Raspberry Mousse can be made in two main ways - “Easy” and “Traditional”. This is my Traditional Raspberry Mousse recipe. A little bit of effort for a big texture and flavor payoff - perfect for Valentine’s Day or any other special occasion!
Originally posted January 3, 2013. Updated 11/21/22
This fresh raspberry mousse is light, airy, and fruity, with a beautiful pink color ... and feels a little celebratory.
Great for entertaining, special occasions (Valentine's Day!)... or any day, really.
It’s fancy enough to serve at a special dinner party ... but it’s also a relatively easy, no bake dessert that is just as appropriate to whip up for no reason beyond “we have some raspberries to use up”!
It's not a TON of sugar, it's gluten free... it has fruit, dairy, and hey, the eggs count as protein, right?
Good enough!
Traditional Raspberry Mousse vs Easy Raspberry Mousse
When it comes to dessert mousse, there are two main styles of mousse recipes - “Easy” and “Traditional”.
What is Easy Mousse?
“Easy” style mousse is basically flavoured whipped cream that’s been stabilized with gelatin.
You can start from scratch - beating heavy whipping cream until it’s ... whipped cream - or you can start with a product like Cool Whip.
Either way, you add your flavouring - liqueur, fruit, chocolate, extract, whatever - and some gelatin that you’ve bloomed and melted.
Whisk it all together, put it in cups, chill it a couple hours, and you have easy mousse.
What is Traditional Mousse?
Traditional mousse is made with raw egg yolks and/or egg whites.
It generally comes together in 3 parts:
- Flavour base (Fruit, etc), usually mixed with sugar and the bloomed and melted gelatin
- Whipped cream. When I’m doing a chocolate mousse, the chocolate is usually in with the whipped cream.
- The egg whites.
Note: While traditional mousse is perfectly safe for the vast majority of the population, pregnant women, the elderly, and immune compromised individuals may want to opt for the easy version, which does not contain any raw eggs.
Which Mousse is Better?
If you don’t have any health considerations that rule out the use of the egg whites - and are willing to invest the extra 5 minutes?
Honestly, the traditional mousse is 100% worth the effort.
Easy mousse is like flavoured whipped cream. It’s a tasty flavoured whipped cream, but the texture isn’t the same as the real thing.
The whipped egg whites produce tiny bubbles, and give the whole thing a fine ... foam... texture.
It’s lighter and fluffier than easy mousse, and airy mousse is way more fun to eat IMHO.
Ingredients
This is an easy recipe, using simple ingredients. You shouldn’t have any difficulty finding any of the ingredients at any grocery store.
You will need:
Fresh Raspberries
... well, technically you just need raspberry puree, which I have you make from fresh raspberries.
If you happen to have a pre-made raspberry puree product, you can skip the hassle and use that instead.
Just make sure that it’s as close to JUST raspberries as possible. A little preservative is fine, a ton of added sugar is not.
Sugar
On the subject of sugar, I recommend using granulated white sugar for this.
The raspberry flavor is so bright, I like white sugar for it - it’s neutral flavored, and just boosts that brightness.
I find that any form of brown sugar kind of clouds that fresh raspberry flavor, with the molasses flavor it brings to the mix.
Unflavoured Gelatin
You can use a packet of Knox gelatin, but I tend to buy powdered gelatine in loose, 1 lb gelatin canisters, as I find it more affordable and handy that way.
Specifically, I tend to buy the Great Lakes Unflavoured Beef Gelatin.
Heavy Cream
“Heavy Cream” goes by different names. You may also know it as “Heavy Whipping Cream”, “Whipping Cream” or “35% Cream”.
You need that amount of milk fat for it to whip up properly, substituting whole milk or coconut milk will NOT work.
Egg Whites
Just... large egg whites. Not much to say here!
Be sure not to get any yolk in with the egg whites when you’re separating the egg - any tiny speck of yolk will prevent the eggs from whipping up properly.
Variations & Garnishes
Add a Hint of Extra Flavour
If you’d like, you can add a tablespoon of lemon juice, and/or a teaspoon or two of Vanilla extract, for a more complex flavour.
Add these to the raspberry puree, before mixing everything together.
Spirited Mousse!
Feel free to substitute a non-cream liqueur of choice for all or part of the water.
This mousse is particularly great with Chambord or Cointreau in place of the water
Other Fruit Flavours
You can use ALMOST any fresh fruit in this recipe. ALMOST.
If you use raw fruits high in enzymes - kiwi, fresh pineapple, papaya, etc - they will break down the gelatin and not set.
You can cook these fruits to deactivate those enzymes (or used canned!), but I tend to just avoid them altogether for this recipe.
Any other fruit... peel / seed if necessary, and puree. Measure out 1 cup, and go from there.
Garnishes & Toppings
While this raspberry mousse is fantastic on its own, toppings and garnishes can make it extra fancy.
Whip up some extra whipped cream, or top with a dollop of Cool Whip.
Drizzle with a bit of raspberry sauce or raspberry coulis.
Top with dark or white chocolate shavings or chocolate curls.
Also, a fresh sprig of mint always provides a pretty contrast and pop of colour!
How to Make Raspberry Mousse
The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of this post. Here is a visual walk through of the simple steps to make your own raspberry mousse!
In a small food processor, blitz raspberries until pureed.
Combine raspberry puree and sugar together in a large mixing bowl, set aside.
