Raspberry and Vanilla Yogurt Mousse Cake

This is my second to last weekend baking projects. A special birthday cake for Cess :)

I can't believe that it's been a year since I made her last birthday cake. Lately I'm starting to realize that things are happening twice in Houston. Time really flies and it just caught me by surprise that I've been here in Houston for almost 2 years now. It's been pretty fun though down here. The weather is quite awful but I believe that as long as you have good friends around, any place is a jolly place. :)

As for the cake, it's made of 4 different components: pistachio dacquoise, raspberry mousse, strawberry sponge cake, and vanilla yogurt mousse. All of the recipes are courtesy of Cannelle et Vanille. :) She has this wonderful blog full of gorgeous photos and wonderful recipes! I definitely recommend everyone to check it out. :)

Here's a picture of the cross section of the cake. :) I think the colors are quite complimentary but I wish there's a little of orange or yellow in the cake. Cess' cousin also brought her a birthday cake from Jungle Cafe and it's just very pretty. The colors are so vibrant and the decorations were real pretty. It's really a reminder for me that I still have a long way to go and a lot to learn. :)

One last note before I leave this post -

In reading my daily devotion today, I came across Deuteronomy 6:5 that says "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength." This is the same message that Jesus taught in the new testament (Luke 10:27)! It dawned on me that the message of love is preached throughout the bible and not just in the new testament. :) My God is a good God who is abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6). Amen!

Peach Mousse Cake with Strawberry Gelee

This one is the fruity cake that I made for my sister per her request (see her other cake request here). I saw Tartelette's post of strawberry and peach combo and I just fell in love with the idea. I took her recipes for the peach mousse and strawberry topping and made it into this layered cake. :)

The process began with making my mom's vanilla sponge cake, which has a soft texture with moist crumbs. This sponge cake is also not as sweet compared to the typical American sponge cake but I think it's perfect for this cake, because the subtle peach flavor will not overthrown by the cake. I then make the peach mousse followed by the strawberry gelee. For the mousse, I doubled the portion to make enough for an 8" cake. For the gelee, I took Tartelette's strawberry topping recipe and added an extra teaspoon of gelatin and then doubled the recipe.

Again, I was fortunate enough to be able to take a cross section view of the cake. :) I believe that this cake won my sister's vote for as the better cake among the two that I had brought her. :p

Overall, I had a wonderful time in San Jose. Even though the trip was very short, it was very sweet indeed. I get to spend time with my dearest sis, my awesome bff, my heartwarming sisters in Christ, and I was able to be a part of my dear friend's wedding.

Priceless.

Blackberry Mousse Cake - 1st attempt

I really liked Cocola's Blackberry Mousse Cake in San Jose. :) It's so pretty and it tastes so yummy as well. And it so happens that this is Nana's favorite cake there too! Right, Na?

So when Irene and Bule came, I thought - let's make a blackberry mousse cake and bring it back to Nana! :) Yay!


Unfortunately - in my eagerness to make the perfect cake - I used way to much gelatin. The funny thing is that I realized it as soon as I poured all of it in the mousse base. *hiks...* This is what I get for not planning for the cake. I now believe that there are 2 very important factors that affect my baking result:

1. my mood while baking
2. the amount of planning I do for the cakes

I was in a good mood while making this cake (although slightly sleepy as well) but I didn't plan for it at all. I just happened at the spur of the moment. :p Oh well... One thing for sure, I learn something new from this experience.


I have to give credit to Bule for the cake decorations! :) It's all her! I almost gave up with the cake, but she saved it. :) The small details on the ribbons, the strawberry slices, and the chocolate twists - very complementary. :) Good job, Bule!

I also want to extend much much much thanks to Irene - who were so willing to carry the cake back to California. :)

Tri-Color Mousse

The first time that I saw a tri-color mousse was in a pastry shop in Jakarta where layers of dark chocolate, milk chococlate, and white chocolate mousse were put beautifully together creating a gradation effect and decorated with chocolate cigarettes. :) It's really pretty and I've been wanting to make something like that for the longest time. A few months after that, I bought a cook book, Cocolat, by Alice Medrich and in there it was! Now is a few months after I bought the book and I finally made it.

The cake is made of dark chocolate marquise, milk chocolate mousse, and white chocolate mousse. The dark chocolate marquise was really rich, heavy, and dense - a little too much for me. The other two mousse layers were lighter and I think that they have more of a mousse-y type texture. The recipe calls for lots of chocolates, so if you're a chocoholic, you might want to try this dessert. :) I decorated the cake with white chocolate mousse kisses and a twirl of bitter chocolate.

