Coffee mousse

Need a solid, strong coffee flavoured cake? Tiramisu too tricky? Marscapone too $$$? Not *boujee* enough for an espresso machine? I've got the solution for you.

You will need:

• 1L tub of Cool Whip (or use 450 mL whip heavy cream or 35% cream)

• 4 tsp lumped unflavoured gelatin

• 2/3 cup strong coffee, room temperature (2 tsp grinds to 2/3 cup water, brewed)

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar (+ another 1/3 if you're whipping the cream, see notes)

• 3 tbsp instant coffee

• 3 tbsp boiling water

• 1 1/2 tbsp corn starch

Directions

1. Brew your coffee and let cool until it's warm to the touch (not super hot). Add the gelatin and let it bloom for 3 minutes, then dissolve.

2. In a small bowl, add about 2 tbsp of the coffee mixture to the corn starch. Mix until a paste forms. Stir paste well with the coffee. Let cool to room temperature.

3. If you're using premade whipped cream, skip this step. Whip the cream on high until you get soft peaks (if you take the whisk out, the tops will flop over). Optional: Add an extra 1/3 cup sugar to sweeten the cream. See notes. Whip until you get firm peaks (if you take the whisk out, the peaks won't flop over, they will stay upright. If the cream is no longer smooth, you've over-whipped it and you have butter so start again.)

4. Set water to boil. Once the water is boiling, add to instant coffee and whip on high until it thickens. Add 3 tbsp sugar from the 1/3 measured out. Continue to whip until it's fluffy (if it's still foamy, keep whipping!)

5. Add whipped cream to whipped coffee a little at a time. Fold gently.

6. Gradually add the strong coffee with gelatin and fold thoroughly.

7. Refridgerate for at least 4 hours, mixing thoroughly every hour to prevent any extra liquid from becoming jelly - the mousse won't be smooth.

8. Use as a filling for your favourite cake flavour (I used it as a chocolate cake filling, topped with chocoalte ice cream!) or just eat it straight up because it's sooooo gooooood but you'll probably feel guilty later :)

Notes

• The coffee flavour is very VERY strong so unless you're into that, you will need the sugar to balance out the bitterness.

• If you're using premade whipping cream, keep in mind that it's already sweetened, so you don't need to add that 1/3 cup sugar if you don't want to.

• I suggest you use a hand mixer or stand mixer. Unless you just miss going to the gym and haven't gotten a proper arm workout in 3 months... knock yourself out :)

• If you want to avoid the extra liquid settling on the bottom from ruining the smoothness of the mousse, you can just put the unset mousse directly on your cake and let the liquid soak into it. Be warned, only do this if you're doing something with only one layer of cake on the bottom and mostly mousse on the top, kinda like this cake. If you try to do a layered cake with an unset mousse, you're going to have something this.