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Mini Chocolate Cake

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Ingredients

Scale
  • 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup dark cocoa powder, or regular
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 3 tablespoons hot water
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • pinch of salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon expresso powder (optional)

For mousse

  • 2 cups heavy whipping cream
  • 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon water
  • 3.5 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 cup or 8 oz. chocolate, chopped
  • 2–3 tablespoon powdered sugar

Instructions

For cake

  1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Line two 6 inch pans with parchment paper. Set aside.
  2. In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt and espresso powder. ( if using)  Set aside.
  3. In a mixing bowl, beat eggs, vegetable oil and sugar until combined. About 3 minutes.
  4. Add the sour cream and vanilla extract. Beat on low speed until there are no more streaks of sour cream and batter is smooth.
  5. Add the flour mixture. Beat until flour is almost incorporated. (you should still see flour in the batter) Add the hot water and mix until combined and batter is smooth.
  6. Divide cake batter among prepared cake pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in pan, then transfer to cooling rack and cool completely.

Chocolate mousse

  1. To a medium bowl, add water and cocoa powder. Mix until combined and there are no more lumps of cocoa powder. Set aside.
  2. To a microwave safe bowl add chocolate. Melt chocolate,  stirring everything 30 seconds, until chocolate is melted. 
  3. Add chocolate to cocoa/water mix. Quickly stir until chocolate mixture is smooth. Set aside. 
  4. To a stand mixer add heavy whipping cream and sugar. Beat until soft peaks form. 
  5. Add chocolate/cocoa. ( it should be slightly cooled off) Fold until combined and there are not more streaks of chocolate or heavy whipping cream. 

Assembly

  1. Cut cake layers in half.
  2. Place one cake layer on cake stand. Add generous amount of chocolate mousse. Repeat for all layers. Then frost the top and sides of cake. You may have chocolate mousse leftover, you can use mousse to pipe on top of cake or use it for mini mousse cups. 

Notes

    • I prefer using Hershey dark cocoa powder. It gives the cake and frosting a rich and dark chocolate flavor. However, you can use regular cocoa powder as well.

    • Do not beat the heavy whipping cream until stiff peaks. Instead, beat until soft peaks form. If you beat the heavy whipping cream for too long, the mousse can start to separate after adding the chocolate due to overmixing.

    • I like using a mixture of bittersweet chocolate and semi sweet chocolate for the mousse. It gives the chocolate mousse the perfect amount of sweetness and richness. Any chocolate combination can be used. You can use milk, semi sweet or bittersweet. Just keep in mind the darker the chocolate = more sugar; the lighter the chocolate = less sugar.

    • When adding the chocolate/cocoa mix to heavy whipping cream, the chocolate shouldn’t be hot. It should be room temp or just slightly warm. If you add hot chocolate the heavy whipping cream can melt. But don’t wait too long, as the chocolate can start to harden and mousse will be lumpy.

Find it online: https://tastytreatpantry.com/mini-chocolate-cake/