Bake it - Chocolate Mud Cake Recipe

I've mentioned already that I have a favourite recipe for chocolate mud cake. It's one I've adapted from a recipe posted on Nigella's forum. 

Here, I'm going to talk you through my version of the recipe.

The cake itself is a dense, moist chocolatey sponge which lasts well, holds up well for stacking, and has (so far) never gone wrong for me. It's my go-to recipe when I need to make a chocolate cake, and it does well for a chocolate ombré cake as you can use any type of chocolate in it without needing to change the recipe. 

Ingredients

9oz butter (chopped)

5oz chocolate (broken into squares)

11oz caster sugar

1 cup milk

8oz plain flour

3oz self raising flour

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs 

The amounts here make a single layer 20cm round cake. Use an app like cakeulator to work out quantities for the tin, and if you want a sandwiched cake, double (or treble) the quantities.

1) Combine the butter, chocolate, sugar and milk in a saucepan, 

and stir over a low heat until all the chocolate and butter is melted. 

2) Pop this mix into your mixing bowl, and leave it for about 20 minutes to cool. This is when I put my oven on to heat up to 170C gas mark 4, and grease and line my cake tins. 

Personally, I only line the base of my tins. With good non stick tins, I don't find it necessary to line the sides. I spray all round with a spray oil like Frylight, and pop in some baking parchment. 

3) Once cooled, sieve in the flours, mix, then mix in the essence and eggs. Try not to over mix, it doesn't need to be perfectly smooth. 

4) Bake in the centre of the oven until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out completely clean. For me this is about an hour. I tend to start with 45 minutes and then check every 10 minutes after that. 

5) Stand the cake pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes, then remove the sides of the pans. After another 10 minutes, flip the cakes over and remove the pan bases and baking parchment. Allow to cool completely before decorating.

Enjoy!