Vegan Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake

Hi baking friends!

Vegan Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake – need I say more?!? Orange and chocolate is just one of those delicious combos that I can’t resist! 

I grew up eating Terry’s Chocolate Oranges so orange and chocolate has a special place in my heart. Speaking of chocolate… I’ve been on a bit of a chocolate craze lately. If you’re obsessed like me then you can find all my chocolate recipes here!

I could talk about chocolate and orange all day but how about we skip to the recipe straight away??  As usual the full recipe will be at the bottom of this page but I’ll break down the process so you guys nail this delicious cake the first time!

This bake consists of 3 elements: the chocolate cake, the chocolate orange mousse and the ganache! Let’s start off with the chocolate cake!

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line your 8-inch loose bottom cake tin with baking parchment. 

As usual, sift all the dry ingredients together and set aside. If you want a really bold orange flavour, add some additional orange zest into the batter at this stage! Mix the apple cider vinegar into the soy milk to create a pseudo-buttermilk! It’s paramount that you warm the milk first – the heat will bring out the flavour of the cocoa and it will warm up the overall batter so it cooks more evenly in the oven! Feel free to add in a tbsp of espresso powder too if you want to deepen that rich chocolate flavour.

Stick with natural cocoa powder and not dutch processed cocoa powder. Dutch processed cocoa powder is treated with alkaline solutions to neutralise the acidity of the cocoa. Since we are using baking soda as the raising agent (an alkaline), we need the other ingredients to be acidic to cause the reaction that creates an airy sponge. This is why apple cider vinegar is included in the recipe!

Pour the rest of the wet ingredients into the buttermilk, then create a well in the dry ingredients and then pour the wet into the dry mix. Whisk until fully incorporated! Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 40 minutes. I thoroughly recommend using a cake strip on the cake tin. Using a cake strip will allow the cake to bake in a perfect disc with minimal doming. This is optimal for us because we want as deep as cake as possible so we can get two thick layers of chocolate cake. If you want to make your own then check out this super easy tutorial by PreppyKitchen!

Once cooked, allow the cake to cool for an hour before you start cutting it. Ideally place it in your fridge to cool overnight. When it is cool, take the cake out of the tin and, using a wire cutter or serrated knife, cut the cake into two even layers. Leave one layer in the base of the cake tin, ready for the mousse to be poured on top.

Chocolate “mousse”:

Now let’s talk about the mousse layer! If you’ve been following my blog for a while you’ll know I’m pretty obsessed with aquafaba meringue and you may be thinking I’m be using it here! Surprise – I’m not! After a few experiments I found that a food processor whips a fair amount of air into the silken tofu so the meringue isn’t necessary. We also need this layer to be fairly sturdy to support another cake layer on top so it’s best to avoid additional wet ingredients! 

One of my favourite parts of this mousse is that it has loads of fresh orange juice inside it! What a way to really emphasis that irresistible juicy, citrusy flavour. Make sure you are using SILKEN tofu for this recipe not regular tofu. I use Clearspring organic silken tofu.

In a food processor, add all the ingredients except for the chocolate (silken tofu, orange juice, orange extract, vanilla extract, maple syrup). Blitz until smooth. You can also use a blender/smoothie maker for this step! Don’t be shy with the mixing at this stage. I have found the longer I mix it the more bubbles I get into the mousse. 

Melt the chocolate using a bain-marie or in the microwave using 30 second bursts. Pour the melted chocolate into the food processor and pulse a few times until it is incorporated. Don’t overdo it as you’ll start to pop some of the bubbles we whipped up.

Pour the mousse onto the bottom cake layer in the tin. Place the cake tin in the fridge for 20 minutes to partially set. After 20 minutes, take it back out the fridge and place the top cake layer on the mousse. Put the whole cake back in the fridge (covered) to set overnight (or for a few hours).

Ganache:

My recipe has specified soy milk/cream but you can substitute almost any liquid here for a different flavour ganache. Here are some examples: coconut cream, Elmlea plant cream, almond milk or even water!

