Patriotic 4th of July Mini Mousse Cakes – Strawberry, Vanilla, and Blueberry mousse!

“The red and white and starry blue…”

So it’s a little early for Independence day, but I wanted to get these little patriotic cuties up so you have time to make them by the end of the week! These mousse cakelettes are so tasty and light! They start out with a light as air lemon chiffon cake base, are topped with strawberry mousse, blueberry mousse, vanilla mousse, and some more blueberry mousse – and finished off with homemade whipped cream, and fresh raspberries and blueberries.

The Lemon Chiffon Cake base

8 egg whites

Cream of tartar

1.5 cups sugar (divided in two parts)

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

Pinch of salt

5 egg yolks

½ cup canola oil

Juice and zest of 1 large lemon

Plastic wrap for assembly

Acetate baking strips (cake collars) for assembly

Preheat oven to 350F. In your stand mixer, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar to soft peaks, then slowly add in ¾ cup of the sugar and continue beating to stiff peaks. Set aside. Meanwhile, mix the dry ingredients in one bowl (rest of the sugar, flour, baking soda, salt). Mix the yolks, oil, and lemon juice/zest in separate bowl. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix well. Add 1/3 of egg white mixture into the batter and whisk together. Now take the batter-whites mixture and fold it into the rest of the egg white mixture in stand mixer bowl. Pour this batter into prepared (non-stick sprayed) 4 inch springform pans. Bake for about 30 minutes but start checking at 20 minutes, as some ovens vary. Check with a toothpick if cake is done. This cake should also be very airy so it should sort of bounce back when touched.

Important note on Assembly: After the cakes are done and have cooled to room temperature, remove them from the pans, wrap in plastic wrap and store in refrigerator for a couple hours to overnight. You can skip this step if you’re in a rush but I’ve found that this step makes the cakes more sturdy and easier to work with.

Once you are ready to make the mousse and assemble, you’ll need to take the cakes out of the fridge, unwrap them and place them on cake boards or cake stands. Now take the acetate strips (these are awesome for mousse cakes – must have!), very tightly wrap them around the cake and secure ends with tape. There can be no open area because the mousse will drip down the sides and not set properly. It may take a couple tries to get your strips tight around the cake – but this is a crucial step! Now you’re ready for the mousse!

Strawberry Mousse

10-15 fresh strawberries (hulled and halved)

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

2 tbsp sugar

1 packet of unflavored gelatin

3.5 tbsp water

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Couple drops of red food coloring

In a food processor, blend strawberries well. Strain the puree over a saucepan to collect the strawberry juice. Combine sugar and strawberry juice on the stove in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, pour water in a bowl and allow gelatin to bloom there for 5-10 minutes. Then microwave the gelatin mix for 10 seconds. Remove pan from and turn off heat, and mix in the gelatin. Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in microwave in 10 second intervals (it melts quickly – make sure you mix between microwaving intervals!). It should take about 30-40 seconds total.  Pour the strawberry mix over the melted chocolate in a large bowl and mix together. In a stand mixer beat the cream to soft peaks. Fold this into the chocolate-strawberry mixture. At this point your mixture is pink because you’ve added the cream. To get it back to red add a couple drops of gel red food coloring and mix in. Spread this mixture out evenly over the cake layer and refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Blueberry Mousse

2 small packages of fresh blueberries or ½ of large box

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

2 tbsp sugar

1 packet of unflavored gelatin

3.5 tbsp water

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Couple drops of blue food coloring

In a food processor, blend blueberries well. Strain the puree over a saucepan to collect the blueberry juice. Combine sugar and blueberry juice on the stove in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, pour water in a bowl and allow gelatin to bloom there for 5-10 minutes. Then microwave the gelatin mix for 10 seconds. Remove pan from and turn off heat, and mix in the gelatin. Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in microwave in 10 second intervals (it melts quickly – make sure you mix between microwaving intervals!). It should take about 30-40 seconds total.  Pour the blueberry mix over the melted chocolate in a large bowl and mix together. In a stand mixer beat the cream to soft peaks. Fold this into the chocolate-blueberry mixture. Add a couple drops of blue gel food coloring to get that nice deep blue color. Spread this out evenly over the cake layer and refrigerate for 45 minutes.

Note – I made two batches of this and used the second batch to layer on top of the vanilla for even more red, white, and blue goodness!

Vanilla Mousse

1 cup white chocolate chips

1 tsp vanilla

2 tsp unflavored gelatin

2 tbsp water

1cup heavy whipping cream

Pour water in a bowl and allow gelatin to bloom there for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the white chocolate in microwave in 10 second intervals (it melts quicker than darker chocolate!). Add vanilla and combine. Then microwave the gelatin mix for 10 seconds and mix into the chocolate. In a stand mixer beat the cream to soft peaks. Fold this into the white chocolate-vanilla mixture. Spread this out evenly over the blueberry mousse layer in your cake pan and refrigerate for 2-3 hours, or until solid enough to hold one more layer. (The vanilla layer needs longer refrigeration).

Add your second blueberry layer and refrigerate for a couple hours to overnight.

Topping

2/3 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

Fresh raspberries

Fresh blueberries

Remove cakes from refrigerator and slowly remove acetate cake strips. Set cakes aside. Beat heavy cream a few minutes on medium high in stand mixer until you get whipped cream (stiff peaks). Use a closed star tip to pipe little stars all around the top of the cake and one big star dollop in the middle. Place five raspberries in a star shape on the top of the cakes and one blueberry in the middle. I placed my little flag cake toppers (which I just made with little flags and toothpicks and glue) into the blueberries on top.

All done! Now go and enjoy some red, white, and blue goodness!