Chocolate-Strawberry Mousse Cake

Another clipped from a magazine. It's into reads " Dense chocolate cake topped with strawberry mousse, wrapped in a chocolate truffle glaze and topped with chocolate-dipped strawberries-mmm...irresistable! Make it up to two days ahead so you can relax on the big day!"

• Ready In: 9 hrs 10 mins
• Serves: 20

Ingredients

• Cake

• 1  lb  semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1  cup butter
• 1⁄4 cup heavy cream
• 5  eggs, separated
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 cup sugar

• Mousse

• 1  quart strawberry, hulled and finely chopped
• 1⁄3 cup sugar
• 1 (1/4ounce) package unflavored gelatin
• 1  cup heavy cream

• Glaze

• 1  cup heavy cream
• 12  ounces  semisweet chocolate, chopped

• Garnish

• 12  long-stemmed strawberries, rinsed and patted dry
• 4  ounces  semisweet chocolate, finely chopped, melted
• 4  ounces white chocolate, finely chopped, melted

Directions

1. Cake: Preheat oven to 350. Coat 9" springform pan with cooking spray. Line bottom with wax paper circle; coat with spray. Wrap outside of pan with a double layer of foil; set aside. In heatproof bowl combine chocolate, butter and cream; set over pot of hot, not simmerming, water. Heat, stirring, until smooth and combined. Remove bowl from pot.
2. In another bowl in thin strea, whisk 1/3 chocolate mixture into yolks. Stir yolk mixture back into chocolate; set aside.
3. In clean bowl with clean beatersat med-high speed, beat egg whiteswith salt until soft peaks start to form. Increase speed to high; in thin stream, beat in sugar. Fold 1/3 of meringue into chocolate mixture; fold in remaining meringue until just combined.
4. Pour mixture into prepared pan; place pan in a large baking pan on oven rack. Fill baking pan with water halfway up the sides of the springform pan. Bake 25 minutes or until canter is just set. Remove from water; remove foil.
5. Cool in panon rack 15 minutes. Loosen sides of pan. Cool 30 minutes; cool completely in refrigerator, about 3 hours or overnight.
6. Mousse: Combine strawberries and sugar; let stand 15 minutes. Fill large bowl halfway with ice water. In a small pot, combine gelatin with 3 tablesppons of water; let stand 2 minutes.
7. Over low heat, warm gelatin mixture, stirring, until dissolved. Stir gelatin into strawberry mixture; set bowl in ice water.
8. Let stand until mixture is the consistancy of unbeaten egg whites, about 15 minutes.
9. Beat cream until stiff; fold 1/3 into strawberry mixture. Fold in remaining whipped cream until just combined.
10. Tighten sides of springform pan. Spoon mousse over cake; level.
11. Refrigerate until firm, about 3 hours.
12. Glaze: In pot, bring cream to a boil; remove from heat. Whisk in chocolate until smooth; cool 10 minutes. Remove cake from pan, running spatula around sides if necessary. Place cake on rack set in jelly roll pan. Pour glaze over cake. Let stand 10 minutes. Refrigerate.
13. Garnish: Dip strawberries almost up to stem into semisweet chocolate, allowing excess to drip back into bowl. Place on wax paper; refrigerate until firm, 30 minutes. Re-dip berries in white chocolate halfway up semisweet coating. Refrigerate until firm, 30 minutes. Just before serving, place on cake.