Chocolate Mud Cake with Malted Whipped Cream

Chocolate mud cake is one of those cakes that you might not make often but when you do, you remember why they are just SO good. Chocolate mud cakes are cooked low and slow, the oven temperature is much lower than a typical sponge cake and they're cooked over a few hours. They tend have a tight crumb making them quite dense and very delicious.

This cake is perfect just with the ganache but the whipped cream just steps it up a level and makes it look pretty spectacular. I used rather a lot as you will see in the recipe but you can use as little or as much as you like. The cream is whisked together with a little icing sugar - not too much but just a touch and then a sprinkling of malt powder. The malt powder makes it taste a bit like the inside of a malteser - need I say more?!
You could also add a splash of Baileys in the cream – I have done that before and it really was delicious.

What you'll need for this chocolate mud cake

Plain Flour (you don’t want too much rise on this cake as keeping it dense and moist is part of the appeal so don’t use self-raising)
Cocoa Powder (use one with high cocoa solids and good quality as it does make a difference – I like this one)
Bicarbonate Of Soda
Salt
Eggs
Caster Sugar
Vegetable Oil (using oil instead of butter, again, contributes to the moisture and the density of this cake to make it a proper chocolate mud cake)
Water
Milk Chocolate
Double Cream
Icing Sugar
Malt Powder (something like Horlicks or Ovaltine is ideal)

Frequently Asked Questions

More recipes you might want to bake

Moist chocolate cake (perfect for birthdays!)
No bake Biscoff cheesecake
Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Loaf
Crinkly Chocolate Brownie Cookies
Tiramisu Cookies with Cream Cheese Frosting

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Chocolate Mud Cake with Malted Whipped Cream

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Rich chocolate mud cake, smoothed with milk chocolate ganache and topped with malted whipped cream - what could be more delicious?

• Author: Margie
• Prep Time: 60 minutes
• Cook Time: 60-70 minutes
• Total Time: 90 minutes
• Yield: Serves 10-12 1x
• Category: Baking
• Method: Oven
• Cuisine: N/A
• Diet: Vegetarian

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

Cake:

• 3 eggs, medium
• 140g caster sugar
• 100g soft brown sugar
• 180g milk chocolate, melted
• 100ml vegetable oil
• 150g plain flour
• 45g cocoa powder
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 180ml water
• 20ml strong coffee (even if you don’t love coffee I recommend you add this!)

Milk Chocolate Ganache:

• 300g milk chocolate roughly chopped
• 300ml double cream

For the cream:

• 1200ml double cream
• 1tbsp icing sugar, sifted
• 1tbsp malt powder (horlicks, ovaltine)
• Sprinkling of cocoa powder to finish (or could also use chocolate shavings)

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Instructions

To make the mud cake:

1. Preheat your oven to 150°C fan.
2.  Line and grease an 8-inch round cake tin
3. To start, whisk the the eggs and sugars until light and foamy. This will take a few minutes so it’s worth using an electric whisk but of course you can use good old fashioned elbow grease.
4. Once light and foamy, you can slowly add the melted chocolate. Keep whisking to incorporate and then add the oil. 
5. Now add flour, cocoa, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Add the water and the coffee. Mix well to combine and then pour into your prepared tin. 
6. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. The cake is ready if the skewer comes out clean. If there are any crumbs attached to the skewer, pop the cake back into the oven for several minutes.
7. Once cooked, remove the cake from the oven and leave to cool completely in the tin. 
8. Once cool, remove the cake from the tin, you can use a serrated knife to cut the top off but I never do with this cake recipe. Then smother the top with the chocolate ganache. Pile on the whipped cream and leave to chill in the fridge for a few hours. 
9. Remove from the fridge about 20 minutes before serving (unless it’s very hot in which case it’s safer to keep it in the fridge otherwise the cream will be a melty disaster). 

For the milk chocolate ganache:

1. Heat the cream in a pan until it’s shimmering but not bubbling. Then remove from the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate. Whisk until there are no lumps of chocolate and leave to set at room temp until it’s a spreadable consistency.

For the whipped cream:

1. Simply add the cream, the icing sugar and the malt powder to a bowl and whisk until thickened. Careful not to over-whisk it.
2. To assemble spread the ganache over the top of the cake, spoon on the cream. Dust over some cocoa powder and you’re done!

Notes

I like to make this cake a day ahead, then let the cake cool completely in the tin. Add the ganache and cream the following day when ready to serve.