Strawberry Mousse Chocolate Cake

This is a revised recipe of my strawberry mousse cake. I first made this cake for my mum's birthday and have since made it again for a Christmas family gathering. 

Ingredients

A) 1x chocolate sponge cake, cut into 2 even layers

B) 400g strawberry
     ¼ cup caster sugar
     1 tablespoon lemon juice
     1 teaspoon strawberry essence

C)  300ml cream
     3 tablespoons icing sugar
     ½ teaspoon pink food colouring (optional)

D) 1 tablespoon gelatine powder 
     50ml hot water 

E)  Extra strawberries sliced and cubed (as much as you like- I used approx 125g)

F)  100ml thickened cream

     1 tablespoon icing sugar, extra

G)  Sugar syrup glaze (optional)

H)  6 strawberries, halved for garnish 

Method

1. Clean and hull 400g strawberries. Add ¼ cup caster sugar and let it sit for 5 minutes. Purée them in a blender and put it through the strainer. You should get about 400ml strawberry purée  Stir in 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon strawberry essence. Reserve 1½ tablespoons of this purée for the swirl effect.
2. In a chilled bowl, whip 300ml cream with 3 tablespoons icing sugar till mousse state.
3. Dissolve 1 tablespoon gelatine in 50ml hot water, whisk with a fork, let stand for 5 minutes then stir this into the strawberry purée. 
4. Fold the whipped cream into the strawberry mixture. Add pink food colouring, if using. Pour into a measuring jug.
5. Line the inner circumference of a spring form cake pan with plastic cake tape. Place a slice of the chocolate sponge cake at the base, cut side up and top it with half the mousse. Add in the strawberry pieces (leave a 2cm border around the cake). Press the fruits down gently if needed. Top it with some mousse just enough to cover the strawberry pieces.
6. Top it with another layer of chocolate sponge cake and pour the rest of the mousse on it.
7. Spoon teaspoonfuls of the reserved purée onto the surface of the mousse on desired positions and swirl it with a toothpick to create the swirls. I put a few teaspoons on the middle of the cake and the rest at clock position of 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10.
8. Cover the cake pan with cling wrap (twice). Refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
9. Brush the halved strawberries with sugar syrup. Set aside.
10. Use an electric beater to beat 100ml thickened cream and 1 tablespoon icing sugar in a medium bowl until firm peaks form. 
11. Place the cream in a piping bag fitted with a 1cm fluted nozzle and pipe rosettes around the edge of the cake. Arrange some glazed strawberries around the cake between the cream rosettes. 
12. Cut the cake into wedges to serve. 

To make sugar syrup:

100ml water

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon unflavoured gelatine powder

1. Pour water, sugar and gelatine powder into a small sauce pan.
2. Stir the ingredients to combine over medium heat until the sugar and gelatine dissolves and the water begins to simmer.
3. Remove the pan from heat and set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Brush the glaze over fruit while slightly warm.

Notes & Tips

• I lined the inner circumference of my spring form cake pan with plastic cake tape and trimmed my cake to be smaller than the spring form pan. This way the mousse will cover the whole cake and you don’t need to cream the cake. If you don't have any cake tape, use baking paper instead.
• You can make your own plastic cake tape using acetate sheets bought from an arts & craft store. Start by measuring the height of the cake pan (approx 2.5 inches) and cut a long rectangular strip out of the acetate sheet (length of the strip is the circumference of the cake + 2 cm extra).
• You could also decorate this cake with a patterned white chocolate collar if you wish
• If you notice that you have not completely covered the cake with the mousse, you could do a bit of patchwork by using up the left over cream for the rosettes- add  ¼ tsp pink food coloring to the cream and spread/fill in the spaces and smooth it out using a cake scraper. 
• If you don't have strawberry essence, you could use strawberry flavoured gelatine powder instead
• You'll need approx. 3 punnets of strawberries for this recipe.