When I tried to lift up the cake rings, some of the milk chocolate mousse smeared over to the white chocolate mousse and destroyed the image of the tri-color mousse. I managed to scrape some of it off, but it's still not clean enough. >_<>

I made this cake for my co-worker's birthday and therefore I brought it to the office to share. I think they liked the cake overall (yep.. no funny comments such as "Yossi, are you trying to choke me?" on this one). I wish I had some raspberries though for the cake as it will definitely compliment the richness of the cake. Well... maybe next time! :)

The recipe for the cake is rather long for me to type in (I'm on a lazy mood now) but if you are interested in making this cake, please let me know and I'll email you the recipe - or even type it on the blog as an update. :)

I also want to share some things that happened to me this week with you. As I mentioned in my previous blog entries, I was just done with my work's "busy season" and I really worked hard during those two months. I put in a lot of effort to get my work done and finish the tasks assigned to me as soon as possible. However, I discovered that what I did was not enough. And it's really a humbling experience for me.

Growing up, I had always been a good daughter. In school, I had always been a good student and even earned the title of a valedictorian. At work (up to now), I had always receive positive feedback from my bosses. I guess in the midst of all that, my pride grew. And let me tell you, pride is an ugly creature. I was feeling down when I heard the review, but I am really thankful that God allowed me to go through this experience. To humble me and to remind me that all is in His hands and all is by His strength. I will work harder and smarter in the future. I will not let this bring me down, but instead, I will use this experience to lean more on God and to be a better blessing to the company that I am working for.

I want to tell the world (and all the readers of this blog) that in God you will find strength and rest. God is good, all the time. :)

Milk Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mousse Cake and more...

It's a weekend of baking for me! :) It's been a while since I had a crazy baking weekend and this one was awesome! I had Friday off and I started the day by sorting through my recipe collection to see which ones to bake for the day. I decided on baking some simple Indonesian desserts, kue sus and bolu kukus, and one fancier mousse cake.

The weather was just perfect outside and my mood was in an all time high. :) I checked out my supplied at home, made my grocery list and head out to HEB for some fun shopping! Once home, I started off with bolu kukus and then I moved on to kue sus. I planned to bring these to church that night to share. :)

Then I moved on to making my multi-component mousse cake. I had been wanting to make this cake since I first saw it on Tartelette's blog and finally I did it! I started off with the brownie base, the milk chocolate and salted caramel mousse, and finally on Saturday morning, I finished it off with the dark chocolate ganache. :) This cake took much longer to prep and assemble than the two Indonesian desserts together.

I also played with chocolate decorations on Friday morning, following the instructions of Jean-Pierre. I was really anxious about it as I never really had much success with chocolate decorations. So, to create a more choco-friendly environment, I turned the AC on in the apartment. :p It worked though! I managed to make some chocolate twists and chocolate loops. I used 2 of the loops to make a heart and used it on the cake. :)

Then on Saturday morning, I continued my baking session with some Cat's tongue. :) It's one of my favorite Indonesian cookies and I used my mom's recipe for this one (it's going to be a family recipe from now on :p). I brought it to church to share again Saturday morning for the people who helped in preparing for the food sale. :) I really liked bringing my goodies to church because they always finished it off. I'm really happy when others liked my cakes and desserts and finished it up. That's why I'm always looking for "victims" to share my cakes with.

I'm really blessed with this rest that God gave me over the weekend. I wasn't thinking about work at all and I just get so much energy from baking. I didn't bake anything on Sunday though because I think I owe it to Alvin to spend some time with him (instead of being busy in the kitchen all day). It truly is a wonderful weekend for me.

I also want to share a verse that has been true for me. It's from Matthew 11:28 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

I came and I was given rest. :)

Mango Mousse Cake II

Nana was in town this weekend! What an awesome time! I am so very happy that my best friend ever came over to visit. She had requested that I made petite tiramisu cake to welcome her but I didn't have time to make one (since I just finished another super busy season at work), so I decided to make her a petite mango mousse cake instead.

I had bought a lot of mini cake rings that I was just dying to use and I really had fun making these. Baking is very enjoyable for me and I am very glad to be able to share the joy with others.

One of my friend from San Jose had requested Nana to bring back some of my baking and so I did. Yes, Nahing, I did - so you can go bother her for some. :)

His and Her Petite Cakes

What do I do when I have leftover mousse from a cake order? Yep! I made mini his and her cakes.

