Serves: n/a
Approx cost: €5
Approx calories (per serving, if divided into 8 slices): ~500
Approx preparation and cooking time: 80 mins
I was recently told by someone that this blog just needs 3 things – more chocolate, more chocolate, and more chocolate! Now, dumping on chocolate on every single thing I make might be… a little unhealthy, however I will admit that I’ve been neglecting desserts somewhat on my site. I love molten chocolate, fruit, burnt sugar, flaming, cream covered concoctions as much as the next guy but to be honest, I’m just not as good at making desserts. No, that’s not entirely true – things I make are usually successful, but I just find it hard to “imagine”. I like to think my senses of “which spice goes with which meat and when” are pretty well honed, and I desperately want to experiment with new dessert type dishes – Strawberries with a cumin sauce (ok, maybe not :p) but just find myself falling back to tried and tested recipes so as to avoid disappointment.
That said, it’s time I broke this habit and I will now try and post desserts a little more regularly, and why not start with this – chocolate mud cake. Why is it called Morning Star Mud Cake? I have absolutely no idea. It was a recipe which was passed onto my mother from a friend of my sister’s (if I recall correctly). It’s not something we had too often in the house because it’s basically like eating a giant slab of sugary, chocolatey butter, but it’s delicious nom nom sugary, chocolatey butter! It’s super easy, squishy, awesome, messy and laden with calories. If you love chocolate as much as I do then make this… seriously!
Ingredients
– 220g Decent Plain Chocolate – choose a chocolate with a good taste
– 220g Butter
– 220g Caster Sugar
– 3 eggs
– 2 level tsps Cornflour
Instructions
- Start by preheating the oven to around 180 degrees Celsius. Break up the chocolate into squares and place in a pan with the butter. Put on the stove, over a gentle heat and melt the butter and chocolate together, stirring all the time.
- Once everything has melted, mix the cornflour and sugar together well in a large bowl – preferably using a whisk. This will ensure there are no lumps in the cornflour. While not the end of the world, finding a bit of congealed cornflour in the “mud” can be a little annoying. Once the cornflour has “de-clumped”, pour in the sugar and cornflour mix into the chocolate/butter mix and stir well. Remove from the heat at this stage and then crack the eggs and transfer to the chocolate mix and stir well – you might find a whisk is easiest to use at this point.
- Grease a sandwich tin, about 20-22 cms in diameter, and around 4 – 5 cms deep. Pour the mixture into the tin and then place into a large roasting tray. Fill the roasting tray with water until it’s almost at the brim of the mud pie tin.
- Slide the roasting tin carefully into the oven and cook for 1 hour. After one hour the cake should have risen slightly and become cracked on top. Allow the cake to cool and then remove from the tin (if you can). For best effects, refrigerate before serving (although it’s also damn nice at warm temperature!). It’s quite rich, so one cake should normally serve at least 6 people. Enjoy!
Ok, forget the figs, I'm bringing this up to the cottage instead!! What a gorgeous treat Charles! I love a nice dark, quality chocolate…. it is the ultimate indulgence for me. And, in moderation (ha!), it's perfectly healthy – full of heart supportive flavonoids. (strawberries and cumin? maybe not :))
Haha, I'm determined to try strawberries and cumin now, just to see what it's like! 😀 People rant about chocolate being unhealthy, but as you say – in moderation it's great, and I think it's been shown to raise seratonin levels too, so instant happiness boost! Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
I love this cake, it looks really moist. I say more figs! Nah, I think you should just keep doing what you're doing.
Fruit?? No no Greg, that would make it too healthy! 😀
Charles, you recipe is almost exactly the same like my "Ultimate chocolate cake". Mine also doesn't contain any flour, not even cornflour (!) and is as divine as yours I suppose. I also use the 70% dark chocolate. I think we like the same type of chocolate cakes: moist, sticky, very dark and very unhealthy 😉
For me the chocolate cake is best very cold, after 10 hours in the fridge. It becomes even more moist. Is yours the same?
