Chocolate truffle mud cake

What do you bake for the resident chocoholic? This chocolate truffle mud cake was a recent hit.

Decadently rich with the bitterness of dark chocolate, the texture remains deliciously light and silky, reminiscent of a chocolate truffle centre. Essentially it's a chocolate ganache with eggs and sugar. It reminded me of a dense chocolate mousse, the moistness meaning there are no crumbs on your plate, just dark chocolate stains. It's the type of dessert you savour slowly as the intensity of chocolatey goodness slowly builds on your palate.

This is an extremely rich dessert--a modest slice will easily satiate the most gluttonous chocoholic. Okay, maybe make that two.




Chocolate Truffle Mud Cake
Adapted from Cooking Class Cakes by Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks

6 eggs
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons honey
400g dark chocolate, melted
1 cup (250ml) thickened cream (48% fat content)

Line the bottom and sides of a deep 22cm round cake pan with baking paper.

Beat eggs, sugar and honey in a large bowl using an electric mixer. Beat for about 5 minutes or until creamy. Whilst motor is still running, slowly add small amounts of warm chocolate, beating well between addition (I did the chocolate in about 4 stages). The mixture should be light and bubbly.

Use a metal to gently fold in the cream. You may also choose to flavour the cake at this by mixing 1/3 cup of the liquer of your choice into the cream (Cointreau, Baileys, Kahlua or Frangelico etc) before folding it into the mixture. I left mine plain.

Pour mixture into the cake pan. Place pan in a baking dish. Prepare a water bath by pouring enough boiling water into the baking dish so it reaches halfway up the cake pan.

Bake cake at 180C for 30 minutes, then cover loosely with a sheet of aluminium foil and bake for about another 30 minutes.

Remove foil from cake and allow to cool in the tin. When completely cool, gently tip upside down onto a plate, remove baking paper, and flip again onto your final serving plate.

Cool overnight in the fridge. Serve with a generous dollop of whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. A tumble of mixed berries would work brilliantly too.

Serves 12.