Muddled

This is actually a delayed post, for a recipe I made a few weeks ago, but it tasted so yummy I feel it needs to be included. Prior to this particular week, I had never made an actual mud cake before. I'm not even sure what makes it a mud cake exactly...but after making a successful White Chocolate version for Rory's birthday party, I decided to experiment with the dark chocolate version. These are both from an Australian Women's Weekly cookbook, and both called mud cakes, but the only similarity between them seems to be the ganache on the outside and the fact that they are very rich. Perhaps this is what is meant by mud.

The dark chocolate version contains coffee, bourbon (i used whiskey) and chocolate, all melted together with butter on the stove...I am a serious chocolate freak ..we both are..and seriously i think i could have just consumed this whole mixture as it was, without turning it into a cake. Yum.

Ok it may not look like it here, but trust me...this was delicious

Seeing as this was intended as a gift to cheer up a special friend (baking seems to be the only thing I know what to do when times are tough...for me or anyone else..) , and because I'd been meaning to try this for some time, I figured I had better add the rest of the ingredients and see what the finished product was like.

As instructed, I baked this one in a square tin. It came out quite flat, but this seemed to be how it looked in the picture too so I wasn't too worried...by contrast the white mud cake rose beautifully and was completely different in texture.

I covered the cake in dark chocolate ganache..which was just cream and chocolate melted together...I had to mix in a little icing sugar to firm it up a bit though.
Now, even though I'm a chocolate addict, I'm not actually a huge fan of chocolate cake itself...unless it has real chocolate in it..this cake however is probably one of the best chocolate cakes I've ever tasted (modest, yes)!. And, also one of the few chocolatey things that I couldn't consume all in one go because it is so rich. You really only need a small square. It has a very soft, melt in your mouth sort of texture, with all the flavours of the coffee, whisky and chocolate coming through and then topped off with more chocolate in the icing...so yummy. So pretty.

 

I don't know how successful it was in cheering up my friend...but I was personally very happy with the part I kept for myself (for research purposes of course). I think it would make a great special occasion cake, especially with a little decoration on top.
 Kate later gave it a go too with similar success, although (of course) hers was a tad more alcoholic!
Definitely a keeper though.

x Harriet