Hi Sissi – after it first comes out of the oven it's so good, but yeah – after some time in the fridge it's like eating a big wedge of chocolate fudge! Really good – still not sure how I prefer it, hot or cold – unfortunately I can't test it again right now because it's all gone 😀
Oh boy! Chocolate cake!! I've never heard of corn flour? I've make it flourless and also with black beans. Is corn flour also referred to as something else?
Hm, cornflour – maybe you know it as corn starch (or even maize starch or "Maizena"?)? It's a very fine flour made from maize, often used as a thickener because it doesn't clump so easily as other flours. Not adding the cornflour wouldn't be the end of the world (failing that you could even add regular plain flour, similar amount) – it just serves to hold it together a bit better! Cake with black beans sounds interesting – must investigate that some time! 🙂
Hi charles my name is charlie im kelly's son. We tried making your mud pie tonight, it was great! I made a paper stencil so we could make a design with the powdered suger. IT worked out great. Thanks for the recipe. 🙂
Hi Charlie! Thanks so much for stopping by to tell me about how it went with the mud pie! It is quite chocolatey and delicious isn't it? Did you take any photos of the final cake with the sugar on top done with your stencil? I'd love to see! Have a great day 🙂
This looks absolutely divine! My mother is on a missions trio for 15 days and no one likes chocolate more than her… This is going to be my welcoming gift to her when she gets home. Can't wait to make it!
Mmm – what a wonderful welcome home gift – I think this is a chocoholic's dream! I hope it turns out as well for you as it did for me… let me know! Thanks for stopping by and have a great day 🙂
Oh my kids would love this and love me for making it. They are both complete chocolate fools and would gladly cover everything they eat in chocolate. In fact, I just showed it to my oldest and he just rolled his eyes (in a heavenly, not annoyed way) and said "ooooooo."
Haha, you should definitely make this – have them help out too! I remember my mother baking something similar when I was younger… if I recall correctly it had crushed biscuit either in it or under it, and little piped swirls of whipped cream all around it. Oh my that was so good!
How could I have missed this chocolate wonder. You know I love chocolate and this mud cake is definitely something I'm going to make.. this weekend lol. Love this
Thanks Kay – I hope you can give it a try – it's so delicious. Kelly already tried it and she said it was a big hit! It's the perfect treat for chocolate addicts like me! 🙂
This looks great – but I do agree with Greg – fruit would go with it really well!!
Bah, heathens, the lot of ya! 😀
Ok, ok, maybe I'll allow some raspberries!
…. more chocolate, more chocolate, and more chocolate!!
What superb advice.
This mud pie looks simply and utterly DeLISH!
Thanks for stopping by! It is *rather* good! Hope you have a chance to give it a try 🙂
Charles, my Dad not only has now made this several times and gives it a 9/10, but he also recently used it as one of the layers in a black forest gateau that he made. He said it worked marvellously!
Oooooh, I feel honoured! Incidentally, does the dessert-king have any hints on how I could make it a 10? Also… black forest gateau… yes, I have to make one of those, very soon! Thanks for the reminder 😀
This looks seriously decadent! I wonder if corn flour is the same as corn meal, in which case, would make this gluten free (I'm always searching for tasty desserts for my gluten intolerant friend). Easy to make too. A real winner!
Hi Eva, thanks very much! So far two people have made it and they all report back that it's good stuff! 😀 I had a search for cornmeal and cornflour. It seems that they're not the same unfortunately. Cornflour, sometimes called Corn starch is starch extracted from one specific part of the corn kernel, while Cornmeal is a flour made from grinding the whole thing it seems. I guess it's Cornmeal which is used to make corn bread, right?
In any case, the cornflour is used purely as a thickener/stabiliser. I think you could probably replace it with something like Arrowroot. Apparently this has no (or at least a much lower content) gluten!
Anything with Lindt chocolate has my attention!! And this looks just beautiful!