters into the freezer, this mousse is resistant to becoming stiff and having cold equipment makes all the difference. Clean and hull the fresh strawberries (or allow the frozen strawberries to defrost, they do not need to be cleaned or hulled). Puree the strawberries with a food processor, mixer, or immersion blender. Then press the puree through a sieve (I used cheesecloth) to remove the seeds. Add in the lemon juice and then set aside. 

Place the gelatin in 1/4 cup cold water and let sit for 5 min to dissolve. In a microwave safe bowl, microwave white chocolate in 20 second intervals until the white chocolate is melted. Remember to stir between every interval to ensure that the chocolate does not burn! In a heavy saucepan, heat 2 Tbsp of heavy cream with the powdered sugar until sugar is dissolved. Add it to the white chocolate mixture and then whisk in the strawberry puree. If needed, add in the food coloring during this step. Whip the remaining whipping cream in the cooled bowl from the freezer until soft peaks form. Fold in the cooled chocolate/strawberry mixture and then refridgerate for an hour or until you are ready to prepare the cake.

Assembly:

Dice a handful of cleaned strawberries for the mousse. Remove mousse from the fridge and whip until stiff peaks form. I had trouble getting the mousse to a stiff enough consistency so that it didn't ooze out from between the cake layers, so make sure the cake is completely cooled before you attempt assembly. Fold in the diced strawberries to the mousse and then gently spread over the bottom cake layer. 

Take the white chocolate cream out of the fridge and whip until stiff peaks form. Cover the cake in the white chocolate cream. You don't need to worry about doing a crumb layer since the cake is fairly dense and doesn't give off any crumbs. For decorating the top, I sliced a dozen or so strawberries length wise and then placed in circular patterns along the top.