BRADENTON, Fla. — TEMPERATURES ARE RISING, SO IT'S THE PERFECT TIME FOR A COOLER DESSERT WITH SOME PASSION FRUIT.

Chef Claudio Gutierrez of Amuse 5 Bakery and Café in Bradenton offers her passion fruit and strawberry mousse for summer season recipes.

And there’s no mousse she can’t whip into shape.

There are two parts to this fluffy dessert—the cake base and the mousse.

Sponge Crunch Cake Base

Ingredients

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup almond flour

2/3 cup pistachio ground

2 tbsp. melted butter

Directions

Preheat  oven 350 degrees.

Grease a pan.

In a large bowl add eggs and sugar.

Mix for 8 minutes until thick and triple the volume.

Gradually fold ground pistachio and almond flour, and incorporate.

Bake for about 10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Mousse - Ingredients

2 cups heavy whipping cream

½ cup milk

2 tbsp. unflavored gelatin, dissolved in 4 tbsp. cool water

2 ½ cups passion fruit puree

cup sugar

10 Strawberries cut in half starting at the neck

Strawberry jelly and raspberries for decorating

Pistachios-- whole and ground for decoration

Mousse pan and clear cake collar

A piping bag

Directions

Chef starts with a basic pistachio almond cake at the bottom of the mousse dish.

Next chef lines up strawberries, standing up and facing out all the way around the dish.

Chef beats cold heavy cream and milk and adds cold gelatin, passion fruit puree and sugar. The cold temperatures allow for best result.

Once made, Chef loads the mousse into a piping bag so she can fill in all the nooks and crannies around the strawberries. Chef softly pushes down with a spatula designed for spreading icing, and I am assuming, mousse as well. She is trying to pack the mousse into the form so it comes out with a nice, consistent design. Chef refrigerates for about 20 minutes, decorates with strawberry jelly, pistachios and raspberries.

She chills it 10 more minutes, and it’s ready to serve.