Triple Layer Hazelnut Mocha Chocolate Mousse Cake

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Triple Layer Hazelnut Mocha Chocolate Mousse Cake | The Novice Housewife

triple layer hazelnut coffee chocolate cake-17

One of the most requested recipes by my family is the triple layer chocolate mousse cake I have posted before on the blog. And seriously, what’s there not to love about this cake. Its every chocolate lover’s dream dessert. Three different layers of chocolate in different forms- a dark chocolate mousse sandwiched between a rich flourless chocolate cake at the bottom, and  white chocolate mousse for the top.

So its not a biggie that every time I have made it, it has been appreciated a lot and thats why whenever I am at my parents, and we have company over that’s the first thing my mom suggests me to make.

A week back we had some guests over, so my mom wanted me to make the triple layer mousse cake again. I did not have access to white chocolate, but for long I have been toying with the idea of a mocha flavored mousse layer for a long time, so thought it would be the perfect occasion to finally try it out.

Since my dad is retiring and my parents are permanently moving to Punjab, my mom asked me to make use of ingredients in the refrigerator in an attempt to clean the fridge before packing it up. She had a bit of cream cheese left and I thought instead of a mascarpone mocha mousse (which was what I had initially planned) I should try a cream cheese based mousse recipe. I found a recipe on the Taste of Home website, and thought it was perfect.  Only change I made to the recipe was increase the amount of instant coffee called for in the recipe and adding gelatin to the mixture, since the original recipe called for it and I wasn’t sure whether the mousse would hold up in a cake form without the gelatin.

Triple Layer Hazelnut Mocha Chocolate Mousse Cake | The Novice Housewife

I had a little apprehensions about how the cake would turn out, since it was the first time I was making this version. The cake turned out perfect. My sister-in-law who has had both versions commented that she actually liked this one more. Well, who doesn’t love coffee and chocolate together!

This is a great dessert, and being fairly easy to make, a perfect way to impress your guests with your baking abilities. One of my sister-in-law’s friend has also made a mango cake version of it, with excellent results, which you can read about in the comment section of the original post.

And since I am posting today, I will also throw it out there that two days back was my Blogiversary. I completed four years of blogging! Yay!! Something that started of as a way to just kill time in the beginning and not really with an intention to have it being read by anyone has grown up to mean something so much more for me. This blog has given me an independent identity, its my creative outlet, and made me discover so much about me that probably would have remain hidden had the blog not been there. I have learnt so much because of this blog and I know I will continue learning so much more. The blog has also introduced me to such inspiring talents out in the blogging community and even though the past few weeks I haven’t been able to catch up with the blogging community, these bloggers continue to be an inspiration to me everyday. And I know I have been slacking with responding to you comments, but I really am grateful to everyone who reads this blog, comments on my posts, or silently keeps a track of my posts, likes me on facebook, follows me on instagram or twitter. It truly means a lot. Thank You and hope you enjoy this recipe 🙂

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Two old recipes revisited

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From Arizona to Delhi to Allahabad to Agra to Chandigarh, celebrating birthdays, parent’s anniversary, a friend’s bachelorette, cousin’s engagement and a new year I am again back to Allahabad and am staying put here for the next ten days. Post that I travel to Kolkata, Lucknow, Jaipur, another visit to Delhi and Chandigarh and a short visit to Jim Corbett National Park for one of my friends’ wedding. This trip has been very busy, and a lot of time has been spent in trains traveling from one city to the other. the trains, thanks to the fog setting in the northern parts of India, have been getting delayed, extending the time spent with the Indian Railways to even more and increasing the frustration that comes along with delays in your schedule. But now I am home, at my parents. 🙂

Being in India has made me lazy and though I have tried a little cooking/baking here and there, there has not been much going on in the novice housewife’s kitchen. And I miss it. I like to be occupied, feel busy, else my mind is a devil’s workshop. Now that I have a kitchen at my disposal (even if it’s for a few days), hopefully the mind will get some rest and some baking can be done.

To me, baking has always been therapeutic, my kind of meditation. Even when the results are not so perfect, the whole process of sifting, mixing, kneading or beating calms my mind. In those moments I forget everything else, forget the issues I might be facing, the small conversations that have pinched me and just let go. Seeing the butter turn pale from a golden yellow when beaten with sugar is an accomplishment for me. The smell of a cake baking lifts my mood instantly and a bite into a warm fresh out of the oven cake just sends me to another world.

And that is what I plan to do the next few days. Bake. Cook. Experiment. And blog. So while I am gearing for the prep of my mom’s birthday cake, I thought to share two recipes that I revisited over the last few months. I will leave you with these for now, with the promise that I will be back soon.

One is the Chauhan family favorite Triple Layer Chocolate Mousse Cake. That’s the first thing my brother and his wife request when they meet me. That’s the first thing my mom asks me to make for dessert if she is calling someone over. The name says it all- three layers of chocolate goodness- a fudgy, flourless cake topped with a dark chocolate mousse layer and finished off with a white chocolate mousse topping. For the recipe, either click here or on the picture.

The other is a favorite of many- Butter Chicken.

I have slightly revised the recipe that I had earlier and now I am pretty satisfied with the results I get. In fact I like them a lot. The addition of roasted red bell pepper is what makes this dish special. Again for the recipe, either click here or click on the picture.