White Chocolate Berry Mousse Cake

My parents have been away cruising around Europe for two weeks, (lucky devils) and arrived home today, so I thought what better way to welcome them home from their travels then with a delicious cake! (what a great daughter I am eh ;) )
I wanted to try something different but still in cake form, as its my favourite thing to bake and also wanted to use the frozen berries I had laying around in the freezer! So I made a white chocolate berry mousse for the inside layers and then covered it with chantilly cream, white chocolate shavings and crystallised rose petals (these were so easy to do.)

This honestly was one of the best cakes i've made to date, so moist and light! 

Ingredients:

Cake-

• 180g unsalted butter
• 180g caster sugar
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 180g self raising flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

Mousse-

• 250g berries
• 200g white chocolate
• 150ml milk
• 4 tbsp water
• 2 gelatine leaves
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 200ml double/whipping cream

Chantilly Cream-

• 200ml double/whipping cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

Crystallised Rose Petals-

• 1 egg white
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 5 rose petals

Firstly bake the cake. Preheat your oven to 180c and grease and line two cake tins.

In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, add your eggs gradually (I beat them in a jug so its easier to slowly pour in.) and beat in the vanilla extract.

Sift in the flour and baking powder, and gently fold into the mixture with a metal spoon.

Divide the mixture between your two tins and place into the oven for 20-25 minutes.

Once baked let them cool for a few minutes before getting them out the tins and placing them onto a rack to cool completely. Once cooled, you can then use a bread knife to carefully split each sponge in half.

For the mousse, start off by puréeing the berries in a blender, then strain through a sieve into another bowl to remove any seeds.

Break up the white chocolate and place into a large bowl. Heat up the milk and pour over the white chocolate. Leave for a few minutes then stir to combine. Pour the puréed berries in and mix together.

Break up the gelatine leaves and place into a heat proof bowl. Cover with the water and soak for 10 minutes. Now place the heat proof bowl over a pan of slightly simmering water for 10 minutes to melt. Once melted, pour into another bowl to let the gelatine mixture cool down.

Once its cooled you can add it to the white chocolate berry mixture, and mix well together. In a separate bowl beat the cream until soft peaks, fold the cream into the berry mixture to combine.

Place the bowl into the fridge to set up. Leave it in there for 2 hours to set before using it on your cake. (before using give it a stir to loosen it up.)

The chantilly cream is really easy, just put all 3 ingredients into a bowl and beat until you get soft peaks.

                                                                        

Now the rose petals, have your egg white in a bowl and the caster sugar sprinkled on a plate for easy dipping. Using a pastry brush, brush a thin layer of egg white onto the rose petals and then dip into the caster sugar. Leave to dry on cling film for a couple of hours at least, easy!

                                                                           .

To assemble the cake I started with a slice of cake, piped a layer of mousse and then the same again until I put on the top layer of cake. I scraped any excess mousse off around the cake with a spatula to make a clean base for the cream. Then I simply 'iced' with the cream.

I only did one layer but for a sleeker finish you could double up the cream mixture, ice one layer, then place into the fridge to chill for half an hour, then ice another layer. Finish with white chocolate shavings and your crystallised rose petals!

                                  .

Its probably best to keep this cake in the fridge due to all the cream, also it should be eaten within 1-2 days really. Mine hardly lasted a day,
1. because everyone loved it
2. because a huge chunk of the cake was consumed by the pug! (we were giving a slice of cake away and he found it!) he is a nightmare, so make sure yours is kept safely away from scavengers!