I’m at a loss here.  I know butter cakes will be too heavy for mousse filling (and I would have to use Cobasan in mousse to keep stabilized and safe I guess) and yet genoise cakes are too soft to handle the fondant.

However, I see bakeries (even those who deal only with fondant) offering mousse fillings.  How do they do this?  Is there a type of cake that can handle the fondant and yet be light enough for the mousse filling?

I’d love to hear what you think.

I made a raspberry mousse filling for a dense (heavy!) chocolate butter cake before that turned out wonderfully.  It was essentially a regular mousse recipe with added gelatin.  I’m going through my vast bookmarks trying to find the website I adapted the recipe from.  I’ll let you know!

edit: I’m not sure what size layers you’re working with.  The largest I’ve made with this particular recipe were 12’’ and they were supported just fine.  I’m not sure if we’re allowed to post recipes from other sites on here, so I’ll just say that Baking 911’s Raspberry Mousse filling has a lovely texture for all it’s strength.  I substitute lemon juice for some of the water to give the raspberry something to play with.  I’m sure the gelatin method could be adapted for a white chocolate mousse somehow.  Between chilling the mousse and then chilling the cake and then chilling the finished product and then watching it sit through a graduation and party and then freezing the leftovers and then thawing the leftovers it held up beautifully.  Let me know if you need help with the link.

Thanks so much!  I didn’t know gelatin would do that much.  I look forward to trying it!

If you are looking for a chocolate mousse filling, a whipped ganache has a mousse like consistency, and holds up well.  I use it a lot to fill butter cakes…everyone comments on the delicious chocolate mousse filling…and it is much easier to prepare than a traditional chocolate mousse.

Thanks, Bill.  I’ve always used the dark choc ganache, and therefore never thought of it being similar to mousse.  But I have never tried the whipped ganache.  I’ll have to try it out.