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This wonderful decadent chocolate mousse recipe was created by Peggy Bucholz of Portland, Oregon. Click HERE to view her "Fine Dining Gourmet Recipes for Elegant Entertaining" web site. Photo also by Peggy.

Peggy says - "I saw a dessert similar to this on TV made by a chef and his wife. Since they didn't give a recipe, I made up my own. This dessert is so beautiful 'plated up' individually. I've made it for special occasions several times and hope someone else will enjoy it as well."

Click here for Basic Rules For Baking or here for Secrets Of A Successful Cake.  Also check out more wonderful Cake Recipes.

Chocolate Cake
Chocolate Mousse
Creme Anglais
Raspberry Sauce
Chocolate Sauce

Chocolate Cake:
1 cup sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.

In a large bowl, combine sugar, flour and cocoa.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, melt butter with water and oil; bring to boil. Remove from heat and pour over dry ingredients; mix well. Add egg, buttermilk, baking soda, and vanilla extract; blend thoroughly.

Pour batter into a 10-inch x 15-inch cake pan. Bake approximately 10 minutes or until tester or toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

Chocolate Mousse
11 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
3 ounces melted butter, unsalted
4 eggs, separated
1 cup whipping cream

In a medium-size saucepan, melt chocolate and butter together. Beat in egg yolks; remove from heat and let cool.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. In another bowl, beat whipping cream until stiff peak form; fold into whipping cream. Fold egg white/whipping cream mixture into cooled chocolate mixture. Let cool before using. NOTE: If you chill the mousse until it sets up, you will be unable to spread properly on the cake.

Creme Anglais
1 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 vanilla bean, split lengthwise or 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 egg yolks, beaten

In a heavy medium-size saucepan, combine cream and sugar. Scrape vanilla bean seeds into pan. Add pod. Bring mixture just to boil (BUT DON'T LET IT BOIL OR IT MAY CURDLE) over medium-low heat. Whisk yolks in medium bowl to blend. Whisk in half of cream. Return mixture to saucepan and cook until thickened, stirring constantly, about 5 minutes; strain into bowl. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.

Makes 1 1/4 cups

Chocolate Sauce
1/2 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons dark corn syrup
6 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped

In a heavy medium-size saucepan, bring cream and corn syrup to a simmer; remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Cool to room temperature.

Raspberry Sauce
Raspberries
Sugar to sweeten
1 teaspoon cornstarch

Take a good handful of frozen raspberries; put them in your food processor for a few seconds, add sugar to taste, and then strain them. In a small saucepan, heat raspberry mixture and add cornstarch; stirring to mix well. Remove from heat.

Assembly:
You will need 8 ramekin containers with both ends cut out. Since I didn't have any, I used tomato sauce cans, the 8 oz size...they were perfect (used the tomato sauce to make a lot of spaghetti). I discarded the top and bottom lids, washed them good, and now I have 8 hollow 'tubes' (I have kept mine for some time now). Take one of these tubes and cut out two (2) rounds of cooled shallow cake for each person.

If your cake is too thick, you can always half it horizontally. You should have 16 rounds of cut cake.

Cut 8 pieces of parchment paper 9" or 10" long by about 4" wide, and put one in each of these cans so the paper stands 4" high.

Soak each piece of cake with some brandy, I use a kitchen paint brush, then put one cake round inside each parchment lined can. Place the cans on a flat tray or whatever you have that will fit in your refrigerator.

Spoon in the cooled chocolate mousse on top of the cake rounds, going as high as you want (that's what the parchment paper is there for). Then add the other cake round, making sure you have a nice looking piece for the top (don't squash it down). Refrigerate for 6 hours or more (I do mine overnight).

Garnishing and Serving:
When you're ready to plate up, center the creations on individual plates, slip off the can and carefully peel off the parchment paper.

With the cake sitting in the middle of the plate, take a small spoon and put a small amount of crème anglais, approximately 1/2 to 1 teaspoons on all four corners of the plate (good chefs will tell you to keep everything off the lip of the plate).

Then take a clean spoon and put a dollop of raspberry sauce between each dollop of creme anglais except one (don't let the sauces touch each other). You should have (4) four puddles of white and (3) three of red. With the blank space, put a fanned out strawberry (with the hull still attached) and a sprig of mint.

If you have some white chocolate, cut some shavings of this and top each cake with it. The color contrasts are very nice.

Then take your melted chocolate, in the squeeze bottle, and hold it upside down about 6" above the plate and squirt melted chocolate over your creation (I give mine a few squirts horizontally then vertically). Note: I pour mine sauces into clean plastic squirt bottle, like a mustard or ketchup one with a tiny squirt hole.

Then carry your creation to your guests at your decorated table and wait for the ohhhhs and ahhhhs!

Makes 8 to 10 servings.