Green & Black's Chocolate Mousse Cake

When we were living in London, one of our many gastronomic discoveries was Green & Black’s organic chocolate, and we were very happy when it appeared in America several months after our return. So when Meg linked to a chocolate cake recipe that said at the bottom it was from Green & Black’s, there was no question it was going on the chocolate cake agenda. Being me, of course I searched out the original recipe at Green & Black’s, and I was happy to see that it was pretty much the same, except in grams. Oh, and the baking times were different, which I noticed but didn’t really worry about (and if you are a diligent student of narrative, you are now thinking uh-oh, something’s going to happen with the cooking times, kind of along the lines of the gun on the wall that must be fired).

I made it this weekend, for my sister’s birthday. It was delightfully easy: melt the chocolate, butter and sugar in a double boiler; beat the eggs, ground almonds, and salt; add the egg et al. to the chocolate et al. and mix for a long time; bake. I had a moment of anxiety when the partly-melted chocolate/butter/sugar looked alarmingly like the granulated mess of the recent Chocolate Meringue Truffle Cake imbroglio, but I quickly realized that it looked granulated because the chocolate and butter had not yet melted sufficiently to absorb the (granulated) sugar, and soon enough it looked quite right.

The Green & Black’s recipe said to bake for 35-40 minutes, but the other one said to take it out at exactly 45 minutes when the top begins to crack, so I was not alarmed when it did not seem ready at 40, and cheerfully took it out at 45, with just one small crack. S was dubious, however, and I do think it maybe should have stayed in a little longer, but I’m jumping ahead of myself (everything seems to take longer in our oven, and I am naturally impatient, which is one of the many reasons I am not a very good cook, but really I need to get a thermometer for the oven and come to terms with this situation, because it is an issue every time I bake).

We stuck one candle in the middle and served it with whipped cream. It was dense and fudgy (hence, perhaps, the need for maybe a few more minutes in the oven?), extremely rich, with a strong, pure chocolate taste. It didn’t have the promised molten center, but that may also be due to the fact that we served it a full day after I made it. Really, it seemed like a chocolate truffle cake not a chocolate mousse cake, especially given the ingredients and process (I would expect a chocolate mousse cake to be lighter and involve either cream or egg whites, whipped).

My nephew gobbled up his piece and said, with a satisfied sigh, “that was fantastic,” so you can take that for what it’s worth. Everyone else cleaned their plates too, albeit more slowly, and said it was delicious. I had a small piece, and thought it was a bit much, but I must admit that the next morning, as I poured cereal for small children, I cut myself a tiny bit, and then another, and then another. And when my nephew got grumpy, I took my aunt’s prerogative and gave him a piece of that cake and another cake that someone had given my sister, and he said that mine was much better and the other one was too much (and he was happy for the rest of the day).

So I’d say it’s definitely recommended if you like your chocolate cake intense, though it's worth perhaps considering a few more minutes in the oven, or serving it on the same day it's baked.

[And M wants me to add that yesterday she and S made eclairs and they were delicious.]