Cherry mousse chocolate cake

Author: I present to you a chocolate honey cake with cherry jam, cherry mousse, and cream cheese frosting. What can be a better combination than truffle honey cakes and layers of a creamy cherry mousse with white chocolate?

I want to tell you right away - the cake weighs 4.5 kg | 10 pounds! It is tall and large, so please do not be afraid of the number of ingredients listed. I always make large cakes, and I want the recipe to match what's in the photo.

This time, I made the cake layers a bit thicker, but they soaked the cherry syrup well and turned out super soft.

I also want to note that I assemble the cake exclusively in a ring mold, leave it to stabilize for 2 hours on the coldest shelf of the fridge, then level with one layer of icing. Then I wrap the cake in clingfilm, put it in a ring, and let it cool again for several hours before making the finishing icing layer (it is a little thinner). Be sure to watch the video recipe.

Now, let's get started!

All ingredients should be at room temperature.

• In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, melt the butter in a water bath.
• In a separate bowl, combine eggs and sugar. Beat for 2-3 minutes until fluffy.
• Add beaten eggs, honey, cocoa, and cream to the melted butter and stir until smooth.
• Continuously stirring, cook the mass for 3-5 minutes, add baking soda and cook until it becomes larger (it takes about 5 minutes).
• Remove the ready custard base from a water bath, and leave it at room temperature for 5 minutes.
• Then in portions, add sifted flour, carefully stirring with a whisk. When the dough becomes too stiff for the whisk, sift some flour to the work surface, place the dough on it and gently add the flour with your hands. It is very important not to add too much flour! The dough should be soft and tender.
• Cover the dough with cling film and leave it for 5 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 356F | 180C. Divide the dough into 10 pieces of about 150 g | 5 oz. Roll out each of them to 21-22 cm | 8.5 inches. After baking, trim the hot cake layers to 20 cm.

• Combine the sour cream, milk, eggs, egg yolk, sugar, and cornstarch in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Mix with a whisk until homogeneous and cook over a little less than medium heat, stirring for 15-17 minutes until it thickens.
• Pour the ready frosting into another container, cover it with cling film, cool, then leave in the fridge for 3 hours.
• Combine the cooled, stable cream with the cream cheese. To do this, place the cooled cream cheese in the mixer bowl and beat slightly on medium speed, then use a tablespoon to add the frosting until combined. You will get an airy frosting.

• Beat thawed cherries and juice with a blender until puréed.
• In a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, heat the mixture to 104F | 40C. Then add the sugar, pectin, and starch mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Bring the mixture to a boil and simmer for 3 more minutes, stirring constantly.
• Pou it into another container, cover with cling film, cool, then chill for 2 hours.

• Soak leaf gelatin in cold water. Put the blender bowl with the whisk in the fridge. The cream should be well chilled!
• Beat the defrosted cherries with a blender.
• Separately, melt white chocolate.
• Put the cherry puree and sugar in a saucepan and simmer a bit (2-3 minutes, until 131F | 50-60C, stirring), add the melted white chocolate, and stir.
• Add swollen gelatin squeezed out of excess liquid, and stir until dissolved.
• Cool at room temperature for about 10-12 minutes. Meanwhile, whip the cream, add the cherry mixture, mix gently until smooth (without breaking the fluffiness) and distribute in equal portions of 240 g | 8.5 oz in silicone molds d=18 cm | 7 inches.
• Place it in the freezer (author: I made the mousse in advance and left it in the freezer overnight).

• First, you need to make the syrup. Combine cherry jam with boiling water, stir until smooth and cool.
• Assemble in the following order: cake layer-syrup-frosting-cherry confit.
• Author: I brushed the cakes with the syrup only lightly. I applied 170-180 g | 6 oz of frosting and 80-90g | 3 oz of cherry jam on each cake layer. Distribute a little less frosting (about 100 g | 3.5 oz) on the cake before the mousse, then the frozen mousse. Form small frosting rims on top of the mousse and distribute the cherry confit in the middle. Keep assembling this way.
• The assembly information is also indicated at the beginning of the article.

• Combine the cooled cream cheese, room temperature butter, and powdered sugar in a mixer bowl.
• Whip at high speed until combined and airy.
• Ice the cake in 2 steps. After the 1st layer, wrap the cake in cling film and let it stabilize. Then apply the 2nd layer of icing, and leave the cake in the fridge overnight.
• Decorate the cake as desired.

Bon appetit!