Chocolate-Lemon Zebra Yogurt Cake with Chocolate Mousses Topping

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

200 g butter
3 cups sugar
4 egg
250 g plain yogurt
4 tsp zest of lemon

3 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tbsp lemon juice

Lemon Syrup:

1 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup sugar
4 tsp zest of lemon

Dark Chocolate Mousse:

200 g bittersweet dark chocolate
50 g butter
40 mL espresso coffee
200 mL whipped cream
2 eggs, separated
1 tbsp icing sugar

White Chocolate Mousses:

100 g white chocolate
25 g butter
20 mL whiskey
100 mL whipped cream
1 egg, separated
1/2 tbsp icing sugar

Method:

To prepare the cake:

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

Lightly grease a springform cake pan (26 cm in diameter), dust bottom and side of pan with bread crumbs and tapping out excess; set aside.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar till creamy, pale and glossy.

Add-in eggs, yogurt and lemon zest, whisk till homogeneous batter forms, divide batter into 2 portions; set aside.

Add cocoa powder and lemon juice into one portion, whisk to smooth batter; set aside.

Gradually, scoop a ladle of plain batter into the center of the prepared pan, follow by another ladle of cocoa batter onto the middle of plain batter.

Alternate the two batters topping and layering till finish (do slowly to allow batters to spread by it own).

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of cake comes out clean.

Meanwhile to prepare the syrup, mix all the syrup ingredients in a pan, cook till sugar dissolves; set aside.

Remove cake from oven, let cake cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Run a thin flexible knife or spatula around the pan to loosen the cake, transfer cake onto a plate and pour the prepared syrup all over the warm cake; set aside to allows it to soak till cool completely.

To prepare the chocolate mousses:

In a deep bowl, whisk 300 mL whip cream until stiff, divide into 3 portions and keep in refrigerator.

In another deep bowl, whisk 3 egg whites with 1 ½ tbsp icing sugar over double boiler till soft peak form; divide into 3 portions; set aside.

Dark Mousse: Over a double boiler, melt dark chocolate and butter; pour-in espresso, stir to incorporate; remove from heat; add-in egg yolks to the chocolate mixture one at a time, beat to mix; gently stir-in 2 portions of whipped cream to the chocolate mixture; gradually fold-in 2 portions of egg whites, stir to incorporate well; set aside.

White Mousse: Over a double boiler, melt white chocolate and butter; remove from heat and pour-in whiskey, stir to incorporate; add-in egg yolk to the chocolate mixture, beat to mix; gently stir-in 1 portion of whipped cream to the chocolate mixture; gradually fold-in the remaining 1 portion of egg whites, stir to incorporate well; set aside.

To assemble:

Spoon half of the dark mousse onto the cooled cake and spread out mousse evenly.

Spoon-on the white mousse and gently spread out evenly.

Spoon-on the remaining dark mousse onto the white mousse and gently spread out evenly (spread down some of the final layer of dark mousse all over the sides of cake for sides-frosting.

Coat cake sides accordingly and chilled well before serving.