Triple Chocolate Mousse Cake

I saw a picture of this beautiful cake on either Foodgawker or Tastespotting--maybe both--and I was immediately drawn to it.  So I clicked on the link to the food blog it came from and discovered that it was in Russian.  Great....  I mean the pictures were gorgeous but I was a little put off that it was in Russian until I scrolled down a little further to find that it was also in Portuguese...  Oh wait, I don't speak either of those languages.  In fact the two are completely foreign to me.  But I had to make this cake so I used Google Translate.  And I don't know if you've ever used Google Translate but let's just say that once you've translated it into your native tongue you need to go an extra step to translate the translation.  Don't get me wrong, it's an awesome tool and gets the general meaning across but I venture to say that it is less than perfect.

This looks like a Kraft single

Moreover, using it to decipher a recipe is a little tricky.  But at the same time I felt that I had come a long way in my baking expeditions and could muddle through it somehow which is kind of surprising because I had yet to make a mousse of any sort nor a flourless chocolate cake--which if you read down it is divulged as the base for the cake.  Nevertheless, I went through with it and I think it came out fairly well.  I ran into some snags with putting the cake together--mainly trying to get the layers even and pretty looking but I worked through it as best I could.  I messed up with the base cake.  I guess I was supposed to do one thing and I didn't do that thing....and I can't actually blame it on the translation.  My normally super good direction reading skills actually failed me.  But I got through it.  Here's MY translation--or rather my interpretation.

The link to the original recipe is here

Flourless Chocolate Cake:

3 egg yolks

3 egg whites

67 g dark chocolate 75-80%

32 g butter

40g sugar

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

267 g heavy cream

27g sugar

3 egg yolks

214 g cream whipped

8-10 g gelatin sheets

80 g chopped dark chocolate 75-80%

Milk Chocolate Mousse:

267 g heavy cream 

27g sugar

3 egg yolks

214 g cream whipped

8-10 g gelatin sheets

80 g of chopped milk chocolate 

White Chocolate Mousse:

267 g heavy cream 

27g sugar

3 egg yolks

214 g cream whipped

8-10 g gelatin sheets

80 g of chopped white chocolate 

White Chocolate Glaze? (The word did not translate so I think it was just some sort of jellied glaze)

37 g water

75g sugar

75 g light corn syrup

50 g of cold milk

75 g of white chocolate

5-7 g gelatin sheets

 For the flourless chocolate cake:

1.)  Preheat the oven to 350

2.)  Line a jelly roll with parchment paper (this is where I failed to read the directions.  When I finished the cake batter I poured it into the 10" springform pan that I was going to use as the mold for the cake when in reality you were supposed to bake it in a jelly roll pan and cut out a circle to fit into the springform you are using as a mold for the rest of the cake.  The problem with my way was that because I baked it over a smaller surface area the cake was twice the thickness so I had to cut it in half which for this particular cake was not so easy)

3.) Melt the chocolate and the butter in a double boiler and stir to combine.  Remove from the heat and let it cool slightly
4.)  Once it's cooled whisk in the egg yolks one at a time until fully combined.  Set aside
5.) In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites with the salt until foamy.  Then, add the sugar slowly and continue to whisk the egg whites until stiff peaks form
6.) Gently fold in the egg whites to the chocolate mixture until fully combined.
7.)  Pour the batter onto the prepared baking sheet and smooth out evenly with a spatula.  Bake for 10-12 minutes.
8.)  Remove from heat and let cool while you make the mousse.

For the mousse:  The method is the same for each type of chocolate.

1.)  Soak gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water
2.)  Place the whisk and bowl that you are going to use to make the whipped cream in the fridge to get nice and cold
3.)   In a medium-large bowl whisk the egg yolks and sugar together until combined.  Set aside.
4.)  Heat the other cream (the 267g one) in a saucepan slowly until it just starts to form bubbles around the edges of the saucepan--to about 167 degrees F
5.)  At that point, remove the sauce pan from the heat and slowly pour about 1/3 of the hot cream into the egg/sugar mixture whisking the whole time until combined.
6.)  Pour the egg/sugar/cream mixture back into the hot sauce pan with the rest of the cream and return to the heat.  Heat--while whisking constantly-- until the mixture begins to thicken up a bit--to about 185 F.  Remove from heat.
7.)  Pour in the chopped chocolate (the type that you are making at this point) and the gelatin sheets (when you remove the gelatin sheets from the cold water, squeeze them out a bit to remove any excess water)  and stir until melted and fully combined.
8.)  Place a fine mesh strainer over a separate clean bowl and strain the mousse over it.  This was an extra step I did because the first time I forgot to temper the egg yolk/sugar mixture and I had little bits of cooked scrambled egg floating around (I know, gross) and the next couple of times I just did it because--either by my own screwing up or otherwise--I still had some coagulated residue at the bottom of the pan.  If you don't feel the need to do this then don't but I think it just helps the mousse set more smoothly as well.
8.)  Set aside the mousse to cool.  Once it's cool, remove the bowl and whisk that were getting all nice and cold from the fridge and whisk the other cream until medium peaks form (I wasn't exactly sure how much to whisk the cream so I just took a guess).
9.)  Pour the whipped cream into the cooled mousse and fold/gently stir until fully combined.

Do this for each type of chocolate.  If you baked the cake in a jelly roll pan, cut out a circle for the size of springform pan you are using (in my case it wold have been a 10" diameter circle) and place it at the bottom of the pan.  Once your first chocolate mousse is done, pour it into your springform pan atop the cake and smooth/even it out.  Set it in the freezer until it's set and firm.  Meanwhile, make the second mousse (for me the first was dark and the second was milk etc.) and once it is ready pour it atop the first one.  Repeat this for the last type of chocolate.  Once you have all of your mousse layers, set them in the fridge/freezer to firm up.

Then, make the glaze:

1.)  Soak the gelatin sheets in a bowl of cold water
2.)  Bring the water, sugar and corn syrup to a boil -- to about 217 degrees F.  Remove from heat.
3.)  Stir in the chocolate and cold milk until fully incorporated.
4.)  Stir in the gelatin (again, wring out any excess water from the gelatin sheets)
5.)  Let the mixture cool a bit and the pour it atop the mousse cake.
6.)  Place the cake in the fridge until the glaze has set.

So, one last thing.  Clearly my cake is a square(ish) form.  That's because when I removed it from the 10" springform pan I wasn't happy with the edges so I cut it up to make it look "neater".  I am not sure how the original baker got her cake to look so beautiful but bravo to her.