Gratuitous food post here! John’s birthday was Friday, but the cake party wasn’t until Sunday when everyone could get together.  Since he did such an amazing job with my birthday cake, I had my work cut out to make one for him. He sent me this recipe from King Arthur Flour for a chocolate cake with mousse and raspberries as a starting point.

He wanted strawberries instead of raspberries and I decided to use my standard chocolate buttercream frosting recipe instead of the one that was listed on the recipe.

Here was the start of assembly:

There were 3 layers of cake and a chocolate mousse filling between the layers (with mini chocolate chips) and fresh strawberries. The mousse used Clear Jel to help set the mousse, which is a vegetarian option instead of gelatin.

The cake ready for frosting:

This went into the fridge to firm up before frosting with chocolate buttercream. I also made some white chocolate decorations on parchment paper.  I tried my hand at piping as well.

I was pretty pleased with how it came out! This stayed in the fridge until everyone got here so it would be firm for cutting.

Ta-da!

I think everyone enjoyed the cake. John did, which was the most important thing!

This cake did make a lot of dishes and took a bit of time, but even just the mousse is a keeper to have as a dessert all by itself some time. We have now really upped our baking game for birthdays. Where to go from here??