Mini Berry & Matcha Mousse Cakes

These mousse cakes are light as a cloud, creamy, and not too sweet—perfect for showcasing delicate flavours like berries or matcha. These elegant and simple little cakes finish setting in the freezer, making them ideal for making ahead and serving whenever the mood strikes.

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Mousse is one of my absolute favourite desserts. It’s rich and yet light as a cloud, so you can both feel like you’re indulging in something really decadent while feeling like you’re pretty much just eating air which on average, makes mousse practically a health food…right? That sounds vaguely math-y, so it must be true.

It’s surprisingly easy to make and both looks and tastes really gourmet and elegant, so it has an excellent effort-to-impressiveness ratio. The base ingredients are quite plain on their own, so it’s also a great opportunity to experiment with flavours. So when I found some cute heart-shaped silicone molds at the store just before Valentine’s Day this year, I knew I wanted to use them to make mini mousse cakes. And because I couldn’t make my mind up on what flavour to use, and I really wanted to make a few different colours to go with the conversation heart molds, I decided to make a few flavours. My favourite part is how brightly-coloured the mousse ended up being, without needing to use a drop of food colouring!

Mousse is delicious enough on its own, but to take this dessert to the next level I’m turning it into a simple entremet (which, in a nutshell, is a traditional French style of cake made of multiple layers encased in mousse, usually formed in a mold). Usually, an entremet is finished either with mirror glaze or velvet spray, but to keep this recipe super simple I’m leaving that step out. These cakes set in their molds in the freezer so they’re perfect for making ahead of time—you can defrost just however many you need in the fridge the night before, and keep the rest in their molds in the freezer.

What is Mousse?

Mousse is a light and creamy mixture that incorporates air in some way, and uses something like gelatin or melted chocolate to make it stable and set its texture. Mousse is usually sweet and served as a dessert, but there are also some really interesting savoury mousse recipes out there. There are lots of ways to make mousse, but for these mousse cakes I’m focusing on one of the simplest methods—combining a liquid or puree with gelatin, and then folding that into cream whipped to stiff peaks. The liquid or puree lends flavour (and often colour) to the mousse, the whipped cream adds richness and airiness, and the gelatin sets the texture of the cake and makes it stable.

Why You’ll Love my Mini Berry & Matcha Mousse Cakes

• The flavour and combination of textures are amazing. The combination of rich and airy mousse, crumbly and buttery biscuit and tart berry gelée or creamy white chocolate ganache are a delicious combination.
• It’s the perfect way to make use of the cute shaped silicone baking molds that craft stores sell around any holiday. I think most people use them to bake mini cakes in, but honestly I think this recipe is an even better use for them! I made these for Valentine’s Day of course, but you can use any shape of mold you like (I recommend using one that’s roughly 3-4″ wide) to make a delicious dessert at any time of year.
• You can make it in advance and defrost just one or a few at a time. The cakes set in their molds in the freezer, and you can keep them in there for up to 3 months. The night before, just pop out as many cakes as you want to serve the next day and let them defrost in the fridge.
• They’re so much easier to make than they look. There aren’t any difficult techniques you need to master to make any of the components, and the mousse will take the shape of whatever mold you decide to use so they’ll look like they came from a bakery with minimal effort.
• They’re brightly coloured without a drop of food colouring! The matcha powder and berry purées add a ton of bright all-natural colour to the mousse, which I absolutely love.

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Tips for Success

• Fold the berry purée or matcha into the whipped cream gently to avoid deflating it. Mousse relies on the air you worked into the whipped cream for its delicious texture, so you don’t want to lose it by folding too aggressively.
• Use a cookie cutter that’s at least 1/2″ smaller than your mold for cutting out the butter biscuit cookie bases. They’ll spread a bit as they bake—if yours spread too much to fit into your molds, you can use a small knife to carefully trim the edges until they fit.
• Let the matcha and berry purée cool completely to room temperature before folding them into the whipped cream. Heat makes whipped cream collapse (almost like it’s melting). On the other hand, if you let it cool too much the gelatin will start to set and the mixture won’t fold smoothly into the whipped cream. Room temperature (around 20-22˚C or 68–72˚C) is the sweet spot—not too warm to deflate the whipped cream, or so cool that the gelatin sets prematurely.
• Freeze the white chocolate ganache before using it in the matcha mousse cakes. I just piped my ganache directly into the molds with the matcha mousse and froze them all together—unfortunately the ganache wound up sinking to the tops of the molds. Freezing the ganache layer first should prevent that from happening.

Ingredients to make Extra Nutty and Chocolatey Paris-Brest

• Whipped cream AKA heavy cream, or heavy whipping cream is essential to getting the rich, light, and airy texture that mousse is known for. The cream you use must be at least 35% fat content or it won’t whip up properly. Cream is also used for the white chocolate ganache, to give it a silky richness—you could sub out 10-18% cream if you prefer, but I wouldn’t use anything with less fat content than that.
• Matcha powder lends colour and flavour to the matcha mousse cakes. You can use an inexpensive everyday grade of matcha—no need to splash out on ceremonial grade here.
• Berries add a bright fruity flavour to the berry mousse cakes. You can use any kind of berry you like. Fresh or frozen berries work equally well.
• Gelatin powder is needed to set both the mousse and berry gelée and keep it stable. It’s important to bloom the gelatin (i.e. mix it with some water and let it set for about 10 minutes to fully absorb) before using it in the recipe.
• Unsalted butter adds richness and a delicious flavour to the butter biscuits, used as the base for all of the mousse cake flavours. Bring it to room temperature before creaming it with the white and brown sugars. If all you have on hand is salted butter, that will work too—just reduce or omit the salt called for in the recipe.
• All-purpose flour has a medium level of gluten—not high like bread flour, or low like cake or pastry flour. For the butter biscuit it strikes the right balance, lending enough structure without winding up too tough or chewy.
• Salt is a very important ingredient in sweet baked goods. We don’t normally think of salt when we think of desserts, but it plays an extremely important role in enhancing all of the other flavours. If no salt was used, the biscuit would taste a little bland.
• White chocolate is used to make the ganache centers for the matcha mousse cakes. You don’t have to use an expensive white chocolate, but I would avoid chocolate chips which often contain stabilizing ingredients that can make chocolate chips difficult to melt smoothly.
• Sugar is used to add sweetness to both the mousses and the butter biscuit base.
• Egg is used in the butter biscuit base—use a large, room temperature egg.

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