A Very Chocolate Mud Cake

Maybe a statement that everybody loves chocolate is a little bit ...hmmm...I even don't know how to call it..untruthful? Because let's be honest - not everybody loves chocolate. Moreover, there are so many kinds of chocolate - white, milk, dark, with nuts, orange zest, raisins and so on and so forth. But when you are told to think of some kind of pastry that will satisfy almost everyone, I have no doubts that it will be a chocolate cake. Am I right?

I've made already different chocolate cakes - Chocolate & Espresso Cake and Kladdkaka. And these two recipes are among the most visited on my blog! But you know that there can't be enough of it! And I should tell you that this Chocolate Mud Cake has the most rich chocolate flavor so far! This cake is for true chocolate lovers and for everyone else, even if you think you are not into chocolate at all. Give it a try. I am sure you will like it.

Notes to the recipe

I used dark chocolate with chopped hazelenuts, because I didn't have any other chocolate at home. But it turned out really good! So, you also could use in addition a handfull of chopped nuts, if you like to.

The recipe calles for 100 g of flour, which can be any of your choise. I used 50g oat floar and 50g whole wheat flour. You could even use 100g almond meal to make the cake gluten free. Or just go for standard all purpose flour.

A VERY CHOCOLATE MUD CAKE

makes one 20cm (8 inch) cake

Ingredients

cake

150 g dark chocolate

150 g butter, cut into pieces

5 eggs, whites and yolks separated

50 ml espresso

175 g sugar

100 g flour 

50 g cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

chocolate frosting

150 g cream cheese, cold

75 g butter, softened

85 g powdered sugar

20 g cocoa powder

Instructions

To make the cake.  

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20cm (8inch) cake pan. 

2. Melt the cocolate, butter, sugar, cocoa powder and espresso in a double boiler. Remove from heat and gradually, one at a time, mix in the egg yolks. Mix in flour siffted with salt and baking powder.

3. Using a stand or hand mixer beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. 

4. Add the egg whites to the chocolate batter and gently fold through just until combined.

5. Pour the batter into a prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. Check the donenness with wooden skewer, it should come out almost clean.  Let cool in a pan on a wire rack.

To make chocolate frosting. 

1. Beat the butter until pale, add powdered sugar and beat for anothe minute.

2. Beat in the cocoa powder. In the end add cream cheese and beat until combined.

To assemble. 

Cover the cooled cake with a chocolate frosting