Especially in making one such dessert known as the Caramel-Banana Chocolate Mousse. Owh man.

My first experience with mousse was when I was 9 and got served this weird brown thing in a cup at a fancy dinner with Sheila Majid belting her guts out. Sheila Majid is part of the reason why I remember Chocolate Mousse.

But. The main reason I remember it though, is because it was the first time I actually raved over food. It was an amazingggg dessert! The most amazing I’d ever had. I couldn’t believe the smoothness and texture my tongue was experiencing. I mean, what kid enjoys food? We all had it forced down our throats when our hearts were really in the bicycles & wind outside. So that my nine year old self paid attention to ANY food is an achievement for the chef, whoever he may be!

Unfortunately, my untrained-food-connoisseur-mind just delightfully chomped it down, laughing at the loud singer who gulped water down between notes, without any thoughts about scrutinising the mousse or it’s ingredients.

I haven’t had a better mousse since! Or rather, ANY mousse since! Haha. That’s why I jumped at the gleaming opportunity lying in my fridge: WHIPPING CREAM!

Of course, meeting chocolate mousse was like meeting an old friend. So I had to shower extra nice and make sure I didn’t look too dorky before starting. Don’t ask me why, I just wanted to be as charming as possible to meet my old pal. I was extra careful about everything, down to melting the chocolate and whipping it fast, but gently. I couldn’t wait! heh heh.

I whipped in the eggs to the melted chocolate, and finally! The moment had come. That I had lived 8 long years for…

“Ew Che! It smells bad!”
“What? Ar’you sure? Try ‘gain!”
“…Yeah Che it smells really bad.”
“Nolah..try a bit first!

- little sister tries it –

“EWUGHGHGHGHGHGHH IT’S DEFINITELY BAD!!!!!”

- insert a few heart dropping moments -

“Oh nooo Trace whadowedo!?”
“Eat seaweed.”

- we eat seaweed -

“Okay, we throw it away..buden, den how!??”
“Use yoghurt!”
“Are you nuts!??”

- a few minutes later, yoghurt is whipped and poured in -

Here, I got a massive headache.

Thus ended our noble endeavour. In search of a familiar friend, it ended in us stuffing a pale shadow of a man (oops, mousse!) in the fridge till the next day. Well Murphy wasn’t done with us yet. (rats, I hate Murphy & his law!)

‘Cos guess what? It was so soft I couldn’t even yank it out of the cake pan! Well most disgracefully we had to stuff it into the freezer till the afternoon. Sigh. Sometimes I wonder what it’s like to be crazily talented. And lucky. I guess I’ll never know! We sat around despondently rethinking our lives. We’d done nothing to deserve this mess! Except – MISSING OUT GELATINE! Yes!!! The drat recipe! The only thing that would’ve saved our darling mousse was gelatine! The recipe had not a hint of gelatine. WTQ!

But my mommy always told me to think happy thoughts (okay, my mommy and Peter Pan) so here’s the good news: It tasted better than expected! We had healthy yoghurt-mousse to deal with oops, I mean ravish. I added in ladyfingers to the side, caramelised bananas on top, chocolate chips and a drizzling of caramel. Okay so the only reason I was being extra nice was because I was worried about the yoghurt-mousse base my family’d be needing to swallow soon……but guess what.

EVERYONE LOVED IT! If you want to substitute yoghurt for cream, I say go right ahead! Just make sure that yoghurt is thick and you’re prepared for surprises!

It fell apart. Yep. Way too mushy. Totally unfaithful to me it’s creator, this dessert.

It’s my first bad recipe in a while but now I’ve tweaked it to become a good recipe! Now I present to you, dear readers, a modified recipe that really works. I wish with all my heart you’d avoid this woeful episode of mine, funny as it was. Now the recipe, it should work. Provided your cream doesn’t go bad on you. Which, praying, loving others and living right, it shouldn’t. ;-)

(OK to qualm some doubts, I left the cream opened for a week – really, I do pray, love others and try to live right, I promise!)

The Innocent Chocolate Mousse Recipe

Ingredients
3 eggs
250g high quality chocolate
50g sugar
300g whipping cream
2 tsp gelatine
2 tbsp hot water

Instructions
…coming soon!

May dessert be simple with you all!