Chocolate Blackberry Mousse Cakes

I've been wanting to make an entremet lately. But I like shortcuts too much and I lacked a few ingredients I wanted, so I settled instead for these cute little entremet wannabes:

Chocolate Blackberry Mousse Cakes

Ingredients

Base Cake: (Joconde from The Daring Kitchen HERE)

• 43g almond flour
• 38g powdered sugar
• 13g cake flour
• 75g eggs (about 2 large eggs)
• 45g egg whites 
• 5g granulated sugar
• 15g (about 1T) usalted butter, melted

Milk Chocolate Mousse: (adapted from HERE)

• 85g milk chocolate (used Ghiradelli)
• 20g sugar
• 5g corn syrup
• 10g water
• 25g egg yolks
• 175g whipping cream

Almond Cream: 

• 1c whipping cream
• 1T water
• 1tsp gelatin
• almond extract
• 1 carton blackberries

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 475F. Prepare a half sheet jelly roll pan with parchment paper. 
In a mixing bowl, whip together the egg whites and granulated sugar until firm peaks form.
In a separate bowl, sift together the almond flour, powdered sugar and cake flour. Add the whole eggs slowly, mixing on medium speed throughout. Continue to mix until smooth and light.
Fold the egg white mixture into the almond mixture gradually (ie in thirds). Mix only until incorporated. Fold in melted butter.
Bake for about 15 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the mousse, beat the yolks until their color becomes pale. In a small saucepan on medium heat, mix the corn syrup, sugar and water to 118C. Slowly add the mixture to the egg yolks, stirring continuously. Beat until cool. It should be thick and foamy.
Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds then stir. If it still needs more time, heat it more in 10 second intervals. Try to smooth the chocolate by stirring it rather than heating it too much. Fold that into the egg yolk mixture.
Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold the chocolate mixture into the cream a bit at a time just until incorporated.


For the almond cream, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Pour your water into a small bowl and sprinkle the gelatin over that. Let it sit for a minute, then warm it in the microwave for about 20 seconds and stir to make sure it's dissolved. Drizzle that slowly into the cream while mixing and then add a drop or two of almond extract.

To Assemble:

Place a baking ring on your joconde and trace a circle around the outside with a knife to make your base circle. Place the baking rings on a pan, and put your joconde circles in the bottom of each. Pipe some chocolate mousse about halfway up the baking ring and then top with blackberries. Cover your blackberries with the almond cream and freeze for a few hours or refrigerate overnight.
(If you choose to freeze them just warm the outside of the baking rings with your hands until the cakes slide out.)