Let’s combine a cake and a dessert and make a delicious, soft, light and airy apple mousse cake with Greek yoghurt using freshly made apple puree with sugar and cinnamon, and a soft sponge cake base. For a wintery look, let’s decorate the apple mousse cake with some coconut snowballs.
The small apple mousse cake is perfect to treat ourselves or just a few people. It requires less ingredients, thus making it also cheaper to make, and there are no worries about what to do with the rest of the cake if you just wanted a few slices of a cake. Still, you can have 4 big slices or 8 smaller slices from this apple mousse cake. Keep the cake in the fridge and it will last several days. Unless eaten quicker 🙂
Equipment
- 14 x 4 cm or 5.5 x 2.5 inches springform cake pan
Ingredients
- 200 g / 0.8 cups apple puree (2 medium apples; sour if possible)
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 85 g / 0.4 cups granulated sugar
- 200 g / 0.8 cups plain Greek yoghurt (room temperature)
- 125 g / 0.5 cups whipping cream (35% fat)
- gelatine for 0.6 l / 4.3 cups liquid + 30 ml / 2 tbsp water
For the sponge cake base:
- 1 egg (room temperature)
- 1 tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp sugar (from the 85 g mentioned above)
- a pinch of salt
- 3/4 tbsp milk or liqueur (optional; I use Amaretto or an orange liqueur)
For the coconut snowballs:
- 2 tsp sweetened condensed milk
- 50 g / 0.6 cups dry, shredded coconut
- a few drops of lemon juice
- 1 tsp raspberry jam for dark red balls (optional)
Directions
- Set the oven to heat to 180° C or 400° F.
- Wash, peel, core and cut apples in small pieces. Put the pieces in a baking dish, greased with some butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of sugar. Bake the apples for about 30 min till they are very soft. Mix them once in a while while checking.
- Blend the apples to have smooth puree. If you want the apples and mousse to be super smooth, press the apples through a sieve. Let the apple puree cool to room temperature.
- To make the cake base, insert a piece of parchment paper in a springform cake pan and grease the pan with some butter or oil.
- Separate an egg yolk from the egg white in two bowls. Add a tablespoon of sugar to the egg yolk and beat it with an electric mixer till it’s light and fluffy.
- Add a tablespoon of flour to the egg yolk and mix to combine.
- Add a pinch of salt to the egg white and beat it with an electric mixer till it forms stiff peaks. Gently fold the egg white in the rest of the batter.
- Put the batter in the prepared cake pan, level and bake for about 10 – 15 minutes till the sponge cake is lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let slowly cool in the cake pan to room temperature.
- To make the apple mousse, put a bit of water and gelatine in a small dish and let it soak for about 5 – 10 min or as indicated on the package.
- Put apple puree in a bowl, add to it about half of the remaining sugar and the Greek yoghurt. Mix it well together so that the batter is somewhat fluffy.
- Dissolve gelatine on low heat, using the same dish or in a water bath. Let it cool a little, while beating the whipping cream with the remaining sugar.
- Gradually pour gelatine in the apple mousse batter while continuously mixing.
- Fold in the whipped cream. Taste the mousse to see if you would like to add more sugar and have it sweeter.
- Drizzle about 3/4 tbsp of liqueur or milk on the sponge cake base (optional) and pour the mousse batter over the sponge cake. Level and put the cake in the fridge till it sets completely (best overnight).
- Run a knife around the cake form sides to remove it from the cake pan and put on a plate. Smoothen the cake sides where necessary.
- To make the coconut snowballs, put a few tablespoons of coconut flakes in a separate small bowl. Mix the condensed milk with the dry coconut flakes and a few drops of lemon juice, forming something like a paste, which can be squeezed and rolled into small balls. Roll the balls in the dry coconut flakes. Use the remaining dry coconut flakes to sprinkle the cake and put the snowballs on top of it.
- Enjoy!