Finally a Raspberry Mousse Cake that is stable and slice able!
All of my vegan mousse recipes are based off of the traditional non-vegan method for making mousse
Incorporating aquafaba instead of the egg white meringue
Whole raw raspberries are used for the base with vegan white chocolate as a binder
The cashews and white chocolate are necessary to aid in the setting of the whole cake.
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Notes for Success
I know I will get some questions right away if you can swap out those nuts for something else.
Yes you can make a mousse without them but not this recipe. that would require an entirely different recipe formulation.
The same goes for pretty much every ingredient here, this recipe has been formulated to work out perfectly.
So I wouldn’t recommend trying to substitute out anything here.
Agar can be a tricky ingredient to work with
A heavy hand ~ even a pinch too much~ can be the difference between creamy delicious and rubbery inedible!
Pay attention to the strength of agar you are using in comparison to the one that author of the recipe is using
I use 900 Strength agar in my recipes
CLICK HERE FOR THE EXACT BRAND *not sponsored
Vegan White Chocolate *not sponsored
CLICK HERE FOR AN AQUAFABA TRICK THAT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER!
WATCH THE VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE
Raspberry Mousse Cake
In the video I am making a 5" cake, but the recipe here is listed out to make an 8" cake Click here for my amazon store to find all the tools and pans I am using in this video
Ingredients
For the Mousse:
- Raw Cashews Soaked 2 cup (350g)
- Fresh or frozen Raspberries 2 cup (454g)
- Cocoa Butter ½ cup (113g)
- Coconut Milk ½ cup (120ml)
- 6 ounces Vegan White Chocolate
- Confectioner's Sugar 1½ cup (180g)
- Raspberry Jam *optional 1 Tablespoon (15ml)
- Aquafaba liquid from a can of chick peas ½ cup (120ml)
- Agar ¾ teaspoon
You will also need:
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F
- Grease & parchment line your cake pan
- Soak the cashews over night in a bowl of water or for fast soak bring them to a fast boil and let sit in the hot water for 30 minutes.
- Prepare the cake recipe as per the recipe instructions on that blog post (bake into 1-8" cake pan)
- Next prepare the raspberry mousse by heating the aquafaba in a small saucepan over low heat with the ½ teaspoon of the agar powder and bring it to a boil.
- Cool to tepid (not cold or the agar will thicken the liquid before we can whip it) then you can prepare the rest of the recipe
- Heat the coconut milk with the other ¼ teaspoon of agar and bring it to a boil (be sure to keep this warm or the agar will set the milk- if that happens though, just rewarm it to dissolve again)
- Combine the soaked & drained cashews, raspberries, jam, confectioner's sugar the warm agar-coconut milk, melted cocoa butter or coconut oil and melted white chocolate in a high speed blender of food processor and blend smooth on high for about 45 seconds to 1 minute or until there are not traces of cashews in the mixture
- Transfer to a large mixing bowl
- Whip the cooled (or room temperature) agar-aquafaba with a balloon whip attachment to stiff glossy peaks and then fold into the raspberry mixture
- Pour half of the mousse into the prepared mold, then slice your cake layer into 2 layers and trim it slightly smaller in diameter than the actual ring mold (this is so the cake will not show through the sides after unmolding) *see video demo
- One layer goes into the center and then the rest of the mousse on top.
- *Optional to add more fresh raspberries to each layer as I did in the video
- The other cake layer goes on top, press down firmly so the mousse will come up around the sides (as shown in the video) and refrigerate until set at least 5 hours or overnight.
- Prepare the ganache recipe according to the instructions on that post/recipe and then unmold the cake and ice with cooled but still pour-able ganache as shown in the video
Notes
Raspberry mousse cake must be kept refrigerated at all times, and will stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
You can also freeze the entire cake for longer storage up to 1 month
Hi Gretchen i i was wondering if I can switch strawberries instead of raspberries? What do you think?
yes definitely
How long do you soak the cashews?
8 hours or overnight OR a quick soak is by pouring boiling water over them and let them soak at room temp for about 2 hours
Hi Gretchen,
Its not clear to me what size ring mold is needed for the cake? both diameter and height
Thank you,,
Hey so in the video I was using a 5″ diameter ring mold (3″ tall) but the recipe that I wrote out here was for an 8″ cake since I didn’t really think anyone would want to make such a small cake like I did.
So the recipe is listed out for all 8″ measures – the ring mold (or springform pan- bottom removed) is usually 3″ tall as well.
Sorry for the confusion!
Thanks for clarifying,,
No problem,, in the video it looked much higher so i was not sure. Also, how thin were the chocolate cakes themselves?
THX,,
Wow, this is awesome! Your website is an awesome find and I love this cake! My kids aren’t big on chocolate so I made the mouse and layered it with your vanilla cake frosted the whole thing with with Swiss buttercream frosting. It turned out great! Thank you!
Hi Gretchen,
I was wondering if it would be possible to use this mousse in a mousse cake topped with a vegan mirror glaze, but I’m affraid the bubbles might create an uneven texture. What do you think?
I think it will work, you can freeze this mousse before glazing
Hi Gretchen — can something else be substituted for the agar?
no, not really. It is the main setting agent here.
