Chocolate Buttercream Frosting

The Buttercream frosting

Ingredients:

120 ml of solid vegetable shortening
150 ml of solid butter (unsalted if you don't like the salty taste)
200 ml of unsweetened cocoa powder OR 50 grams of unsweetened melted cooking chocolate (I prefer cooking chocolate because the texture of the buttercream will be smoother)
700 ml of confectioners sugar (in Finnish: Tomusokeri, you can reduce the amount of sugar if you are using sweetened cooking chocolate)
3-4 Tbsp of milk

Method:

• Mix shortening and butter until well beat with medium-high speed.
• Add the melted chocolate or cocoa powder and beat well at medium speed.
• Sieve in the confectioner's sugar a little at a time and beat at low speed to avoid clouding.
• Finally add the milk a little at a time until the mixture is smooth.

The icing can be put into the fridge and can last up to 2 weeks. To reuse take out of the fridge and allow to 2 hours at room temperature, whisk it up before using to pipe it on the cupcake or spreading over cakes.

For the recipe of the chocolate cupcake go here: Chocolate Cupcake recipe

Chocolate Mousse cake (Vegan friendly and gluten free)

First draft:

Chocolate Mousse cake (Vegan friendly, lactose intolerant friendly and gluten free)

Ingredients
400 ml of oat whipping cream (fridge temperature)
200 ml of rice or other veggie based whipping cream (fridge temperature)
1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar
250 grams of dark chocolate (milk free) (make sure you dissolve chocolate to runny texture, microwave or bain marie will do)
3 Tablespoons of vegan friendly margarine (melted)
2  Tablespoons of brown cane sugar
1 pack of gluten free digestives Semper oat digestive or Glutano digestive (these are wheat free, milk free, egg free)

Optional
1-2 teaspoon of agar jelly dissolved in hot water (If you're not familiar with using agar you can screw it up pretty badly)
Berries for decoration

Method

• Break the cookies into crumbles and add the sugar.
• Pour the melted margarine onto the cookie and mix well.
• Press the cookie dough mixture into a 24 cm springform pan and bake in the oven at 200 degrees C for about 5-10 mins (depending how dark you want it to be)
• Remove the cookie dough from oven and allow to cool on a wired rack.
• Once the cookie base has harden you may proceed to make the mousse. Put all the cream together and whip until almost double in volume
• Add vanilla sugar and melted chocolate and continue to whip (for a more grainy texture half whip and then stir the chocolate to get a chocolate chippy effect)
• Scoop the finished mousse onto the cookie base and even it out.
• Leave the cake in the fridge overnight (at least 6 hours) before serving. 

Note: To remove cake from the springform, run a thin knife (preferably dipped in hot water) around the edges to loosen the side before releasing the baking tin. If you use baking sheet underneath the cookie base it will make it easier to transfer to a serving dish. =) Enjoy!

Ps: The original recipe is slightly different, taken from a Finnish website called Kinuskikissa. I didn't like how it turned out so I had to adapt it to make work for me :). You should experiment to get the best results up to your taste.