Grape, strawberry and rose mousse cake

For my Valentine

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, girls love making desserts for their guys. For girls who don’t cook for the rest of the year, they often resort to making heart-shaped chocolates. A few years ago, for our first Valentine's Day, I (at that time, I preferred chopping and washing up to cooking) made about a dozen heart shaped-chocolates. They looked pretty and one of my floormates adored them so much that she said I could open a chocolate shop! That was all very good until 2 months after Valentine's Day when I opened his fridge... The chocolates were still sitting there, apparently only 3 or 4 made the journey to his tummy...

So, a lesson well-learnt: whatever you make for a guy, make something that he likes to eat.

Y loves grapes in all forms (except the sour ones, of course =p). Therefore I made this sponge cake topped with grape mousse and strawberry mousse (flavoured with rose syrup). I hope this little creation of mine will appeal to his eyes and his tummy...

Serves: 2 (I have to say 2: it's a Valentine's cake...)

Ingredients:

For the sponge:

1. 2 large eggs
2. 90g self-raising flour
3. 20g cornstarch
4. 110g very soft butter
5. 110g sugar
6. 3/4 teaspoon baking powder

For the grape mousse

1. 200ml grape juice
2. 1 tablespoon lemon juice
3. 8g gelatine
4. 200ml double cream
5. 80g caster sugar

For the strawberry mousse

1. 100g strawberry
2. 1 teaspoon rose syrup
3. 1 teaspoon lemon juice
4. 4g gelatine
5. 100g double cream
6. 60g caster sugar

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180c. Sieve the flour, cornstarch and baking powder twice.
• Using an electric mixer, beat butter and sugar together until light and pale. Add in the eggs gradually. Lastly, sieve in flour into the bowl and fold until just combined. Pour in a lined 6' inch round baking tin and bake for about 25 minutes. Take out to cool completely. When it's cooled, cut out the top of the cake so that the cake is level. Put the cake back into the baking tin carefully.
• Make the grape mousse by soaking the gelatine leaves in cold water for 5 minutes. In a pan, heat grape juice and lemon juice gently. Before it comes to the boil, turn off the heat, squeeze out the water from the soaked gelatine and add the gelatine to the heated juice. Stir until gelatine is dissolved. Leave to cool completely. In another bowl, whip doublecream with sugar until peaks form. Use a spatula to mix the whipped cream and cooled juice together. Pour the mixture onto the top of the sponge (which should sit in the baking tin), with a heart shaped cookie cutter put in the centre, which forms a heart-shaped hole. Chill in the fridge to set (this takes about 1 hour).
• In the meantime, make the strawberry mousse. Use a food processor to puree the strawberry. Follow the same steps for grape mousse above, but also remember to add the rose syrup when you heat the strawberry puree.
• When the grape mousse is set, take out the cookie cutter carefully. Pour the strawberry mousse onto the heart-shaped hole. Chill in the fridge to set. When set, remove the cake tin carefully and serve.