Summer Berry Mousse Cake

Laura Robson is through to the second week of Wimbledon, the Rolling Stones are at Glastonbury and the sun is making a real effort to shine! So, it seemed like a good excuse to try a summery dessert.

I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and made a slight alteration to it as several people had commented that the mousse was a bit floppy so, I've increased the number of gelatine sheets to compensate.

Ingredients

For the base:

200g digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted

For the mousse cake:

5 sheets leaf gelatine
142ml single cream
500g carton fromage frais
140g golden caster sugar
finely grated zest 1 small orange
4 tbsp orange juice
200g strawberries, roughly chopped
284ml carton double cream

For the sauce:

250g mixture of strawberries (chopped) and raspberries
3 tbsp orange juice
2 tbsp golden caster sugar

To decorate:

mixture of strawberries, raspberries, cherries and blueberries.
icing sugar, for dusting

Method

• Put the biscuits in a plastic food bag and crush using a rolling pin. Melt the butter in a pan, then stir in the biscuits. Tip this mixture into a loose-bottomed 24cm round cake tin, about 5cm deep and lined with clingfilm, press down evenly. Chill.
• Make the mousse cake: submerge the gelatine leaves in a large bowl of cold water and leave to soak for 5 minutes. Heat the single cream in a small pan until it just comes to the boil. Take off the heat. Lift the gelatine leaves out of the water and give them a good squeeze to get rid of the water. Stir into the hot cream one by one. Leave to cool slightly,
• Beat together th fromage frais, sugar, orange zest and juice with a whisk or wooden spoon. Stir in the cooled cream and gelatine mixtures and the raspberries. Crust just a few of the raspberries against the slides of the bowl and stir again to repple through, leaving most whole.
• Wihp the double cream lightly to soft peaks, then fold it into the raspberry mixture. Pour into the cake tin and leave to chill for at least 3 hours, or overnight, until set.
• To make the sauce, blitz all the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Chill until ready to serve.
• To serve, run a knife between the mousse cake and the tin, lift it out of the tin and take it off its base. Put on a serving plate and pile a mixture of fruits on top to decorate. Dust with icing sugar and serve with the sauce.

The result is a delicious and surprisingly light summer dessert which will delight your guests and have them coming back for more.