Bailey the cat cake - Chocolate mud cake

 

I made this cake for a birthday recently the customer asked for a black and white cat with pink accent, he requested it be chocolate mud cake, though I jazzed it up a bit and added 3 layers of Choc mud cake, each separated with a thick layer of chocolate ganache and covered in the most amazing chocolate Franjellico buttercream.

To be honest, I had never attempted a traditional mud cake before, I find I always tweak recipes to suit my mood and I find it hard to follow orders for specific cakes, it's a creative thing that seems to be inbuilt and just takes over when trying to follow a recipe, a little voice just buts in and says "wouldnt a touch of this be better?" or " that needs more of this or its going to suck" to this day i have never regretted following my instincts so i just go with it however i did check before baking that the addition of alchohol would be ok. They were very happy with the end result and it truly made it a desert rather than just a cake. Overall it was a complete success, though I do strongly recommend the use of 70% dark chocolate to get that beautiful rich chocolate result.

Rich chocolate mud cake recipe adapted from best recipes.com.au

Ingredients:

300 g good quality 70% dark chocolate

220g unsalted butter

600 mL water

3 eggs

400 g caster sugar

400 g self-raising flour

1/2 cup Dutch cocoa

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

Method:

1. Line base and sides of a pan with baking paper. Preheat oven to 170°C.
   
2. Add chocolate, butter and water to a saucepan over low heat. Stir until chocolate is melted and mix is smooth. Remove from heat and cool slightly.
   
3. Lightly beat eggs in a large bowl and gradually add cooled chocolate mix.
   
4. Add sifted flour, cocoa then sugar and vanilla bean paste, continue to beat until smooth.
5. Pour mix into prepared tin and bake for 60 minutes or until cooked when tested with a clean skewer.

I turned the off cuts and left over ganache and buttercream into cake pops - because i wasnt exhausted enough after a full day of baking! I had planned on taking them to a play date that week, but unfortunately they didn't last long enough i figgured i deserved a treat or 2... or according to the photographic evidence 6?! Feeling a tad piggy after this one! Might take the doggies for a walk this afternoon after all.

 

Using cake off cuts I blended these together with a little water and refrigerated the shaped balls for 1 hr before dipping in chocolate

 

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