French Fridays with Dorie: Michel Rostang’s double chocolate mousse cake

Dorie Greenspan mini mousse cake bites on eatlivetravelwrite.comWell there had to be a first, right? A first recipe for French Fridays with Dorie that didn’t work out quite as expected. I mean, it didn’t taste bad – in fact it tasted amazing. It just didn’t do what it was supposed to and didn’t look like it did in the book.

Still, it was a perfect day for baking and I thoroughly enjoyed myself making (and tasting!) this!

(with apologies to Dorie. Your book is looking very well-loved!)

The recipe in question is Michel Rostang’s double chocolate mousse cake and I was not the only one who had a few issues with it, as you can see from the P&Q page (where you can also see the picture of what it’s supposed to look like).  Can I just say here how much I love that Dorie herself chimed in on the questions.  She also contacted me asking what issues I was having when I tweeted about my cake not looking right.  Thank you Dorie, for caring!  The cake itself is a gorgeous chocolate mousse – 1/3 of which you bake in the oven, then you either have the option to top the chilled base with the remainder of the mousse and serve it cold, or bake the rest of the mousse on top and either serve it warm or chilled.  It’s a great recipe and the mousse is divine.

The recipe calls for the cake to be baked in a springform pan minus the base, on parchment. I had a little bit of the mixture leak out of the bottom, so next time I would use the pan with the base in.

My major problem was with the height of the cake – it looked nothing like it was supposed to, though I used the right sized springform pan – next time I would just go for a much smaller (or individual) pan.

This was the first layer out of the oven and chilled, also shrunk away from the edges of the springform pan. To add the rest of the mousse and bake the second layer, I had to make a circle of parchment paper around the cake to hold the mousse in.

Then when it came out of the oven, the 2 different layers were barely distinguishable…

The first time I served it, I took it to a friends’ and we ate it at room temperature. It was wonderful, just flat.

With the leftovers, I cut them into tiny bite-sized rounds – they looked much more chic..

Would I make this again? Yes, absolutely (in a smaller tin), because for me the proof in the pudding cake is in the taste. And there was nothing wrong with the taste of this – it’s rich but light at the same time – pretty much your perfect chocolate dessert!

Want to join in the fun? Join French Fridays with Dorie here and follow along on Twitter.

French Fridays with Dorie participants do not publish the recipes on our blogs, rather, we would prefer it if you would purchase the book yourselves (trust me, you definitely want this book!) which you can do here on Amazon (great price right now) or here on Amazon Canada (it’s also on special!).  Go on, treat yourself join us in 2011!

Don’t forget to enter my Tassimo T20 giveaway!  Open to US and Canadian addresses only.  Details here.

57 thoughts on “French Fridays with Dorie: Michel Rostang’s double chocolate mousse cake”

  1. My cake rose up but it was still ugly as all get-out … Your solution to cut them into little circles is genius! Looks so cute and as you say – chic.

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  2. oh, i’m sure it tastes wonderful even though it didn’t look as it did in the book. the minis are more chic, but we all want to eat the big size =)

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  3. Oh boy! I don’t know why you blog (as asked by you on twitter) but I know I’d gladly open my front door and let you in, especially if you were carrying this! It looks fabulous.

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  4. Mardi, cutting the cake into the little rounds wsa such an inspired idea! They look delectable. I agree, taste was incredible, the puffiness just didn’t happen! So cool that Dorie is responding to questions. On another note, salted my duck breasts last night and they are getting hung tonight! So excited to see how they turn out. Thanks for the inspiration to join CharchutePalooza!

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  5. Hmm…interesting. Meant to make this but then got confused in my head re: the FFWD schedule and thought we were baking this next week. Now I’ll have to try this soon and see if I’ll have the same difficulties as everyone else.

    Still, great job!!

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  6. I love the fact that when you reached out for help, no other than Dorie Greenspan herself came to your rescue. How cool is that? I wound up having the same issues with a thin cake too. Such a great idea you had in cutting them into little rounds. Your correct, they do look very chic. Great idea and great pictures 🙂

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  7. You are right that they do look very chic! Flat or not, I’m sure they tasted wonderful. Love the photo of the pretty snow!

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  8. Once you made them in individual portions they look fabulous and so elegant. And chocolate mousse cake? Yes please! Beautiful, Mardi!

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  9. I love the little trio of cakes – super chic! I certainly wouldn’t push it off my plate – flat or not!

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  10. Love the setting with the dusting of icing sugar reflecting the snow in the next picture. Talk about a lesson in presentation from oven to table! – brilliant pictures thank you

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  11. Looks good to me. Anything chocolate does though 🙂 I like your solution of doing the rounds, too. Even when the big/intended item doesn’t work out exactly like you want it to, there’s still a way to make it look elegant.

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  12. I am sorry that it didn’t come out the way that you had hoped – but it looks delicious to me all the same! Did you ever figure out why yours didn’t come out looking like the one in the book?

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  13. well, whether it “worked” or not, they look delicious . . . and what better baking project for a cold, snowy day? 🙂

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  14. Sorry yours didn’t turn out as well as expected. Better luck next time!

    I just did a post on it, and tho delicious, the cake cracked. Nevertheless, it was the best tasting mousse ever

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