Chocolate Espresso Mud Cake! Mmmm

Wow,  it has been a while. 
I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year.

Heading back to blog land as I have a recipe I would like to share with you.  I made it for my brother in law's surprise birthday party and had a few requests for the recipe, so I thought you might be interested as well.

I will share the normal recipe which I have made many times and it has never failed me.  I found it in an issue of Good Taste, I can't remember what year - maybe 2008 or 2009? I am playing with a version for the Thermomix which I will post later. 

Chocolate espresso mud cake

530g Caster sugar

250g Dark Chocolate, chopped or broken up          

250g unsalted butter, chopped
185 ml freshly brewed strong espresso coffee
225g self-raising flour
80g cocoa powder
100g almond meal (also nice with hazel meal)
125g sour cream (can use Greek yoghurt)
4 eggs
2tsp vanilla (best you can get)

Preheat oven to 160 C

Prepare a 22cm spring form tin

Place Sugar, Chocolate, Butter & Coffee in a large saucepan over medium low heat, stir with a metal spoon until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth, transfer to a large bowl and cool.

Sift flour & cocoa powder into a bowl.  Add almond meal & stir to combine.

In a separate bowl combine sour cream, egg & vanilla.

Gradually stir sour cream mixture & flour mixture into the cooled chocolate mixture until just combined.

Pour the mixture into prepared pan.  Bake in pre heated oven for 80 minutes. Crumbs should cling to cake skewer inserted in the centre.  Cool in pan for 10 minutes then turn out to cool on a rack.

So that is it, I hope you enjoy the recipe. 
There are lots of ways you can serve this as a dessert cake or as a special event cake. Simply dust with Cocoa Powder and serve with whipped cream or split cake and fill with ganache.  Experiment with filling flavours, add more espresso for a mocha flavour, kaluah or baileys would add an adult aspect to the filling, or add hazelnut liquor to ganache when using hazel meal in the cake or Nutella.
Ice with a chocolate glaze, chocolate butter cream or if you are feeling daring a fondant icing for very special occasions.
Decorate with chocolate coated coffee beans or whatever takes your fancy.

Me-I love cooking and enjoy every other type of craft and art, but cake decorating makes me panic, so I go for simple.   The cake in the photo was iced outside at the hotel quickly in the high humidity you get after a big rain, just before the party as we had to travel 329.2 kms with the cake so I didn't want to ice it before we left and have the icing splat all over the car fridge and well you get the idea.

Play with it and share your ideas and photos.

Have a great day

Rachael :-)

 

Desert walk

Wow, I love this time of year.  The weather is perfect, the trees are blossoming the birds are singing and I am walking more.  Today walking home at lunch time, I was in awe of the colours around me, the quietness of the town either at work, asleep waiting for night shift or resting before the onslaught of kids as they come home from school.  I could hear the breeze, the birds and my foot steps.  I felt the warmth of the sun and the warmth of the breeze.  The sky a clear deep blue, the ground a mix of bark mulch and roasted orange sand and between them, the amazing array of greens from the dark bottle green of the Mulga, the silver-grey green of some gums and salt bush and the lime and vibrant green leaves of other native shrubs and trees.  The trunks and branches in varying shades of silver, burnt umber and pink-browns and textures that are just as varied.  They are flowering and vibrant reds and yellows leap from their branches.  The birds play in the warm air currents, lifting and falling, black dots in the sky.

I love the dead trees with their silver to black twisted branches that contrast with the clear blue sky perfectly. 

I can not wait to go camping and be surrounded completely by our wonderful native bush land, but today I am happy to walk and breath in my warm desert air.