First, cake.  I had made some lemon cakes the other day and stuck them in the freezer… So I pulled those out to let them thaw.

 

Next, eggs.  Mousse takes a LOT of eggs.  Especially this recipe.  Egg yolks, to be exact.  So, as per-usual, I pulled out a pencil and gave them some personality.  🙂

Next, I separated the eggs and froze the whites.  Did you know that you can freeze egg whites for baking?  Egg yolks, no… But whites, yes.  🙂

Then I gathered up the rest of my ingredients– Lemon juice, sugar, butter, whipping cream, gelatin, etc… Lots goes into there!

Once that stuff is all together, I had to cook the egg yolks with lemon juice, sugar, etc. until it began to thicken, and then stir in a mixture of warm, softened (and dissolved) gelatin and water.

Once the gelatin has been added, I had to set the bowl of lemon curd into a larger bowl of ice water, making sure not to splash in the water.  The lemon mixture then needed to be stirred, and cooled until it was slightly cooler than room temperature.

While the lemon curd was cooling, in between stirring, I trimmed the tops of the cakes and wrapped the cakes in plastic collars.

Then I whipped my cream, and by this time, the lemon was cool enough to use.  So, I folded the two together, until the mousse was nicely combined.

Then for the finishing touches!  I put a thin layer of mousse over the cakes, and then sprinkled them generously with fresh raspberries and blackberries.

Then, I finished with another, thicker, layer of mousse.  Once that was done, I used a little spatula to make these waves in the mousse for decorative purposes.  I thought it looked pretty good.  🙂

And into the fridge they went!  Overnight.

Next, what did I do with the leftover fruit, cake, and mousse?  The same thing I always do– I made a trifle!

😀

After the cakes had chilled overnight, I decided to finish one of them with this lovely mulberry colored ribbon, and cut the other one for some pictures…

Lovely.

Now, since both of these cakes were sponsored, I needed to re-assemble and wrap up the other cake to go– So I wrapped it in a new collar, finished it with a matching ribbon, and boxed both cakes up to be ready to go!

Many thanks to Dan and Ben for sponsoring these cakes!  Can’t wait to hear what you think of them.

Back next week!  Thanks for reading.

–Naomi