Light and tangy strawberry mousse layered between soft almond sponge and topped with a buttery white sesame crumble. A perfect refreshing dessert for a warm day!
I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but in Australia it’s strawberry season and the strawberries are at their peak. Sweet, flavourful and most importantly affordable! When cooking its always important to appreciate the produce and use what is available, especially when it tastes the best. This little cake is the definition of strawberry, light and tangy; a sweet and refreshing cake to end a meal or even start your day.
This cake is similar to the passionfruit mousse cake that I had posted before. I had a lot of comments asking whether they could replace the passionfruit with a different fruit as passionfruit isn’t as widely available. Soooo here the recipe is! Even if strawberries aren’t in season where you are frozen strawberries work equally as well. These days frozen fruits can even be better than fresh produce when it comes to making jams and mousses as they capture the flavour of the fruit when it’s at it’s peak so I’m sure you can make this recipe wherever you are.
I found that the mousse cake by itself was missing a little something, and that’s why I decided to add a little sesame crumb to the top. It adds an extra crunch and nuttiness to the dessert to bring it all together, but if you can’t find sesame or just can’t be bothered, the cake will taste delicious regardless.
I hope you like this recipe and if you do make it make sure to tag me on instagram @catherine.justdessertsau and hashtag #cattycakes so I can share your amazing creations. I’ve been brainstorming a lot recently for new recipe ideas and if you guys had any suggestions let me know! Until next time, happy caking!
PrintStrawberry Mousse Cake with Sesame Crumble
Light and tangy strawberry mousse layered between soft almond sponge and topped with a buttery white sesame crumble. A perfect refreshing dessert for a warm day!
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 75 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
Ingredients
Almond Sponge
- 70 g Icing sugar
- 70 g Almond meal
- 10 g Flour
- 2 Eggs
- 65 g Egg whites
- 10 g Caster/Superfine sugar
Strawberry Mousse
- 200 g Strawberries, fresh or frozen
- 60 g White sugar
- ¼ Lemon juice
- 200 g Thickened/Heavy cream
- 1 ½ tsp Gelatin powder
- 2 tbsp Water
Strawberry Jelly
- 100 g Strawberries, fresh or frozen
- 20 g Sugar
- ¾ tsp Gelatin powder
- 1 tbsp Water
Nutty Sesame Crumble
- 50 g Sesame seeds
- 50 g White sugar
- 50 g Plain flour
- 30 g Unsalted butter
Instructions
Almond Sponge
- Preheat the oven to 190°C
- Combine the icing sugar, almond meal, flour and one egg in a medium sized bowl
- Whisk on high speed until light and fluffy
- Add the other egg and continue to whisk until doubled in volume, about 5 minutes
- In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks
- Carefully fold the egg whites into the flour mixture
- Spread roughly into a 35 x 25 cm rectangle on a lined baking sheet
- Bake for [cooked-timer minutes=”12″]12 Minutes[/cooked-timer]
Strawberry Mousse
- Bloom the gelatin by combining the gelatin powder and water, set aside
- Puree the strawberries using a blender
- Heat the strawberry puree with the sugar, then add the bloomed gelatin
- Cool until room temperature
- Whisk the thickened cream until medium peaks
- Fold the cream into the strawberry mixture
- Transfer to a piping bag to assemble
Strawberry Jelly
- Combine the gelatine powder and water, set aside to bloom
- Combine the strawberries and sugar and blend to a puree
- Melt the gelatine and add to the puree a little at a time, blend again to ensure there are no gelatine chunks
- Set aside until use
Nutty Sesame Crumble
- Preheat the oven to 180°C
- In a food processor blend the sesame seeds until a fine powder
- Add the flour and sugar, blend again to combine
- Add the unsalted butter and pulse until a crumble like consistency is reached
- Pour onto a cookie sheet lined with baking paper
- Bake for [cooked-timer minutes=”15″]15 Minutes[/cooked-timer] then cool
Assembly
- Using a rectangular cake ring (10 x 23 cm) cut out three rectangles from the almond sponge
- Place a layer of almond sponge into the ring followed by a layer of strawberry mousse
- Top with another layer of sponge and mousse
- Place the last layer of sponge on top
- Pour the strawberry jelly ontop and allow to set in the freezer for several hours
- Remove and cut into 8 slices
- Top each slice with some sesame crumble and half a strawberry
- Serve once thawed!
Related Recipes
Today this was the 2nd receipe I tried and unfortunately didn't work as expected. The main issue was the sponge. It was very very sticky and smell very eggy. Should the egg whites reach a marshmallow like concistency before they get mixed with the rest of the mixture? Mine reached stiff peaks but the texture was a bit foamy, does it need to be like the one when we make meringue shells?
Also, the step for the strawberry mousse is missing. Although you do mention that it is similar to the passion fruit mousse, it would be nice to add this step in the recipe so we don't need to go back and forth or print 2 recipes.
Another issue is the size. As we bake the sponge on a 25x25 cm square how can we cut 3 pieces of 10x23 cm? In this case we would need a 30x25 cm square pan.
I would love to hear your advice, especially about the sponge/meringue issue.
Hi Dimosthenis,
Happy to help again! With the stickiness of the sponge I suspect it's the same problem as the strawberry cake. As sugar will absorb water from the climate around it a humid climate will cause the layer of caramelisation to be extra sticky. Again not a problem, you can remove it or cover it with the mousse.
The egg whites should be whisked with the sugar to create stiff peaks. When whipping these together there is less sugar than a typical meringue so it won't have the same shine and density as a meringue, but it should hold stiff peaks without being too foamy.
In regards to the eggy smell, it is an egg based sponge and will have an egg taste to it. If you find it a little too much add a teaspoon of vanilla extract, this will cancel out some of the egginess.
Sorry about the size! I guess since the cake rose and spread a little when I was testing I didn't realise the inconsistency. I've fixed it up in the recipe for you, as well as added the mousse recipe so you don't have to go back and forth with the passionfruit cake!
Hello Catherine,
Thank you for the help. I will give it another try and I am sure I will nail it as your recipes seem to be really really good. One more thing that regarding the eggy smell I believe has to do with the size of the eggs. I have used large eggs, but maybe you need to use medium(?).
Anyway, I will let you know how it goes once I make it again.
I usually use large eggs so it shouldn't be too big of a problem. Let me know how it goes!