I was always fascinated by layered mousse cakes and in my head I had them in the impossible-to-make category. Well, impossible until you actually try I would say now!

I got a Birthday cake request with a note that the Birthday boy loved Speculoos. (Who doesn’t though!) Well, Speculoos cake it is. But a birthday cake seemed like a great opportunity to challenge myself with something a bit more special and attractive.  A Speculoos biscuit base was the immediate thought obviously but I wanted to add some autumn fruit and chocolate. It is a festive cake after all!

The idea came with combining about 4 recipes together and hoping it will turn out well! Well… it turned out brilliantly.

You will need:

For the Base:

300g Speculoos Lotus Biscuits + few extra for decoration

100g Butter

Chocolate mousse:

250g Dark Chocolate

80g Butter

3 Egg yolks

40g Powder sugar

300ml Whipping cream

Pear Mousse:

7 Medium size pears – peeled and chopped

200g Greek style yoghurt

150g Whipping cream

1 sachet Powder gelatin

100g Icing sugar

1 Cinnamon stick

For the base first crush the biscuits into fine crumbs. Melt the butter and pour over the crumbs. Mix well and cover the bottom of the tray with the mixture. Press it well using the back of a spoon. Pop the base into preheated at 180^oC oven and bake for 10 – 15 min. Let it cool down completely.

For the chocolate mousse break the chocolate into small pieces. Place in a bowl together with the butter and melt over bain marie. Mix well and once you have a nice smooth mixture put it aside and let it cool. In the meantime beat the egg yolks with the powder sugar. In a separate bowl beat the whipping cream with 1 – 2 tbsp. of powder sugar until you have soft peaks.

Next add the yolk mixture into the chocolate and mix well. Then fold in the whipped cream into the chocolate mixture carefully using a spatula.  Once you have a nice smooth (and overly delicious) chocolate mousse pour it over the biscuit base and pop it in the fridge to cool down for at least 1.5 hours.

For the pear mousse first peel the pears and chop them into small pieces. Place them in a pan and cover with water. Add a cinnamon stick and bring to boil.  Once the water is boiling reduce the heat and simmer the pears until they are soft but not too squashy. Remove the cinnamon stick and drain the pears. Blend the pears until you have a smooth puree. Add the powder sugar and blend again.  Then add the yoghurt and mix well. In a separate bowl beat the whipping cream and carefully add into the pear mixture.  Dissolve the gelatin in a bit of hot water and leave it to rise. Pop it into a microwave to melt but watch it carefully not to boil. Carefully and very slowly pour the gelatin into the mixture and mix it well.  Pour the pear mousse on top of your chocolate layer, making sure of course the chocolate layer is completely set.  Put the cake back to the fridge and let it set ideally overnight.

For the decoration I sprinkled on top some crushed Lotus biscuits and cocoa powder. I also caramelised few slices of pears arranged with some spices but the decoration part is open to creativity!

Now as I think back it is quite an easy cake to make – no baking, no burning, no fear of underbaking – the fridge just do the magic for you! But we can keep that a secret and let the fancy look and the delicate spiced autumn taste take all the admirations! Enjoy it!