Transfer bowl to microwave, heat in 10 second increments until gelatin dissolves into the liqueur.
Pour gelatin mixture into the raspberry mixture, stir until well incorporated, then set aside while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
Note: You can do this with an electric mixer, or in the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with a whisk attachment.
In yet another bowl (I’ll usually use a chilled metal bowl for this), whip cream until stiff peaks form.
Cold heavy cream whips up better than room temperature heavy cream!
Be sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go!
Pour into 6 serving glasses - or serving dishes - and chill until set, about 2 hours.
Tips and Tricks
If you’re making this ahead, cover the serving dishes with plastic wrap to avoid drying out / a skin forming.
Eggs are easiest to separate when they’re cold, and easiest to whip when they’re at room temperature.
The egg yolks left over from making mousse can be used to make all kinds of fruit curds!
See my post How to Make Fruit Curd for recipes to make a variety of curds using fruits and berries.
Raspberry mousse can be used as a filling between cake layers. I like to increase the gelatin by 50%.
Pro tip: Use a piping bag to pipe a “dam” of icing around the outer edge of the cake layer you want to fill. Spoon mousse into the center, spread with an offset spatula.
The icing border will give some structure while the mousse sets up.
More Fancy Recipes
Planning for a special dinner, whether Valentine’s Day, a special date, or a fancy dinner party? Here are a few recipes to consider!
Baklava Cheesecake
Balsamic Mushroom Baked Brie
Boozy Crème Brûlée
Chocolate Dessert Ravioli
Clementine Mousse with Champagne
Creamy Vanilla 6" Cheesecake
Easy Kahlua Panna Cotta
Fancy Tea Sandwiches
How to Make Cream Puffs and Croquembouche
Mushroom Brie Turnovers
Mushroom & Goat Cheese Braid with Balsamic Glaze
Pepper Crusted Tuna with Wasabi Cream Sauce
Phyllo Crab Triangles
Savory Tomato Shortcake
Seafood Mousse
Shrimp & Artichoke Stuffed Mushrooms
White Chocolate Almond Amaretto Truffles
Wild Rice Stuffed Chicken Breast with Dijon Chive Cream Sauce
This recipe comes from my first cookbook, The Spirited Baker. It’s FULL of fun, tasty recipes using spirits and liqueurs for flavour – you should check it out:
Combining liqueurs with more traditional baking ingredients can yield spectacular results.Try Mango Mojito Upside Down Cake, Candy Apple Flan, Jalapeno Beer Peanut Brittle, Lynchburg Lemonade Cupcakes, Pina Colada Rum Cake, Strawberry Daiquiri Chiffon Pie, and so much more.
To further add to your creative possibilities, the first chapter teaches how to infuse spirits to make both basic and cream liqueurs, as well as home made flavor extracts! This book contains over 160 easy to make recipes, with variation suggestions to help create hundreds more! Order your hard copy here on my website, through Amazon, or through any major bookseller.
Share the Love!
Before you chow down, be sure to take some pics of your handiwork! If you post it to Bluesky, be sure to tag us - @CelebrationGen. We're also on Pinterest, so you can save all your favourite recipes to a board!
Also, be sure to subscribe to my free monthly email newsletter, so you never miss out on any of my nonsense. Well, the published nonsense, anyway!
Finally, if you love this recipe, please consider leaving a star rating and/or a comment below, and maybe even sharing this post on social media!
Traditional Raspberry Mousse
Ingredients
- 1 cup Raspberry puree *
- ⅓ cup Sugar
- 3 teaspoon Unflavored gelatin powder
- ⅓ cup water **
- 2 Large egg whites
- 1 cup Heavy cream
Instructions
- Combine raspberry puree and sugar together in a large bowl, set aside.
- In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water and allow to soak for 5 minutes. Transfer bowl to microwave, heat in 10 second increments until gelatin dissolves into the liqueur.
- Pour gelatin into fruit puree mixture, stir until well incorporated, then set aside while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
- In a separate bowl (stand mixer, ideally!), whip egg whites until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold into chilled fruit mixture, stirring until combined.
- Whip cream until stiff peaks form, then carefully fold in to the fruit mixture, stirring until combined.
- Pour into 6 serving glasses, chill until set, about 2 hours.
Notes
Nutrition
Older Photos
Rachel
Hi! Can I use this as a cake filling or is it too thin?
Marie Porter
You can!
Just be sure to pipe a border of a heavier buttercream to keep it in while it sets up
Rachel
Oh always! Thanks for the quick reply 🙂
Donna
Love this recipe. We made it and because my husband loves chocolate, we made Hot Fudge! He loves it with or without hot fudge.
Just made a black berry mousse and it’s no where as good!!! So I’m going to use this recipe substituting fruit to what ever I want. Thank You
DeAnna Leigh Laramie
I'm planning to add this to a cake for filling. How long would you chill it before layering the cake? Do you think it will melt ? It's for a wedding cake (top layer only)
Marie Porter
I'd chill it for an hour or so, then fill, then chill for a few hours before frosting it. I'd also use frosting as a border / dam to give some support, prevent the filling from pouring out.
MK
Can you use frozen raspberries to make the purée? And could you use pasteurized egg whites to be safe for pregnant women?
Marie Porter
Yes and yes!
cj
hi! is this mousse freezable? planning on layering a cake with it and storing leftovers in the freezer. thank you!
Marie Porter
I haven't frozen it, I'm assuming it would mess with the texture though