Sunflower Cake

Sunflower Cake

During the summer there are plenty of occasions to serve a beautiful desert like our Sunflower Cake pictured here. With a little thought and creativity, you can make this cake without spending hours in the kitchen doing everything from scratch. Here's how:

We used our favorite white cake mix from the store and a chocolate cake mix (this makes 2 Sunflower cakes — 4 9" rounds). We prepared the cake mixes according to the instructions and baked them in 9" cake pans then let them cool. Once cooled we prepared a packaged chocolate mousse mix (I like Oetker Milk Chocolate Mousse mix — its easy, tastes great and is available in my local market and comes in strawberry flavor (you'll need 2 packages if you want to fill both cakes with mousse)). Taking one of the white cakes I spread the chilled mousse mixture thickly over the top then placed the chocolate cake on top of that. Next you need two packages of your favorite white frosting. With the first package of frosting I started by spreading a thin layer of frosting on top of the cake and frosting the sides completely. I took p of the second package and placed it in a bowl and added 2-3 drops of yellow food coloring and mixed until it becomes the appropriate yellow. With a wide mouthed glass I lightly pressed the outline of a circle in the center of the cake. With a piping bag and the widest star tip I had, I piped petals by moving from the inside of my circle outward. Once my petals were made, I filled the empty center with tiny semi-sweet chocolate chips. Using the remaining frosting I mixed in 2-3 drops of green food coloring, and piped green leaves around the base of our cake. Preparation time — about 1 hour from start to finish.

The variations on this theme are many thanks to pudding makers, and one of my favorites is a white cake filled with chilled lemon pie filling.

For the diehard baker I have included my favorite chocolate mousse recipe below.

Chocolate Mousse

Ingredients:
6 oz. Semisweet or Bittersweet Chocolate	3 Tablespoons Unsalted Butter
2 Tablespoons Strong Coffee	1 Teaspoon vanilla
3 Large Egg Yokes	3 Tablespoons of water
3 Tablespoons of sugar	3 Large Egg Whites
1/2 Teaspoon Cream of Tartar	1/4 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Cold Heavy Cream

Utensils:
2 Heat-Proof Bowls	2 Regular Mixing Bowls
Egg beater	Spatula
Double Boiler or Skillet with 1" of water

Heat 1 inch of water in a large skillet until bubbles form on the bottom (you don't want a rolling boil) or use a double boiler. In a heat proof bowl put 6 oz. of chocolate, 3 T butter, 2 T coffee and 1/4 C sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla. Set your heat-proof bowl in the bath and beat until melted.

In another heat-proof bowl beat your 3 egg yokes with the 3 T of water, 3 T of sugar place this bowl in your water bath and with a whip beat until thick and puffy. Make sure your water is not boiling, egg yokes gain volume when heated, but you do not want scrambled eggs. Once they gain volume (approximately double) remove from the bath, and cool to room temperature. With a large spatula gently fold the chocolate mixture into the cooled egg yoke mixture.

In a third bowl place your three egg whites (at room temperature) and cream of tartar. Beat the egg whites (on medium-high setting) until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat on high until stiff peaks form. Using a large spatula fold in 1/4 of the beaten egg whites into the chocolate mixture to lighten it then fold in the remaining egg whites until no white shows.

Beat the heavy cream until soft peaks form and fold into the chocolate mixture then turn into a 5 cup bowl or 6 6-8 oz. individual cups. Refrigerate from 4-24 hours before serving or using to fill your cake.