Chocolate cake is always at the top of the list of my weekend cheat day cravings and my first choice for any birthdays in my family. I was hoping for Naveen to choose this cake for his birthday when I asked what cake he wanted me to bake for his birthday and that was more than a month ago. He loved the combination of creamy and bittersweet chocolate ganache with a chocolaty mud cake.
It is the time for our usual Culinary hoppers monthly Blog hop and the topic is my favorite, favorite baked dishes. I did make a specific dish (Dilkhush) but felt that it is way too simple and scraped the post off. Anyway, I used this recipe for a perfect Mud cake adapted from www.chelsea.co.nz which is very easy and goes very well with dark chocolate ganache.
One thing I learnt about kids after having one of my own is, even though they don't hear you calling their names 100 times a metre away, they can hear you opening a chocolate wrapper in kitchen even if they are locked in a room! (Came across a post that said the same which made me realise that it is so true). My little beast comes running to the fridge as soon as she hears the sound of my Amul dark chocolate wrapper and watches eagerly while I reluctantly cut her a piece. Since chocolate ganache I made did not contain anything else but fine dark chocolate and Amul heavy cream, I did let her eat a huge chunk of the cake (which I regretted in just over 30 seconds!) and she happily smeared it all over her face, body and the floor. It took me more than 20 minutes to clean her up and the mess she made. So unlike me, she looked very satisfied and peaceful.
If you are looking for a blissful chocolate experience, do use good quality dark chocolate and not a chocolate compound. If you are looking for an egg-less version, just skip egg and add 1/4 cup of buttermilk/Yogurt. Please excuse the clumsy piping decoration since I am very weak at it. Hoping that you guys will like it as much as I did, here is the recipe for a classic chocolate mud cake with Chocolate Ganache.
| Ingredients (For Mud cake) | |
| Plain flour/ Maida | 2 cups |
| Cocoa powder | 1/4 cup |
| Brown sugar/ Sugar | 1 cup |
| Salt | a pinch |
| Baking Powder | 1 teaspoon |
| Baking soda | 1 teaspoon |
| Lemon juice | of half a lemon |
| Milk | 1 cup |
| Dark chocolate | 250 grams |
| Freshly brewed coffee decauction | 1 cup |
| Cooking oil | 1/2 cup |
| Egg (optional) | 1 |
| Ingredients (For Chocolate Ganache) | |
| Dark chocolate | 400 grams |
| Heavy cream | 1 cup |
Method: Mud cake
Sieve together Plain flour, Salt, baking Powder and Baking soda. Add sugar, cocoa and mix well.
For a cup of milk, add lemon juice and set it aside. In a sauce pan, Mix together coffee, Grated dark Chocolate, oil and egg. Heat under low flame till the chocolate is melted completely and keep stirring.
Once the mixture looks smooth, add the milk and lemon juice mixture, mix and set it aside to cool.
Once the mixture is warm, add it to the dry ingredients, mix well.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line the cake tins and Pour the batter into them. Tap them to lose the bubbles.
Bake for 35 minutes at 180 degrees and for 5 minutes in 160 degrees. Once baked, let them cool completely before removing them out of the tins.
* Baking time varies in each oven so make sure to check the cakes if they are cooked after 25 minutes.
This is how good the cake comes out. Just so yumm!!
Method: Chocolate Ganache
Grate the chocolate and keep it aside. In a thick bottomed vessel, heat the cream under low flame till it is hot and not boiling. Pour the hot cream over the grated chocolate and let it rest for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, stir and mix well till the ganache is smooth.
If you want to glaze the cake, you can pour this hot mixture over your cake for a beautiful chocolate glaze.
To thicken the ganache for filling, let it rest overnight. Keep it covered with a cling wrap.
I have also cut the tops of the cakes and frozen them overnight. To assemble the cake, keep the bottom of the cake on a pre-lined base and pour little sugar syrup. This step is completely optional and I have used coffee to make the cake moist.
Now, fill with Ganache, place the top half of cake and decorate it as per your wish.
* Sorry for such a lengthy post but I hope I have covered everything as much as I could.
* For an egg-less version, just skip egg and add 1/4 cup of buttermilk/Yogurt.
* Baking time varies in each oven so make sure to check the cakes if they are cooked after 25 minutes.
* Making the cake moist with sugar syrup or coffee is completely optional. The coffee syrup made the cake more bitter-sweet and we loved it that way.
* I coated my cake with the thickened ganache first and then made some hot ganache to pour over it before I piped whipping cream.
Please do check out all these amazing baked goodies from my fellow bloggers:
Jalapeno Cheddar Corn bread by Parvathy
http://crackleandtemper.ca/jalapeno-cheddar-cornbread-eggless/
Masala Khara biscuits by Marudhus Kitchen ,Vani
http://marudhuskitchen.com/www/chilli-biscuits-savoury-cookieschilimasala-khara-biscuits/
Eggless Ladi Pav by Padma
http://www.masalakorb.com/eggless-ladi-pav-bread-buns-recipe-mumbai-pav-rolls/
Simple Cocoa Brownies by Swati
http://www.letscookhealthytonight.com/simple-cocoa-brownies/
Naan Khatai by Jayashree
http://www.evergreendishes.com/recipe/nan-katai-biscuits/
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