Rich individual chocolate mousse cake dessert

בס"ד

Chocolate lovers decadent dessert

I've crafted this tasty chocolate mousse cake dessert after a visit to Venice, Italy, a few years back. It was my first time visiting Venice and my second time in this beautiful country. 

Venice is just beautiful and picturesque. Now imagine you walk between the narrow alleys, and suddenly rain starts pouring at you. There is almost nowhere to hide. And you can find on every corner a person who sells umbrellas. It wasn't the time of the year for mister winter, but then again, it is always time for little to heavy rain in Venice.
The rain keep pouring non-stop, and although I love rain and the streets of Venice seemed magical at the time, it was a bit hard to enjoy the visit without a proper shield from the rain. We got soaked entirely from water and almost wrapped our journey when we discovered a little gem.

We knew there was supposed to be a kosher bakery in Venice, and little signs of Hebrew words have directed us to the right place. We decided that we at least try something in the bakery to cheer us a bit.
We bought a type of bread that is supposed to be tough and dry. We didn't enjoy it much, and for dessert, we tried a sweet tooth that resembles a creambo.

A crembo is something similar to the English tea cake or the American chocolate-coated Marshmallow treats. The Israeli crembo is a no-bake meringue laid on a beautiful cookie, covered with chocolate. This dessert is a winter pleasure in Israel, and if you haven't tried it, you just ought to (The Strauss brand is highly recommended).
The Krembo like dessert we bought in the city of Venice was looking just like a regular crembo. On the outside, but on the inside, it was utterly different.

Although the taste wasn't that amazing, I still wanted to recreate that sweet dessert. The result wasn't at all what I remembered, but it was unbelievably scrumptious and indulgent dessert!
This dessert with its chocolate mousse filling and cake crumbs is sublime, and any chocolate lover will adore this sweet little course.

I guess you can call this dessert chocolate mousse cupcakes or muffins, but what's for sure is the fact that it is just so incredibly delicious, and it is a definite keeper!
What can go wrong with chocolate mousse over chocolate muffins covered with melted chocolate? Nothing I tell ya, nothing.

I love making no-bake chocolate desserts and especially when the temperatures are rising in the summertime, so if you prefer to make things easier and not turn on your oven, here's what you can do.
Instead of baking muffins, use store-bought ones. Then follow the instructions exactly as found on the recipe. Although you didn't make it all from scratch, it is still so good that no one will notice.
And you don't need to stick to chocolate-flavored muffins. You can use chocolate chip muffins, strawberry-flavored muffins, or any other flavor you love and think will work well with this chocolate mousse.

This recipe is perfect for any occasion and is a cause for celebration. You can add to these lovely chocolate desserts, decorations of your choice (crushed hazelnuts, colorful sprinkles, etc.). 

Ingredients for 16 chocolate indulgences:
For the Muffins (taken from "on the table" Israeli food magazine):
2.5 cups flour (350g / 12.3 oz.)
1/2 cup cocoa (70g / 2.5 oz.)
1/2 tsp salt
1 pack baking powder (10g = 0.4 oz.) *
1 2/3 cup of sugar (320g / 11.3 oz.)
2 eggs beaten
3/4 cup oil (180 ml / 6.1 oz.)
2/3 cup of water or milk (160 ml / 5.4 oz.)

For the mousse:
212 ml (7.2 oz.) whipped cream
200g ( 6.8 oz.) bittersweet chocolate

For the coating:
200g ( 6.8 oz.) bittersweet chocolate
canola oil

* I used just a bit of baking soda instead of Baking powder because I didn't have any at the time. You can make this switch only if you use a cocoa powder that has a considerable amount of acidity so that the baking soda can neutralize its acidity.

Directions:
We start with the mousse:
Whip the cream for a stable cream. Melt the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, let it cool a bit and fold the chocolate to the whipped cream. Let it cool in the fridge and continue with the muffins.

For the Muffins:
Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, and baking powder. Add the sugar and mix. Create a hole in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the eggs, oil, and milk (or water). Mix just until well blended.
Fill a muffin pan with the mixture- just 2/3 of the way.
Heat oven to 180C / 356F and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted to the middle of the muffin comes out with moist crumbs.
Let the muffins cool and then take off their mushroom heads using a knife.

Put the "heads" in a bowl and crumble them. Mix the crumbled "heads" with the refrigerated mousse.
Now comes the dirty part: shape the mousse into a Crembo like hill using your hands and place it on each bottom of a muffin. Continue so with all 16 muffins.
After done, let the Crembos rest in the fridge for an hour or the freezer for a few minutes.
Melt the chocolate and add about 2-3 spoons of canola oil.
Coat each Crembo with the melted chocolate using a spoon.
Good Luck :)

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