I'm wanting to make a two layer cake... chocolate and vanilla cake filled with strawberry mousse...

Has anyone ever tried this? and have any great recipes to share that worked for them?

I found this recipe:

INGREDIENTS
2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and cut in half
1 tbsp. (1 pack) unflavored gelatin
1/3 cup cold water
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
2 cups 35% or heavy cream, chilled


METHOD

Puree the strawberries in the food processor. Strain if desired. (I personally like the mousse with seeds.) Add sugar and lemon juice.

Sprinkle gelatin over the cold water to let it bloom for five minutes. Place in the double boiler (baine marie) over boiling water. Melt the gelatin. Take the gelatin out of the heat once melted. It will loose it's binding properties if left in high heat.

Stir the gelatin into the strawberry puree and let cool until a bit thick.

Whip the heavy cream until medium stiff peaks form.

Gently fold the whipped cream into the puree with a rubber spatula until well incorporated.

Spoon into serving dish or use as cake filling.



Unsure on how it will turn out....

the gelatin is throwing me off.. wouldn't it be like jello or gummy?
my strawberry mousse is super simple & delicious, like strawberry ice cream! I just cut strawberries into pieces, use a potato masher to crush them a bit (you want some juice but some chunks still), then fold in whipped Pastry Pride (or heavy whipping cream). easy peasy!

I use a similar recipe to make my strawberry mousse. What I like about it is that it sets up when put in a cake and doesn't leak out. My recipe:

2 pkgs. unflavored gelatin
1/4 cup water
2 cups strawberry puree (I used to put strawberries in the food processor and press through a sieve. Now I purchase strawberry puree that is used to make daquiries.)
3/4 cups sugar
2 Tablsp. lemon juice
2 cups whipping cream


In small saucepan, sprinkle gelatin over water. Let stand 5 minutes to soften. Mix the puree, sugar and lemon juice in another saucepan. Cook over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Over low heat, heat the gelatin until it is dissolved. Stir into berry mixture. Chill mixture until it is consistency of raw egg whites - be careful not to chill too long. If it becomes too thick, you will get lumps in your mousse. Beat the 2 cups of whipping cream until soft peaks form. Fold whipping cream into berry/gelatin mixture.
Makes plenty to fill your cakes.
Be aware - eating this stuff is addicting - and not good for your diet!!

Is that the recipe from Martha Stewart? I've used it before a little while ago. Not your typical mousse as the gelatin makes it very firm (something between whipped creamed and jello), but it worked great as a filling and tastes pretty good. However, the cake, once filled, has to be in the fridge, otherwise it gets runny and will spoil. Ask me how I know.

Good luck on your cake. Sounds delicious.

I recently made a cake and used a recipe posted here by Cakeheart in the recipes section...Strawberries n' cream mousse. It was delicious. It doesn't use strawberries in the recipe but I'm sure you could add some either pureed or cut up if desired...although IMO it was perfect without anything else added.

Strawberries n Cream Mousse (posted by Cakeheart)

Ingredients
1 large pkg of Instant Vanilla Jello Pudding
1 Pint of Heavy Whipping Cream
2-3 tablespoons of Strawberry Jello Gelatin Powder (you can add more or less depending on how much strawberry taste you want!)

Instructions
Mix Heavy whipping cream on med-high. Slowly add all of the contents of the Instant Vanilla pudding and strawberry gelatin powder to whipping cream until it reaches a thick mousse and all of the gelatin and pudding mix is dissolved

Then Refridgerate! I use this in cupcake and cake fillings!

These fillings sound delicious. If filling a cake with them, does the cake need to be refrigerated? If so, can it be covered in fondant and refrigerated or will this ruin the fondant? Thanks

The cake I made was filled with the strawberries n' cream filling, coated with buttercream and topped with fondant and put in the fridge. As I am in a high humidity area, when I took the cake out of the fridge, it did "sweat", but as it came to room temp, it was left with just a nice sheen on it. (This was made for a friend of my daughter and her fiance' and she was at the party that it was served at and she said everyone loved it!)

All the fillings posted here sound wonderful...I'm always looking for something quick and easy and believe me this couldn't have been any easier.

???? I have never had a problem refrigerating fondant cakes. (It just needs to be brought to room temp before cutting into it.)

I should add...this is from my personal experience. I do know that a lot of people may disagree with me and that is fine. It does also depend on how your cake has been decorated.

Maybe I have just been lucky so far, but with a perishable filling...I will refrigerate. Just my opinion.

Thanks for the filling refrigeration information. As for the fondant, I am only practicing anyway so I think I will try refrigerating and see what happens. My taste testers will eat it no matter how it looks.

For those of you who do use these fillings that need refrigeration...do you feel by refrigerating your cake, that it dries it out?

I have used the strawberry filling for many cakes. What I do is use buttercream to make a dam, add the filling, then stack the layers and cover with buttercream. I do refrigerate overnight. If using fondant, I cover it with fondant the next day. I have never had trouble with my cake drying out. I use a regular thickness of buttercream under fondant (not just a crumb coat.) I have used this filling in wedding cakes and never had complaints about it "melting." I even attended an outdoor reception that was really hot and the filling was fine when I cut the cake. (And it had probably sat out of the refrig for 6 hours.) The recipe that I use is thicker so maybe that is why it doesn't melt.

Occther,maybe I'll try out your recipe... looks easy, and sounds yummy!!! where do you buy unflavoured gelatin?

I buy Knox gelatine - comes in a box with several packets - should be able to find it at any grocery store near the regular Jell-O - usually on the top shelf.