Mousse Cake

It has been a while since my last post... I had some guests from London, coming over for weekend, so, we were quite busy. Busy means cleaning the small shoe box (our apt), busy arguing with Mr. Gorilla about what needs to be taken out from his cage, although when the guests were here, we always had our apt cleaned by them, which makes me start missing them a lot now, hehe. But we passed a very good moment together, we went to Giverny, the inspirational garden of Monet, and then we went to Fontainebleau, the mystical forest not far from Paris. I have never seen a forest like that in my entire life, but then again, which forest have i ever been to? Not a lot! Broceliande forest in Bretagne – West France (where they made the legend of King Arthur's sword, Vivianne and Merlin) was superb, and full of mystery too. There are also many graves of the druids, the old habitants of France (okay, i am not sure, if they are the gauls or not, i am too lazy to do research again, sorry).

So, now that i am lonely again, i am cheering myself by cooking and cooking. This post is about what i made the day before yesterday. Lately, i have been obsessed with the mousse cake, i wonder how to make the smooth looking thing that shares the resemblance to ice cream.

I got the idea of the recipe from Tartlette's (Hélène) site. But since i don't eat gelatin, i had to opt in for agar-agar powder. Luckily it is not difficult to find agar-agar powder in Paris, just that i have trouble converting the gelatin quantity to agar-agar powder. So i am really not sure about it....

The first trial following the whole recipe but using agar-agar instead of gelatine was a mess, because the mousse was too liquid, it wont hold the form. Then i remember in my old foodblog, i made a stupid looking cake with mousse. Anyway, at the second trial, i used the mousse recipe that i made on that silly posting (inspired by joy of baking), but changing it with citrus fruits, but i kept Tartlette's olive oil sponge cake, because i really love the taste of it; sweet and acid. My entremet is not round (10 x 10cm), it is rectangular, but i am quite happy with the second trial's result, although i must admit that it is not yet perfeck, as it is still a little bit too liquid. Maybe i should add 2 more grams for the agar-agar.

Anyway, here is how i do my cake.

For the sponge cake, follow the recipe of tartlette's site.

The Mousse:
Ingredients:

• 230 gr smooth-blended (puree) citrus fruits (or berries)
• 120 ml whipping cream (I used crème fleurette)
• 9 gr powder agar-agar

Directions:

1. Devide the puree in two bowls heat resistant.
2. In one of the bowls, add the agar-agar powder, mix well, let it for 5 minutes, and then heat it in the microwave (high heat) for 2 minutes. Mix with the rest of the puree, set aside.
3. Mix the whipping cream until firm, add the puree, cool inside the fridge for 20 minutes, until the puree is firm. Mix again.

Assembling:
Follow tartlette's recipe for assembling; cut your cake according to the size of your entremet, add the mousse (I used 2 tbs for each entremets). Cool it overnight in the fridge.