Have a safe flight, Mum!

My mum’s visit will be over in just a couple more days. Living away from home makes you appreciate those wonderful family moments much much more. I cannot explain how wonderful it feels. You come home tired and cold at night, and before you stick your keys in, the door opens and you are greeted by your lovely smiling mother. You walk into a home that’s brightly lit and warm and smelling of heavenly aromas. “Dinner’s almost ready!”, called out from the kitchen where your mother is frantically dishing food out. The house is clean. The laundry is done. The TV’s on. Your house is now a home.

To thank my mother for being her lovely wonderful self, I baked her a cake! I don’t exactly have a name for it, but it’s so super chocolate-y that I might name it…… “Jimmy’s Amazing Chocolate Everything”. What is it exactly? Starting from the bottom, there is a dark chocolate biscuit bottom, then a dark mud cake layer, then a chocolate mousse filling, and on top is a layer of chocolate cream garnished with some strawberries. 

I don’t even have a recipe for this, I kind of made it as I went along. I had a packet of chocolate biscuit crust, so I added some melted butter and layered the bottom of the cake tin. Then mixed up a batch of flour, cocoa powder, chocolate buttons, eggs, butter, sugar and poured it in.

 After about 20 minutes, the cake is done. Whilst it is cooling, I started making the mousse. Beat some egg yolks with sugar until it looks foamy and whitish. Then pour in some heated cream and whisk it. I don’t have a real whisk but being a Chinese, there is this innate ability to whisk absolutely anything with chopsticks. Then I poured the mousse filling over the cake and into the fridge it went.

 In my tiny kitchen, I have this even tinier sink. This was just half the mess. I had to wash all my bowls and utensils three times in the making of just one cake. Partly my fault because I’m too cheap to buy that many bowls and pans.

 When the mousse was setting, I made the chocolate cream. All I did was whisk together thickened cream with some cocoa powder and a tablespoon of icing sugar. I just whisked it until it had the same consistency as regular canned whipped cream. Then I covered the whole cake with it using a spoon. Yes, judge all you want, I do not have a spatula.

 I cut out some heart shapes out of baking paper and sifted cocoa powder over it. It’s my first attempt at decorating a cake, and the hearts are a little wonky….. then I cut strawberries and circled the cake, only to realize that the centers of the strawberries were very white and ugly….so I piped some cream to cover it. I might say, the more I tried, the worse it became.

 I found an icing pen that I had left over from Christmas (this one, I did buy it) and VOILA! my final product~

 Not too bad presentation-wise. I was afraid it might not taste good because I didn’t exactly have a tried and true recipe….. but, if I may say so myself, it turned out better than I had expected! Not bad, not bad at all….