Heat up the soy cream or milk in saucepan on low heat. When it starts to simmer, pour it onto the 100g of chocolate and set aside for 5 minutes to melt. Pour the ganache layer over the top of the cake and serve immediately!

Troubleshooting:

Sometimes if you overbake or overmix the chocolate cake it will shrink slightly in the cake tin when you take it out of the oven. This is an issue because when you pour the mousse into the cake tin it might leak into the gap around the cake. There are three solutions for this:

• Create a new barrier with a piece of acetate (or foiling or parchment) around the bottom layer of cake.
• Provided the gap isn’t larger than a few mm, you can also just weight for the mousse to set a little and then pour it in. As the chocolate starts to set the mousse will become a lot thicker and it is much less likely to squeeze down the gaps without external pressure.
• Instead of using the original cake tin, use a smaller cake tin (7″ if you have one) and cut the cake down to the new size. 

Ultimately if you cannot avoid a bit of leaked mousse, it doesn’t matter too much. You can just scrape the mousse off at the very end with a spatula before covering entirely with ganache so no one can see it!

For this recipe you will need:

• 8-inch loose-bottom cake tin
• food processor/blender

Enjoy!!

5 from 10 reviews

Chocolate Orange Mousse Cake

July 16, 2020

Servings: 12

Prep: 30 min

Cook: 40 min

Total: 3 hr

Difficulty: Medium

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Silky, creamy chocolate orange mousse sandwiched between two moist and spongey layers of vegan chocolate orange cake. This showstopper cake is guaranteed to please vegans and non-vegans a like!

By: Project Vegan Baking

Ingredients

• Cake ingredients:
• 280g All-purpose (plain) flour
• 280g granulated sugar
• 35g cocoa powder
• 1.5 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 200ml soy milk (warm)
• 100ml orange juice
• 1.5 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 120g vegetable oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tsp orange extract
• Mousse:
• 400g silken tofu
• 400g dark chocolate, chopped,
• 150ml orange juice
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• 2 tsp orange extract
• Ganache layer:
• 100g chocolate
• 100g soy cream or milk

Directions

• Step 1 Cake layers: Pre-heat the oven to 180C.
• Step 2 Sieve together all the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt) in a large mixing bowl.
• Step 3 Warm up the plant milk. 60 seconds in the microwave should be enough.
• Step 4 Add the apple cider vinegar to the milk to make a “buttermilk”. Leave to curdle for 10 minutes.
• Step 5 While you wait, line your 8-inch loose bottom cake tin with parchment paper.
• Step 6 Add the remaining wet ingredients (orange juice, vegetable oil, and orange/vanilla extract) to the buttermilk.
• Step 7 Create a well in the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients in. Whisk together until fully incorporated. Be careful not to overmix.
• Step 8 Pour the cake batter into the cake tin and put in the oven for 40-45 minutes. Use a toothpick at the 40-minute mark to see if it is cooked (should come out clean after a few pokes).
• Step 9 Take out of the oven and leave to cool for a few hours.
• Step 10 Once cooled, take the cake out of the tin and, using a wire cutter or serrated knife, cut the cake into two even layers.
• Step 11 Leave one layer in the base of the cake tin, ready for the mousse to be poured on top.
• Step 12 Mousse layer: In a food processor, add all the ingredients except for the chocolate (silken tofu, orange juice, orange extract, vanilla extract, maple syrup). Blitz until smooth.
• Step 13 Melt the chocolate using a bain-marie or in the microwave using 30 second bursts.
• Step 14 Pour the melted chocolate into the food processor and blitz until it’s full incorporated.
• Step 15 Pour the mousse onto the bottom cake layer in the tin. Place the cake tin in the fridge for 1-2 hours to set (or speed up the process by putting it in the freezer for 20 mins).
• Step 16 Place the top cake layer on the mousse and leave the whole cake to set in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Step 17 Ganache: Meanwhile, heat up the soy cream or milk in saucepan on low heat. When it starts to simmer, pour it onto the 100g of chocolate and set aside for 5 minutes to melt.
• Step 18 Carefully take the cake out of the loose bottom cake tin and pour the ganache layer on top of the cake.
• Step 19 Cut and serve!