One cake two ways - Chocolate Mud Cake

I realized how much I was missing baking when I grabbed the first opportunity I got with open arms. So when a dear friend - Anita Menon, invited us over for a pre-b'day dinner, I knew I wanted to bake a cake. But then the day being a weekend with other pre planned things thrown in, the time to actually get near the oven didn't happen well 2-3 hours before we had to go. So I knew I was taking a real close chance to bake something new and that too which required an hour of baking. But then these challenges only make life more fun, at least it thrills the baker in me!

So with great hopes and confidence, I attempted my first mud cake. I don't think I had ever tasted a mud cake. At least not by knowing its name. So I was intrigued to find out why a delicious looking cake be called so. And as I googled, I found that it was first baked in late 70s and its dense crumb like texture reminded one of the mud on the coasts of Mississippi and so it was called mud cake or Mississippi mud cake. So after deciding that this is what I wanted to try, I surfed further for an easy, trustworthy and straightforward recipe. And I found that at Cadbury's kitchen. 

Aarul eager to cut the cake, even before b'day girl - Anita

So with crossed fingers, I baked the cake with just enough time (20 mins) to let the cake cool and simply be decorated with some choco chips, cocoa powder dusting and sprinkles before I carried it to the birthday girl, without even knowing its taste or texture. I just prayed that she would cut it at midnight in the company of just her husband, but that was not to be. She very graciously removed her cupcakes and brownie, initially planned for cake cutting and this mud cake became "THE birthday cake". My anxiety was eased when I saw the excitement on my son's face to cut the cake..yes as always Aarul wanted to be the first one to blow the candles and to cut the cake.

Thankfully the cake was baked perfectly, dense in texture yet soft and moist...more like a brownie. The addition of coffee added depth to the chocolate and was enjoyed by one and all!!

The only thing that didn't go preplanned was that the cake batter was too much for my 9" inch pan and I wasn't in mood to make a layer cake. So I baked only half the batter and reserved rest of the half and baked it two days later for my birthday. And to take this mud cake a notch up, I made a layer of eggless chocolate mousse to contrast the denseness of the base. And voila I got a Double Chocolate Cake with mud and mousse. Doesn't it look great!

Double Chocolate Mud and Mousse Cake

So this way, this cake was relished in two ways - plain and dressed. And I loved it both ways, except for the fact that I made the mistake of using Tobelrone chocolate for preparing the mousse, which had little nuts inside, which made the mousse slightly grainy than the silky smoothy I desired. And also because I don;t really have a sweet tooth, I felt that little bittersweet or dark chocolate would have been better for me to enjoy a bigger mouthful. Nevertheless this mud cake recipe is a keeper.

Cadbury's Mud Cake Recipe

(A dense chocolate cake, almost brownie like. I'm sharing half the quantity so that you can enjoy it with 5-6 people. For a bigger batch, simply double the quantity.)

Ingredients:

Butter - 125 gm

Brown Sugar - 1 cup 

Strongly Brewed Coffee - 3/4 cup

Dark Chocolate - 100 gm (Coarsely chopped) 

Egg - 1

All purpose flour - 3/4 cup (6 oz)

Self Raising Flour - 1/8 cup (2 oz)

Cocoa Powder - 1/8 cup (2 oz)

Method:

1. In a saucepan, add butter, suagr, coffee and chopped chocolate and let it all melt on medium heat. Keep stirring and do not let the mixture boil. Once sugar is dissolved and chocolate melts, remove from the heat and let it cool completely. You can keep in fridge to cool faster.
2. Preheat oven at 150C. Grease and Line an 8/9 round pan. Keep aside.
3. Sift both the flours and cocoa powder and keep aside.
4. Add egg to the cooled chocolate mixture. Beat well. Now add the flour mixture in 2 batches and fold well after each addition, till all the flour is well combined. 
5. Pour this batter into the prepared cake tin and bake for about 50-60 mins, or till the tester comes clean from the centre of the oven.
6. Keep for cooling for 15-20 mins, before removing from pan. Dust lightly with cocoa or icing sugar.

Notes:

• Due to last minute baking session, there was hardly any time to take pics. But still the recipe was too tempting to not share with you all
• I used a mix of regular Cadbury's dairy milk chocolate and some dark baking chocolate for the cake
• You can prepare your own self raising flour with AP flour itself. For every cup of SR flour, take 1 cup of AP flour + 1/4 tsp salt + 1/4 tsp baking powder; combine and sift this mixture twice to get SR flour
• Because of very low use of rising agent, this cake hardly rises. So you can fill the pan generously (little below the brim) and don't get tensed when you don't see any rise

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