Coconut Mousse Cake

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Hello eSTEEMed humans of the interwebs!

Here's a recipe for fragrant, tropical coconut mousse cake you can make when your in-laws visit so they can finally accept you into the family. Double the batch and eat one in the bathtub before they arrive so you can calm your nerves.

Remember, you are a beautiful, special human being. They will love you, eventually. (The cake will help speed up the process.)
**Brush your teeth and wipe your face before they get there or the jig is up.

Here's how the magic happens:

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Ingredients

Mousse

Makes 1 large, or 6 small mousse cakes.

• 150 grams White Marshmallows
• 50 ml Virgin Coconut Oil (The kind that tastes of tropical holidays I can't afford)
• 200 grams White Chocolate
• 1/2 Cup Fine Desiccated Coconut
  *400ml Heavy Cream
• 1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
• Pinch of Salt

Method:

1. Mix desiccated coconut with coconut oil and 100 ml cream. Heat in a saucepan or microwave until boiling and set aside to cool for a minute. Blend until smooth and pass through a fine-mesh sieve to extract optimum coconutty aroma.
2. Add coconut cream mixture to marshmallows and chocolate and nuke at 30 second intervals until melted and smoooth as a baby's bottom. Add salt and vanilla and stir. Set aside to cool.
3. Whip remaining cream to stiff peaks and stir a large spoonful into the marshmallow mixture to loosen that ish up a little. Then fold the rest in really carefully to retain as much air as possible. We want light mousse. We want fluffy mousse. Capice?
4. Line a large spring form cake pan or 6 little ones with grease proof paper or clingfilm and pour in mousse mixture. Refrigerate for an hour to set.

(Incidentally, that's about all the time you need to make cookie buttons instead of a crust. It will also keep you from eating the mousse before you can let it set. You'll be so ashamed.)

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Light mousse. Fluffy Mousse. Deep breaths, you got this

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Cookie Buttons

*50 grams Castor Sugar

• 100 grams Salted Butter
  *150 grams Flour

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy like a supervillain's pet cat **
2. Sift in flour and knead lightly until a smooth ball forms
3. Wrap in clingfilm and chill in freezer for 20 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 180C/360 F and prep your toppings ***
5. Roll out chilled cookie dough and cut into buttons with a tiny cookie cutter of choice- I used the tip of a piping bag.
6. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the bottoms are just golden.

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** Poor kitty.

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Toppings

I used Basil, Raspberries and Passion fruit because they're in season and cheap as dirt.
Any tart fruit would do the trick- pineapples work for that Piña Colada vibe should the in-laws be a little more difficult to work with. Marinade (yourself and the pineapple) in a liberal splashing of rum for authenticity and to take the edge off.

To Assemble:

Use a blowtorch or dip springform pan in very hot water for a moment to help release it from the edges
Press cooled cookie buttons around the bottom and top liberally with fruit- booze marinaded or otherwise.

Present it to the in-laws with a side of white rum shaken in ice and diluted ever so slightly with pineapple juice. (They might need to relax a little, too.)

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If that doesn't work, you might as well keep cooking. Food never forsakes you. Good food loves you, even.

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