So for a birthday a little bit ago (and recently Christmas) I decided to make a Raspberry Mousse cake.  I have been kind of on a dessert making binge recently, which seriously needs to stop as I have put on a few pounds. Never in my life have I eaten this much sugar/sweets/desserts as I have in the past few months. I usually don’t like chocolate and eat it maybe once or twice a year, but I’ve had it like weekly in the past 4 months. Craziness. Anyways, I made this cake once for a birthday and as I was showing my little cousin my recent baking exploits, she said she wanted one when we got together for Christmas. This girl is super picky and she really doesn’t eat anything, so I decided why the heck not. Let’s do it. So I ended up making it again and she just took the whole thing home because she didn’t want to share it with the family (smart girl lol). This is really a mix and match of 2 recipes, 1 being a basic chocolate cake, and the other the raspberry mousse that I got from Natasha’s Kitchen. Thanks Natasha!

Ingredients for Cake:

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup boiling water

Ingredients for Mousse:

• 1 1/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 Tbsp Knox Unflavored Gelatin
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 1/2 Tbsp confectioners (powdered) sugar

Instructions:

• For the cake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter 2″ cake pans
• In a bowl, combine and mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt
• In a small bowl, beat and mix  eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla
• Slowly add boiling water and mix well
• Add wet ingredients to dry, fold and stir until smooth and well combined
• Pour batter and divide between 2 pans, bake for 30-35 minutes
• Remove the cakes and let cool on racks
• For the mousse, combine the raspberries and sugar in a small saucepan over low-medium heat
• Whisk together until a sauce then remove from heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve, extracting as much juice as possible (may need to push on the sauce using a spoon)
• Pour the juice back in the pan and whisk lemon juice and gelatin, heating the sauce until the gelatin dissolves
• Refrigerate sauce until it is room temperature (be careful to not over refrigerate as the sauce sets quick)
• Whip heavy cream to soft peaks and add confectioners sugar, then continue whipping to stiff peaks
• Pour room temp raspberry sauce into whipped cream and fold the sauce in
• Spread the mousse over the cake and refrigerate for 2 hours up to overnight
• Decorate with whipped cream and raspberries and serve!