I had bought 4" mini cake rings before and I've been dying to use it. I thought that this was the perfect time to use it! I had baked two 6" and two 4" sponge cakes for a cake order and I had also made more mousse than I needed to make the cake. So I took the 4" cakes and I made myself some petite mango and strawberry mousse cakes. :)

Alvin was the one with the idea of signing our cakes. I thought it really turned out adorable. Don't you think?

Strawberry and Mango Mousse Cake II

Yay! Another cake order! I'm very honored and happy and excited and nervous about this cake order. First of all, it's for my friend's mother. Secondly, it's the first time they are going to taste my cake. I had just made this cake earlier for another friend's birthday and so the cake itself is familiar. But remembering the slight tragedy over the other cake's decoration, I was very nervous about this one. I know that less is more (for me at least) and therefore I wanted to make a simple yet elegant cake. I don't know if this came through in the cake, but i tried. :)

Of course, I had to make the box special for the occasion. :)

Strawberry and Mango Mousse Cake

This one is a delayed cake. The birthday was actually September 13, right when Ike went pass Houston but since the whole city was in a chaotic mess, I made her cake one week later. I'm always up for experimenting new cakes, trying out new combinations and I thought that this will be an awesome opportunity to explore. I gave Cess' cake a lot of thought. I was thinking of making a green tea mousse cake with white chocolate cake or a devil's fudge cake with rich chocolate icing. As you can see, I made neither of them.

Humans make plan and God determines the path. My work require me to travel that week and I didn't have enough time to really plan the cake. I came back Friday night and I had another cake due Saturday night and Cess' cake due Sunday morning. To be realistic, I decided to make a cake that I am already familiar with.

This cake is 9"x13" - the second time I make a cake this big. For this, I used 2 layers of sponge cake, a layer of mango mousse, a layer of strawberry mousse, lychees, clear glaze, and lady fingers.

Mango mousse:
2-1/2 cups fresh mango puree
1/4 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cups water
2 packets gelatin

Mix the sugar and the puree in the blender for about 30 seconds to blend together, making sure that the sugar dissolves. Sprinkle the gelatin on the water and leave for 5 minutes until it blooms. Once it blooms, melt it in the microwave for 15 seconds at 50% power. Slowly pour the melted gelatin into the puree mixture while continuously mixing the puree. Whip the heavy cream until soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the puree mixture.

Strawberry Mousse:
2 cups fresh mango puree
1/4 cups sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cups water
2 packets gelatin

Prepare this the same way as the mango mousse.

To add more complex flavor, I brushed the sponge cakes with some orange simple syrup and I added lychees between the layers. I prefer to use a softer/lighter sponge cake base for mousse cake and for this one, I of course used my mom's recipe. :)

I didn't stay for the cake cutting and missed the experience of seeing people's reaction to my cake. I was a little disappointed about this, but later on a friend called to tell me that the cake was good. :) I was very happy.

Kiwi Strawberry Mousse Cake

Another Costco story. If you guys see a lot of blueberries, strawberries, or kiwi desserts... well, I bought a ton of them from Costco and I need to use them up. So here's the Kiwi Strawberry Mousse.

It's a rather simple cake that I'm experimenting with. I've always done my mousse using acetate tape and I had never encased my cake with mousse. So this time, I experimented with using a springform pan that is larger than my cake and then pouring over the mousse over the cake to fill the pan. Although the picture isn't very clear, the mousse itself is used to cover the cake.

For the mousse, I used the same proportion as I did here. I used 2 layers of sponge cakes for this. I put some kiwi fruits in my strawberry mousse part and I put some strawberries in the kiwi mousse part. I thought it makes the cake a little bit more fun. I used clear glaze on top of the cake, which is another thing I'm learning.

When I made this cake, I thought that this was going to be a failed product. I should've strained the kiwi seeds so that the mousse has a nice clean green color instead of this speckled one. I should've made the chocolate decoration before I glazed the cake. I should've use acetate tape around the cake to make it neater when I unmold it from the springform pan. So many negative thoughts came through my mind. But when Alvin, Ryan, and Mery tried the cake, they said that they liked it. It was light and refreshing, they said. On one hand, they may just be saying that to make me feel good, but since historically they have been open in giving me constructive feedback, I'm using benefit of the doubt to say that they were honest about my cake. :p

I think now I have the guts to share this cake to my friends. If you're in town and you want to try some of this cake, let me know! :)

Strawberry and Blueberry Mousse Cake

I have a lot of frozen strawberries and blueberries from Costco and I thought that the best way to use them is to make a mousse cake. :) The strawberry and blueberry has complementary colors. The strawberries gave a really soft pink and the blueberry gave a really subtle purple.

