Milk Chocolate Mud cake recipe

The BEST chocolate Mud Cake I've EVER HAD! Not only is it delicious, not too dense and super moist, this is the perfect cake recipe for stacked (tiered) cakes, novelty cakes, 3d sculpted cakes and it makes divine cupcakes.

Today I'm also showing you how to do a super simple wow-factor decoration using some Kit Kats and strawberries. Simple, effective, elegant and... erm... healthy?

Dark Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe:

• 250g / 9oz salted butter
• 250g / 9oz dark (or milk) chocolate (chopped or broken)
• 8 tsp Instant coffee (about 10 grams - you won't get a coffee taste - I promise)
• 180ml water
• 150g / 5.5oz self raising flour
• 150g / 5.5oz plain flour
• 60g / 2oz cocoa powder (unsweetened is best)
• 1/2 tsp bi carb (baking) SODA
• 500g / 17oz caster sugar
• 5 eggs - lightly beaten (room temp is best)
• 70g / 2.5oz vegetable oil
• 125ml buttermilk (you can make this yourself by adding a squeeze of lemon juice to regular whole milk and letting it sit for 10 minutes)

Enough for a 9" x 3" round cake, an 8" x 4" round cake, a 6" x 4" + approx 8 cupcakes or an 8" x 3" square cake

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 160c or 320f
2. Grease & line your baking tins
3. Combine butter, water and coffee over heat until they come to a slow boil. Turn off heat and pour in chocolate stirring until its completely melted. Set aside
4. Sift flours, cocoa, sugar & baking soda together in a large bowl & make a well in the centre
5. Pour in the eggs, buttermilk, oil & chocolate mixture and stir vigourously with a wooden spoon until there are no lumps
6. Pour into your prepared tins and bake for approx 45m (6") and 1.2 hours (8") removing when a skewer inserted int he middle comes out clean
7. Allow the cakes to completely cool in the tins before removing

If you want to see how I decorated this cake, watch the video at the top of this page.

And now, as promised.. here's the

White Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe:

• 300g / 10.5oz salted butter (or you can use unsalted and add a pinch of salt)
• 300g / 10.5oz white chocolate (chopped or broken)
• 300g / 10.5oz plain flour
• 400g / 14oz caster sugar
• 250ml water
• 4 eggs - lightly beaten (room temp is best)
• 2tsp vanilla extract or essence (or the scrapings from 1 vanilla bean pod)

1. Combine butter and water over heat until they come to a slow boil. Turn off heat and pour in chocolate stirring until its completely melted. Set aside
2. Sift the flours and sugar together in a large bowl & make a well in the centre
3. Pour in the eggs, oil, vanilla & chocolate mixture and stir vigourously with a wooden spoon until there are no lumps
4. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for approx 1hr (6") and 1.5 hours (8"/ 9") removing when a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. If the cake is browning too much on top, cover with some foil about halfway through baking

Notes:

• These freeze amazingly well so long as they are double plastic wrapped. Freeze for up to a month.
• Otherwise store airtight in the fridge for up to a week until ready to use.
• These are good to be eaten for a week from the day they're baked, but should be stored in the fridge and should ideally be served at room temp.