Chocolate Mud Cake

This is my ultimate go-to chocolate cake recipe. It is relatively quick and easy to make, and always turns out wonderfully. I have tried many mud cake recipes over the years but none have come close to this one. I was very lucky to receive the original recipe from a close friend, and only made some slight changes such as reducing the sugar content and simplifying the method. You don’t have to worry about creaming butter and sugar or sieving flour multiple times for this recipe, which is one of the best things about it.

I made this as a second cake for Natalia’s birthday dinner (see previous post) when she informed me on the day that she would need two cakes. I was aiming for more of a chocolate/cherry flavour by adding cherry brandy to the mix but the dominating flavour was definitely chocolate. I did this once before in my Black Forest Cake, but I wouldn’t bother again unless I find a concentrated natural cherry extract or flavouring. It still tasted as moist and delicious as ever though, and I got some very good feedback from those who tried it (“Best chocolate cake I’ve had in Australia” said Nat’s Brazilian boyfriend Neco – and his favourite just happens to be chocolate cherry cake!).

Census Cupcakes

Earlier this week was Census night, which marked 100 years of Census taking in Australia. I registered for a party pack so that I could convince a few people to come over and have some lame fun filling it out together. The pack was a goldmine of stickers, arm bands, key rings, and even a little wooden plane.

To help celebrate I made some fairly simple vanilla cupcakes with a white chocolate & raspberry frosting and covered them in 100s and 1000s to represent all the people filling out their forms around the country.

The actual Census was incredibly boring and I was left out of most questions because I no longer have a job. The best part was when it was over and we got to eat cupcakes. They were pretty good. I’ve actually never made cupcakes before so I don’t have much to compare them to, but the cake was light and fluffy with a tender crumb, and quite moist. They were super easy to make as well so I’ll be going back to this recipe for sure.

Chocolate Orange Mud Cake with Candied Orange Peel

I bought a bag of oranges last week but wasn’t too impressed with their sweetness. Being in a baking mood this weekend, I decided to use them in a dessert of some sort. I settled on my favourite chocolate mud cake recipe, but with a new twist.

I posted another variation of this mud cake here. The recipe calls for quite a lot of water, which I substituted for freshly squeezed orange juice. I also added less sugar because of the natural sugars in the juice and it turned out the perfect level of sweetness for me.

Not wanting to waste the peel from all the oranges I’d juiced, I also decided to make candied orange peel as a garnish. The peel is boiled to remove most of the bitterness, and then cooked in sugar syrup, and rolled in sugar. I also used leftover rind to infuse the cream for my ganache frosting. I didn’t expect the cake to taste very orangey on it’s own so I wanted the ganache to have a lot of flavour, which it certainly did.

I filled the cake with two layers of whipped ganache, and covered it with a thinner, more glossy ganache. I have made a lot of ganache before, and whilst it is essentially very easy to make, it can be difficult to get the consistency just right. I wasn’t 100% happy with the ganache coating because it ended up having very small pieces of orange peel through it even though I strained it. It tasted good but the smooth finish I was after didn’t really work out. Overall though, I was very happy with the result. I can’t wait to try some other variations of this chocolate mud cake.

I also dipped some candied orange peel in dark chocolate which can be served with the cake, or eaten alone.

Edit: I made this again for my Dad’s birthday. I halved the ingredients to make a smaller cake and decorated it with Terry’s Chocolate Orange segments. It didn’t look as polished as I wanted but the family raved about how it tasted. It’s a definite crowd-pleaser, and it’s quickly becoming one of my favourite cakes.