Can I replace white chocolate with more cocoa butter and how? It is impossible to get baking white chocolate where I live (((
Hmm, while I have not tried that as a total replacement for white chocolate, I think your better bet would be to find a recipe for making actually homemade white chocolate then use that
CLICK HERE
OR white chocolate chips could work too
This looks amazing. If I wanted to make a 5 inch version what sort of % reduction in the recipe would I need to make?
You can cut everything by HALF
Hi Gretchen,
I just made your mousse to put in a layer cake. I just did a test batch and it looks like it’ll work for my unusual context! My question is, how long do you think the mousse would keep in the fridge, and/or do you think that freezing it would diminish it? I planned to re-make it for a cake 6 days from now, but it turned out so nicely, I’m wondering if it’ll just keep until then and maybe I don’t need to remake it.
Thanks!
I found that this mousse was best kept frozen until serving (already in cake form) as the AF will start to break down in the fridge, and then in you go to stir it up again, to use it in whatever you are making, it will get slightly liquid 🙁
Better to make it, mold it, then freeze or fridge until needed (you can finish it later of course, but best to put it in whatever you are making as soon as you mix it)
Thank you SO MUCH for this recipe! I’ve been searching for a vegan mousse recipe, and I think I’ve found it here! Just one question: from the photo, the raspberry mousse looks a little soft? Do you think a slight increase in agar would help it to gel a little firmer? (I took your egg replacer online class. It was fabulous! Thanks for all you do!!)
Hi Louisa! yes you can increase the agar for sure!
Hello
I’m going to make this cake next week for a birthday. English isn’t my first language and I don’t quite understand the sentence: “I soak my nuts in bulk then measure”. Do I take 300g of cashews and then soak them in water or do I soak cashews and then measure 300g of the soaked cashews? So are the 300g not soaked or soaked? I hope you understand my question.
Thank you
LOL yes I do understand your question and I understand the confusion here as well, sorry about that! Since I soak a bunch of nuts at once, I measured for the ALREADY soaked nuts, but you can simply take 300g of nuts and soak, it will be totally fine!!
Ok perfect thank you for answering (-:
Hi Gretchen!
Just made your cake with summer berries and it worked out great! I was wondering if I could maybe substitute oat milk for coconut milk? Or do you have any other ideas to make it taste a bit fresher/more sour? (Direct translation from Dutch, I hope you know what I mean;) )
Thank you for making these amazing vegan recipes!
Wishing you all the best from Amsterdam,
Clara
HI Great! yes to Oat milk for sure. I am not sure I am understanding what you mean by “fresher/more sour” though. sorry!
Hi Gretchen! Thank you fro an amazing recipe. Is it possible to exclude the cahews?
Hi Lina, the cashews are the bulk base of this recipe, so to eliminate them would be impossible. Change them to something else? Perhaps another nut would do, I have not tried that! Sorry!
Hi, do you have any suggestions for how to do this with mango or passionfruit instead of raspberry? Could I just substitute mango puree for the raspberries using the same weight?
Yes exactly!!
Hi,
As my friend doesn’t want coconut oil due to health reasons, can I substitute it with anything else?
Thank you.
Hello! This recipe looks fantastic. Do you know if you would be able to use it as a filling for a 2 tier cake? Like is it stable enough or does it have to be refrigerated or else it will start to wilt?
Yes! you can use it as a filling, I always recommend to MOLD the mousse into the cake (as I show here in the Boston Creme Pie video) but otherwise it is stable and can stay at room temperature for no more than 2 hours
Hi Gretchen,
this looks like a great recipe! I was just wondering about freezing the cake, especially the mousse. From all I have read and learned from experience, agar-stabilized gels and mousses tend to loose water when defrosted. But as you recommend freezing the cake I suppose defrosting will work without giving off water?
Thank you for your wonderful tips!
Eva from Germany
I have frozen this cake with no trouble! However I have not frozen it for more than 1 day. Not sure if (at length) it will act differently
I really want to try this recipe but I don’t have a useable sauce pan, and money is really tight at the moment so I can’t buy one anytime soon. Is it at all possible to adequately heat the aquafaba and the coconut milk in the microwave.
Yes!!
any suggestions on how to go about doing that
almost forgot to ask, is the coconut milk the caned kind or the kind you find in the dairy aisle next to the almond milk
either one is fine here
Hi Gretchen!
I’m looking to make some type of white chocolate mousse for a cake project, but couldn’t find one in one or your recipes yet (correct me if I’m wrong I might have missed it!)
As the fruit part here is one of the base ingredients, would it work at all to omit the fruit by any miracle?
Thanks a lot!
Hey there, so I don’t have a recipe named specifically that, but I have made a White Chocolate Mousse HERE IN MY STRAWBERRY CRUNCH CAKE~
However read the entire post *watch video too
Because I later changed my mind from making a whole other recipe for this cake & decided to later just use whipped cream instead, it was much easier for an already tedious cake build
BUT the recipe for the white chocolate mousse is still listed here!
Since there is no actual dairy in this, do you think it would work using lemon or orange pulp in place of the raspberries.
Hi Julia, sorry for the late reply I did not get a notification for this one!
Lemon & orange are mainly liquid with very little pectin~ I know you said “pulp” but again the raspberry surprisingly has a huge amount of pectin compared to other fruits, which is why this recipe works so well here!
You would definitely have to play around with the agar amount in order for it to work with a citrus fruit.