Three Chocolate Cake: A Step-by-Step Recipe at Home

Step 1 – Prepare the chocolate sponge cake

Use a fine-mesh sieve to combine the dry ingredients: 75 grams of flour, 10 grams of cocoa, and baking powder. Sift the mixture, incorporating air and thoroughly breaking up any lumps that may be present in the flour and cocoa.

Stir the mixture additionally with a whisk.

Add 15 grams of softened butter and 20 grams of dark chocolate to 55 grams of milk at room temperature.

Microwave the chocolate, milk, and butter in short bursts until completely melted. Stir until smooth.

Beat two eggs (white and yolk together) with a mixer until a fluffy foam forms.

Gradually add 75 grams of sugar to the mixture, whisking constantly at high speed. Continue whisking for a while. It should increase in volume, become almost white, and become elastic, almost like whipped egg whites.

Add the dry mixture prepared in step 1 to the prepared mass and mix thoroughly with a spatula until a homogeneous mass is obtained.

Add the milk with chocolate and butter prepared in steps 2 and 3 to the dough. Mix with a spatula until smooth.

The dough should be smooth, elastic and not very thick, as in the photo.

Immediately transfer the dough into a baking pan, the bottom of which is first lined with foil or parchment (silicone pans do not need to be lined).

Place the dough in the oven, preheated to 180℃, and bake for about 15 minutes.

We take the finished sponge cake out of the oven, let it sit in the pan for a few minutes, and then carefully remove it.

We take the sponge cake out of the film if we took it out the next day, or simply wait until the cake has cooled enough, and remove all the unevenness, preparing the base for our “Three Chocolates” cake.

Place the sponge cake on a tray, wrap it with acetate tape and place a mold around it, which will help us give the three layers of mousse a nice round shape.

Let's put the mixture aside for now and start preparing the remaining layers of the "Three Chocolates" cake.

Step 2 – Prepare the dark chocolate mousse

Dissolve 5 grams of gelatin in 20 grams of cold water and leave until completely swollen.

Whip the chilled cream with a mixer until it's half-whipped. It should increase in volume slightly but remain soft and fluffy. Refrigerate the whipped cream immediately.

At the next stage we're cooking Crème Anglaise, thanks to which our mousse will have a silky creamy texture.

Pour 80 grams of milk + 25 grams of sugar into a saucepan with a thick bottom and heat without bringing to a boil.

In a saucepan, combine 2 egg yolks and 25 grams of sugar and whisk thoroughly until smooth.

When the milk is almost boiling, begin to steep the yolks. Pour the milk into the yolks in a very thin stream, whisking vigorously.

Transfer the saucepan to the stove. Heat the mixture slowly, stirring vigorously with a spatula to prevent it from thickening too quickly.

The finished cream has a consistency similar to condensed milk. It shouldn't be thick like custard.

Next, pour the still hot cream through a sieve into a bowl with pieces of dark chocolate.

Stir the mixture thoroughly until the chocolate is completely dissolved and a uniform texture is achieved.

By this point, the gelatin will have swelled well. Melt it in the microwave until it becomes liquid (10 seconds is enough) and add it to the chocolate cream.

Mix the mixture intensively until smooth and let it cool slightly (to about 35℃) so that it does not lose its volume when adding the cream.

Take the whipped cream out of the refrigerator and carefully fold the chocolate cream into it.

Mix the mousse with a spatula until you get a beautiful, smooth, homogeneous mass with a rich chocolate color.

Pour the finished chocolate mousse into the prepared pan over the sponge cake. Refrigerate the cake for at least 1 hour (until the mousse has completely set).

Step 3 – Prepare the milk chocolate mousse

The second layer of mousse for the Three Chocolates cake is prepared in exactly the same way as described in steps 14-25, only instead of dark chocolate we use milk chocolate, and also increase the amount of gelatin to 6 g and water to 35 g (see ingredients).

As a result, you should get a chocolate mousse with a delicate coffee shade, as in the photo.

We pour another layer of mousse into the mold and send the words to cool until completely hardened.

Step 4 – Prepare the white chocolate mousse

Prepare the mousse following steps 14-25, but in the recipe we use white chocolate, 7 g of gelatin and 40 g of water.

We get a delicate white mousse, as in the photo.

We pour the final white layer and send our homemade “Three Chocolates” cake to the refrigerator to stabilize.

After 8 hours, remove the cake from the mold and carefully remove the acetate tape.