Chocolate Coconut Mousse Cake (gluten-free)

Happy New Year !!!! In 2017, I didn’t celebrate New Year’s Eve but New Year’s Eve Eve. For this occasion, I made this delicious cake with a soft almond base, a chocolate mousse and a coconut mousse. I found the original recipe on a blog named Click, Cook and Taste (only the name is in English, sorry…) but I had to make it gluten-free for one of the hosts. It was not very difficult as the original recipe only requires 15 gr of flour so I simply replaced it with almond powder.

I think that the next time I do it, I will use a less dark chocolate and maybe a bit of coconut cream mixed with the coconut milk. The texture of the coconut mousse was good but not tasty enough to me. Anyway, if you want to try it, it will take about 3 hours to make (I did it in one evening) and the proportions are for a baking ring of 20 cm for about 10 people.

Ingredients:

For the almond biscuit:
- 2 egg whites
- 40 gr of icing sugar
- 40 gr of desiccated coconut
- 30 gr of almond powder
- 25 gr of sugar

For the chocolate mousse :
- 110 gr of dark chocolate
- 20 cl of liquid cream (min 30% fat)
- 1 gelatin leaf

For the coconut mousse :
- 150 gr of coconut milk
- 25 cl of liquid cream (min 30% fat)
- 25 gr of icing sugar
- 2,5 gelatin leaves
- 6 table spoon of desiccated coconut

Let’s begin with the almond biscuit.

Mix together in a bowl the icing sugar, the almond powder and the coconut.

In the bowl of you kitchen robot, whisk the egg whites and when they are almost done, add the sugar. in the meantime, pre-heat the oven at 180˚C.

Add delicately the first mix to the egg whites with a spatula.

Prepare a baking tray with a baking paper sheet. Place your baking ring on it and pour the preparation inside. Make it even with the spatula.

Bake for 15-20 minutes. The biscuit must be golden brown. Let it cool down in the ring for a while (slide a knife between the biscuit and the ring before to make it easier to remove it).

Let it cool down in the fridge.

Next step is the chocolate mousse.

Place the bowl of your kitchen robot and the whisk in the fridge or freezer if you have enough space.

In a small bowl, put the gelatine in cold water. Melt the chocolate in a bowl placed on a pan with simmering water. Let it cool down a bit.

Take the bowl, the whisk and the liquid cream out of the fridge. Whisk the cream. Put 2 or 3 table spoons of warm water in a bowl and dissolve the gelatine in it. Add it to the whipped cream and keep whisking.

Add delicately the whipped cream to the chocolate in several times.

Cover the inside of the baking ring with acetate paper. Place the almond biscuit at the bottom and pour the chocolate mousse on top of it. Make it even with a spatula. Put everything back in the fridge for at least 1 hour (or in the freezer if you don’t want to wait that long).

Final step : the coconut mousse.

Place again the bowl and the whisk in the fridge. Put the gelatine leaves in a cold water bowl.

Warm up the coconut milk and then add the gelatine leaves. Let it cool down.

In the meantime, whip the cream. When it is almost done, add the icing sugar, whisk a bit more and finally add the coconut milk. Keep whisking at low speed until everything is smooth and even. Stop the robot and add the desiccated coconut with a spatula.

Pour this preparation on top of the chocolate mousse and put it back in the fridge for few hours (overnight is the best).

Before serving it, remove the ring and the acetate paper. Decorate as you want (cacao powder, desiccated coconut or whatever you want).