Vanilla cake with strawberry mousse filling and white chocolate ganache icing | Kukskitchen

Valentines day-Time for a special sweet treat eh?

I tried used vanilla extract with seeds for the first time and boy did it make a difference! The simple vanilla cake was a treat in itself.

Here is how I made it.

Recipe sourced from here. Thanks Ruchi.

Ingredients

1 - Vanilla cake

     Plain flour (maida) - 1 1/2 cup

     Unsalted Butter - 1/2 cup(softened)

     Eggs -2(large )

     Sugar -1 cup

     Baking powder - 1 3/4 tsp
     Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
     Milk - 1/2 cup
     Salt - 1/4 tsp

2 - Strawberry mousse

     Egg yolks - 3
     Milk - 3/4 cup
     Double cream - 3/4 cup
     Sugar - 1/2 cup
     Vanilla extract - 1tbs
     Corn flour - 3 tbs
     Strawberry puree - 3/4 cup
     Gelatin - 1/2 tbs
     Water - 4 tbs

3 - White chocolate ganache

     Extra thick double cream - 125ml
     White chocolate - 250gms
     Vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp
     Butter - 1 tbsp

Method:

Vanilla cake

- Sift flour,baking powder,salt twice and keep aside.
- Beat butter in room temperature using ur food processor/ egg beater for 1-2 minutes.
- Add sugar and beat again until fluffy.

- Add eggs one by one to this mixing after each addition
- Add vanilla extract and beat again.
- Now add flour and milk alternately to this wet mixture, gently mixing after each addition beginning and ending with flour.
- Pour the batter into 8 inch greased and dusted tin and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees (fan assisted oven) or until a tooth pick test comes out clean.
- Let the cake cool down completely on a wire rack.

Strawberry mousse

- In a food processor add egg yolks ,sugar,corn flour,vanilla extract and whisk it until sugar is dissolved - In a saucepan add milk and cream on a low flame and when it starts to boil turn off the flame.
- Add the hot milk cream mixture to the egg mixture carefully and very slowly with one hand whilst constantly strirring with other hand.
- Once all the milk is added pour it back to the saucepan and on a very low heat cook the custard by constantly stirring with a whisk  until gets thick.
- Seive the custard to avoid lumps .
- Cover and chill the custard

-Meanwhile puree the strawberries to a fine paste.
- Melt gelatin adding 4 tbsps of water and microwave for about 30 seconds.

- Add this to strawberry puree.
- Mix well and add strawberry-gelatin mixture to the custard and chill.
- After about half an hour, beat the chilled strawberry custard for 2-3 minutes on high speed till it becomes light and fluffy.
- Chill until ready to use

White chocolate ganache

- In a pan simmer the double cream and when it starts to bubble, turn of the heat.
- Add chocolate and once the chocolate is melted, add vanilla extract ,butter, give it a good mix and allow to cool.

Final assembly.

- Cut the cake in half using thread-method ideally.

- Layer strawberry mousse at the centre and sandwich with the top layer of cake.

- Ice with the ganache.

- Decorate with chocolate shavings and strawberries.

Verdict:

-My son luved it. I luved the strawberry mousse on its own the best. I am definitely going to make it to serve as a dessert on it own.

- The cake takes a bit longer than ur regular cake to assemble, understandably due to the awesome ingredients, but believe me it is worth the effort.
- I have to confess, I was a bit lazy towards the end and messed up presentation a bit. :P

cheers

Sherin