For this cake, I have used 2 layers of vanilla sponge cakes, a layer of strawberry mousse, and a layer of blueberry mousse. I used clear glaze to decorate the cake, but the mousse hadn't really set yet when I poured the glaze. The result is this 3-D looking cake glaze. :p

Recipe for the Blueberry & Strawberry Mousse:

1 cup blueberry/strawberry puree

3 tbs sugar

1 packet gelatine powder

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup heavy cream

In a blender, puree the blueberries and then add sugar. Continue blending for a few seconds to make sure that all the sugar dissolves. Then, sprinkle the gelatine powder over the water and let it bloom for about 5 minutes. Heat the gelatine for 15 seconds at 50% power in the microwave. Once the gelatine is melted, pour it slowly to the puree while stirring it continuously. Whipped the heavy cream to soft peaks. Fold the whipped cream into the puree. Once done, pour into the cake ring/springform pan used to make the mousse cake.

Follow the same steps for the strawberry mousse.

You can use any type of sponge cake that you like for this cake. In my opinion, the lighter the cake, the better it is. It is also good to brush the sponge cake with some simple syrup mixed with a little orange liqueur to add some texture to the taste.

Strawberry Mousse Cake

This is truly a lesson learnt on strawberries. It started with my intent on making a Strawberry Shortcake. I went to Costco and saw gorgeous fresh strawberries at a VERY reasonable price. My eyes opened wide and my heart beat a little faster... I went ahead and picked the best box I could find and bought it. I wanted to keep it for a long time and so I put it in the freezer. *gasp*

Yes... I know... it was a TOTAL mistake. It turns out that whenever you freeze strawberries, the texture of the fruit changes and it became mushy when thawed. My heart broke a little that night when I realized what I had just done to my strawberries. In an effort to salvage whatever is left of my strawberries, I made a Strawberry Mousse Cake.

Just so you know, at the same time I bought XL package of strawberries, I bought XL packages of blueberries and raspberries too at Costco. And yes, I messed up BIG time on those too. I have put some of those berries at the bottom of this cake as a "surprise" element to the cake. It turns out that the raspberries were sour. *_*

I brought this along with Donna's birthday and overall, they liked the mousse but not the sour raspberries. I learned my lesson alright. :0

Anyways, this cake was made of a layer of sponge cake brushed with raspberry flavored simple syrup, strawberries mousse, and a layer of strawberry juice. I think on this one I didn't put quite enough gelatin and so the mousse was more on the softer side. I had used 1 packet for 2 cups of strawberry puree. I think it's better to use 2 packets next time. The white chocolate wrap really compliments the strawberry mousse (at least that's what I thought). :p

Mango Mousse Cake

Mango is one of my favorite fruit and since it is in season, I thought of making a cake with mangoes. The first thing that came to mind was a mango mousse cake.

Here is a picture of the cake before it is decorated.

Here is a picture of the cake when decorated.


This cake consist of 3 layers: a sponge cake base, mango mousse, and mango jelly. The sponge cake base can be any kind of sponge cake you like.

For the mango mousse:
2 cups of fresh mango puree
1/4 cups of sugar
1 cup of whipped cream
1 1/2 packets of gelatin
1/4 cups of water

For the mango jelly:
1 cup of fresh mango puree
2 tablespoons of sugar
1/4 cups of orange liquor (or water)
1 packet of gelatin

I have also used some lychees on top of the sponge cake as an element of "surprise" in the cake. I've used milk chocolate in my decorations. Here is a picture of the cake when cut.

Passion Fruit & Raspberry Mousse Cake

This is the first birthday cake that I made. I got a recipe from Food Network for a Passionfruit and Raspberry Mousse cake. I tailored the recipe a little since the original one is so large it's enough to make 4-5 cakes! Anyways, being such an ignorant novice in baking, I didn't put gelatine in the mousse. The result: a smoothie-like mousse! Despite the mess when cutting, the "cake" tasted pretty good. This is also my first time trying decorations with chocolates. I piped the letters in an acetate sheet and transfer it to the cake one letter at a time. :) I also played with the raspberries. I dipped them in dark chocolate and I also filled them with chocolate.