muddy chocolate cake

Posted by trish on Oct 2, 2011 in Eat | 2 comments

I have used this recipe for Chocolate Mud Cake every time I’ve needed a really good chocolate cake for a special occasion.  The cake looks light and airy, but the first mouthful is intense and moist and very, very rich.  I only make it for special occasions because, to be honest, it’s a bit fiddly to put together.  But it is sooo worth the effort.  Give it a try next time you’ve got the inlaws coming for dinner and you need something to serve with all the new season berries.  Add a dollop of thick cream and you’ve got dessert.  You don’t need icing or ganache or anything else… just the cake.  Yum.

I don’t have a picture of this one, presented on a plate, because PJ took this – in its tin and wrapped in paper and Gladwrap – to the coast this weekend for the boys’ annual Footy Grand Final Weekend which happened to coincide with the 40th birthday of one of his best mates, Hugh, whom we went to high school and college with.  Happy Birthday Shug! Hope you enjoyed the cake!

‘Muddy Chocolate Cake’

from the marie claire book ‘flavours’ by Donna Hay (2000)

300g (10oz) dark couverture chocolate, chopped

250g (8 oz) butter

5 eggs, separated

1/4 cup caster (superfine) sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup self-raising flour

berries, to serve.

Preheat the oven to 130C (260F). Yes, that’s quite low.

Place the chocolate and butter in a saucepan and stir over low heat until melted and smooth.  Set aside.

Place the egg yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer with the sugar and vanilla and beat until the mixture is thick and pale.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Fold* the chocolate mixture into the egg yolk mixture, sift the flour over the top and gently fold through.

Carefully fold the egg whites through the mixture and then pour in a 20cm (8 in) round cake tin,  lined with non-stick baking paper.**Bake for 75 minutes or until the cake is firm.  Cool in the tin.

Serve the cake with berries.  Serves 8-10.

The flavour and texture of this cake are best when it is served at room temperature, not chilled.

*Folding is one of those weird cooking techniques that makes you really nervous that you’re doing it wrong.  The point of folding is to maintain the air content in whatever it is you’re mixing.  The egg yolks will be quite light and airy, and if you beat the chocolate into the egg yolks you’ll beat all that air out of it.  Same goes with the egg whites.  So get a big wooden spoon or a large spatula, and try to stir in a way that lifts the mixture up and over itself, using big swooping light strokes that go up and over rather than around and around in the bowl.  The egg whites are tricky to mix in, and you’ll wonder how on earth it is possible to incorporate all that egg whitey-foam… just keep going.  You’ll end up with a really lovely moussey-light batter.  I fold the chocolate into the egg yolk gradually – if you can, get someone else to pour it into the yolks in a thin stream as you are folding, I think that just seems to make it easier for it all to mix together evenly.  Also,  I worry that the chocolate might still be warm enough to turn the eggs into scrambled eggs, so adding the chocolate in a thin stream means you don’t hit the eggs with a sudden wave of heat.

**I also spray the tin with cooking spray before I add the paper.  It’s an extra guarantee that the cake won’t stick, but it also helps to adhere the paper to the bottom and sides of the tin which is useful because that stuff has a tendency to want to roll back up again.I’ve been making this recipe in a 10 inch cake tin which serves 10-12 generously.  Obviously I increase the quantities of everything:

450g chocolate

375g butter

7 eggs

1/4 plus 1/8 cup of sugar

180g self-raising flour

80-90 minutes cooking time.