Looking for a Father’s Day Showstopper? Here’s just the cake – a White Chocolate Mud Cake with white chocolate frosting wrapped with a chocolate collar and topped with fresh juicy British strawberries!
A big thank you goes to Jess Taylor who inspired me over on facebook to create this this week, and whilst my Dad doesn’t have a sweet tooth so won’t appreciate a big slice, he has been in the kitchen with me whilst I made it. No, not wielding a spatula but fitting me a brand new kitchen window!
Yay for Dads, and yay for being able to see out of the window!
Let’s get on with this cake then…
Ingredients:
Cake
190g butter
200g white chocolate
140ml water
110g self raising flour
150g plain flour
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
425g caster sugar
3 eggs, large
2 tbsps vegetable/sunflower oil
90ml milk
1 tsp vinegar (malt/cider or white wine)
White Chocolate Frosting
175g butter, softened
350g icing sugar
150g white chocolate, melted
3 tbsps double cream
Chocolate Collar
250g white chocolate, melted
Decoration
500g strawberries
50g white chocolate, melted
Makes 1 x 8” Cake
Some cakes are deceiving, the top of this cake looks odd when it’s baked, it forms a sort of papery crust on the top, but slice it off to reveal the moistest white chocolate mud cake underneath you’ve ever tasted. The darker crust is syrupy and sticky once it’s fully cooled, it is 100% delicious. Well, it wouldn’t make it here if it wasn’t!
Grease and line the base and sides of an 8” tin. You want the paper to protrude from the top of the tin about 2cm.
Preheat the oven to 140c (fan)/160c/Gas Mark 2-3
Measure the milk into a jug and add the vinegar. This is just a replacement for buttermilk which I find difficult to get hold of, not least because you need to shop for it in advance for which I’m never that organised. Use buttermilk if you’d prefer but the milk/vinegar combo always works a treat. Set it to one side for now.
Put the butter, chocolate and water in a pan. Yes, I know it may seem a little strange. Heat it gently until the butter and chocolate melt and stir it until the mixture is even.
In a large bowl mix together the flours, bicarbonate of soda and caster sugar.
To the milk/vinegar mix add the oil and the eggs and whisk together.
Make a well in the dry ingredients in the bowl, pour in the chocolate mixture from the pan and the milk/eggs liquid.
Mix it together until there aren’t any lumps.
Into the tin.
Bake it in the oven for 1 hour 35 minutes, check it with a skewer – it should come out clean, if not for a few sticky crumbs.
Let it cool fully in the tin. Once it’s completely cooled wrap the top in clingfilm and chill it in the fridge for 1 hour. The chilling makes it much easier to split and level.
Make the frosting whilst you’re waiting for it. Beat together the butter and icing sugar until it’s super light and fluffy.
Add the melted white chocolate and the double cream and beat it up again.
Once the cake has chilled turn it out of the tin and remove the paper. Using a sharp serrated knife trim the top off the cake and turn it over so that the base is now the top.
Split the cake into half, scoring a line all the way around it with the knife before cutting into the centre – that will keep you on track and stop you cutting on a slope.
Spread a good layer of frosting over the middle and sandwich the two back together.
Run a palette knife around the middle to sort out any bulgy bits!
Whack on a good layer on the top and roughly level – it will be covered with strawberries so it doesn’t need to be perfect.
Now work your way around the sides coating it with buttercream. Running the palette knife around the cake the even as much as possible.
Now go back to the top edge and neaten up the very edge, knocking it back in over the top.
Back in the fridge it goes, just for 30 minutes for the buttercream to firm up.
Time to prep for the chocolate collar. The steps are in their own post – you’ll find the full instructions here – How to Make a Chocolate Collar.
Chocolate collar done, set out the larger of the strawberries on a sheet of baking paper.
Melt 50g of chocolate and drizzle over the strawberries. If they’re cold from the fridge the chocolate drizzle will set off pretty quickly.
Position them over the top of the cake and then fill in the spaces with the remaining undrizzled strawberries.
One fantastic White Chocolate Mud Cake just right for a Celebration!
Ruth Clemens, Baker Extraordinaire
Meet me down the aisles of The Pink Whisk Shop – for all sorts of cake decorating and baking delights!
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