{"id":210,"date":"2023-10-11T00:37:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T00:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/squarespace.joannawhiteart.com\/wp\/2023\/10\/11\/costco-kirkland-bakery-chocolate-mousse-cake-review\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T13:18:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T18:18:18","slug":"costco-kirkland-bakery-chocolate-mousse-cake-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snarklesauce.com\/blog\/2023\/10\/11\/costco-kirkland-bakery-chocolate-mousse-cake-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Costco Chocolate Mousse Cake Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Author\u2019s note: I was not paid or compensated to review this cake, and I have no affiliation with <\/em>Costco<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chocolate goodness, but no buttery goodness.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yeppers. I finally did it. I\u2019ve been hearing people rave about Costco\u2019s Chocolate Cake with Mousse Filling<\/a> for a while, and I finally bought one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I ate it. I ate it all<\/em> myself. Sorry-not-sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This cake weighs almost 5 pounds. The label says it weighs 3 pounds, 14 ounces. But the label is lying, my friend. I weighed it on my kitchen scale, and it was a gargantuan 4 pounds, 12 ounces. This is a LOT of cake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still not sorry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(If you landed here by mistake, and you were looking for Costco’s single-serve Chocolate Mousse Desserts from Belgium<\/a>, I’ve reviewed those, too. Totally different animal.)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The actual cake<\/em> is velvety soft with an ultra<\/em>-fine crumb. It\u2019s not dense cake \u2014 it\u2019s light \u2014 but it\u2019s also reasonably moist. It has a satisfyingly dark flavor, with a pleasing salty roundness. Confession: I have no idea what \u201csalty roundness\u201d means; I just said that to sound cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The icing is a thick, sticky, stiff \u2014 almost fudgy \u2014 frosting. It was MUCH too sweet for me. I ended up scraping off most of mine and throwing it away. This is particularly true on the end of the cake, where there is a deep layer of the icing in the middle and on the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I guess this technically means I did NOT eat all the cake, because I threw away so much icing. Well. I tried, at least.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Have you ever eaten something, and known it was technically \u201cgood,\u201d but you still didn\u2019t want to ever have it again? That\u2019s essentially how I feel about this cake. I ate it all. I enjoyed it. I know that it was \u201cgood\u201d cake. But I don\u2019t have any interest in buying another one, ever again. I pondered this, and decided it is probably the lack of butter and cream in the cake, and the cloying sweetness of the icing. The cake technically tastes \u201cgood,\u201d but my body knew it wasn\u2019t getting the butter and cream chemicals it wanted.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Thick<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Anyway. I like the mousse<\/a> layer in the center. It\u2019s soft, and light, and a nice contrast to the dark density of the other layers. The whipped texture is only slightly chocolatey \u2014 in fact, mine had streaks of white in it, like it wasn\u2019t thoroughly mixed. There\u2019s an artificial \u201ccreamy\u201d texture, without any actual cream. The mousse doesn\u2019t melt or deteriorate, even after 10+ days of storage. This gets a suspicious eye-brow raise from me, but I gobbled it up anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Do you also love sophisticated texture contrasts and deep chocolate flavor? Perhaps you would enjoy my review of Ferrero Rocher Dark Hazelnut And Salted Caramel Chocolate Bar.<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Garnish<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The cake aesthetic is rather \u201cbasic\u201d and a bit mechanical. It would be a great blank slate for jazzing up with some custom decorations, like your own fresh flowers or cake toppers. Costco sometimes sells their chocolate and vanilla cakes with bright iced flower decorations, which I personally find garish and tacky. If you\u2019re willing to spend a little extra time sprucing up this cake on your own, it could look much more appealing. Here\u2019s an article with some grocery store cake makeovers<\/a>, in case you need some ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Wave<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I would describe this as a \u201csturdy,\u201d crowd-pleasing cake with a long shelf-life. It\u2019s definitely not a gourmet or fancy item. The icing on top is combed in a stiff wave, and the sides are coated with a soft crumb texture. There are near-perfect piped swirls around the rim. My cake sat in my refrigerator for more than 10 days, and it looked and tasted exactly the same at the end of the 10 days as it did in the beginning. If you are taking this cake to a family gathering, it should survive a car trip and rough handling, and still arrive intact. It serves crisply, with just some minor sticking on the bottom. This is a nearly fool-proof cake.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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\"Ingredients<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ingredients in Costco Chocolate Mousse Cake<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Cocoa is listed twice (two different kinds), so definitely a dark, rich chocolate cake. I hate that soybean oil is the primary fat in this cake. There\u2019s no butter or cream. High fructose corn syrup, artificial flavors, and preservatives are used. Sadness abounds. Very much chemical sadness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However<\/em>, I am pretty sure the \u201cArtificial Colors\u201d listed are for the special decorated<\/em> cakes with the brightly colored flowers and such. Mine was not<\/em> decorated, so hopefully those artificial colors are not<\/em> present.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are the full ingredients:<\/p>\n\n\n\n