Easy Chocolate Mousse Cake

Melt the butter over low heat and allow it to cool to room
temperature. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cut a round of waxed
paper to fit the bottom
of a 9
inch springform pan. Butter the sides of the pan and one side of the
waxed paper. Place the paper in the pan, butter side up.
In a saucepan over very low heat, heat the chocolate and milk,
stirring constantly, just until the chocolate is melted. You will
note that at every
step the batter for this cake smells better than it did at the last
one. Pour
the mixture into the large bowl of an electric mixer.
Beat on low speed, just to smooth out any bitzy lumps of chocolate.
With the
mixer running at low speed, add about a seventh of the melted butter
(a shy 1/4 cup) and beat at low speed unly until the butter is fully
absorbed. Then
addan egg yolk and beat, at low speed, just until the mixture has
fully absorbedit.
Don’t raise the speed of the mixer, because we don’t want to beat in
any air.
It’s not supposed to be a fluffy cake, it’s supposed to be a fudgy
lump of goo. (actually, it’s not ‘goo’ at this point…the batter is
thin and pourable
when you’re done mixing. rather like very dark chocolate milk. mgc)
Continue to alternate additions of butter and egg yolk until all are
used up,
scraping the bowl with a ribber spatula and beating after each
addition only
until incorporated. When the mixture is smooth, pour it into the
prepared pan.
Set the pan on a cookie sheet (despite my wonderful improvement it
still might weep a bit). Put the whole thing in the oven (not near
the top). Bake for 25 minutes. It will be soupy in the middle and
look like a mistake,
but unless you forgot to turn the oven on, it is done. The cake will
not have
risen so as you’d notice.
Allow it to cool on a rack, then refrigerate a few hours, until firm.
It may
be kept refrigerated a day or two.
(better to refrigerate overnite or at least all day…I baked it
midafternoon,
and several hours later it was still not quite chilled enough. mgc)
When ready to serve, cut around the side of the pan with a small,
sharp knife
and release and remove the side of the pan. Cover the dessert with a
flat plate and invert.
Carefully (it takes a bit of doing) pry up and remove the bottom of
the pan and the waxed paper.
Decorate with whipped cream. (I like to make a simple lattice pattern
that lets the dark, dark chocolate show through.)
Serves 12.
(I put a little tad of raspberry sauce under each slice…very very
nice indeed…. btw, where/when did people start putting sauces
UNDER instead of
on
top of desserts? mgc)