I started April with a bang but somehow things turned out otherwise. I had many plans for the school holidays mostly being able to balance out family time and blogging and not compromising on either. This is something I have been striving to achieve in the last 3 years and have still not perfected. The first week went great! Pies, picnics and play dates. Come second week and I was nursing a sore tooth that went from bad to worse. It became so painful that I couldn’t sleep at night, my face swelled up on the right side and I couldn’t even open my mouth to eat. I have never felt so frustrated. With two young hyper active kids at home and impending deadlines, the least you want to do is become immobile. Mother’s day is my favourite holiday and I had a list of recipes to test out. This year I haven’t made many layer cakes so I had reserved them for April to post before Mother’s day. To make things worse, my laptop started warning me every now and them of low disc space. I rearranged files with no avail. In my crazy state of mind, I must have done something and the next day I was unable to locate hundreds of files. So much chaos! Though I did manage to get back many of them, the rest had just vanished into thin air. Those of you who follow me on Instagram would have seen the Rosewater and Poppy Seed Cake. I couldn’t find the edited images so I’ll have to work on them again. Meanwhile I thought I’ll share this Chocolate Mud Layer Cake with you.

This is a truely impressive cake! It tastes so amazing because it is a dark chocolate mud cake which is dense and rich (not heavy though) and is one of the simplest layer cakes to make. Why? Because mud cakes rise evenly and don’t crumb a lot, they are easy to frost.I frosted the layers in between with a raspberry butercream and the outside with a milk chocolate fudge frosting. The fudge frosting is a big favourite of mine! It never dissapoints. Because the layers are rich, I put a very thin coating of the milk chocolate buttercream, almost like a naked cake. The drippy ganache is white chocolate tinted pink and I’ve decorated it with home grown edible flowers. Oh yes, these flowers have been Autumn’s best gift to me. I bought 15 pots of them in different shades and sizes and they are such a happy sight when I look outside. I did some research before I bought them and travelled 2 hours to get them. But they are a joy to have. especially when you don’t have to depend on the ready punnets at the farmers’ markets.

Let me warn you right away that you will probably be bombarded with cake posts this week. I have so much to share with you!

Layered Chocolate Mud Cake
Makes a 3 layered 6 inch round cake

200 g dark chocolate, chopped
250g unsalted butter, chopped
1 tbs instant coffee
100ml milk
 1 2/3 cups (250g) self-raising flour
40 g Dutch processed cocoa
250 g castor sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 g sour cream
Buttercream, to frost
edible flowers, to decorate

For the raspberry buttercream
120 g unsalted butter, softened
3 cups, icing sugar
1/4 cup raspberry jam
milk (optional)
1-2 drops pink food colouring, if desired

For the milk chocolate fudge frosting
120 gms unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2/3 cup (150 gms) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup icing sugar, sifted
11/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the white chocolate ganache
100 g white chocolate, roughly chopped
3 tbsp heavy cream
1-2 drops pink food colour

To make the chocolate Mud Layer cake: Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease and line 3, 6 inch pans with baking paper.

Place the chocolate, butter, coffee and milk in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water (don’t let the bowl touch the water) and stir until smooth and melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool completely.

Sift flour and cocoa powder into a bowl, then add sugar. Fold into the chocolate mixture with eggs, vanilla extract and sour cream.

Divide the batter in between the cake pan and bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes 0r until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with some moist crumbs sticking to it but no raw cake batter. Set aside to cool completely in the pan. Once cooled completely, turn them onto a wire rack.

To make the raspberry buttercream: Place butter and jam in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream butter and jam until well incorporated, about 2 minutes.
Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. If frosting gets too thick you can add a little milk to thin it out. Add food colouring if desired.

To make the milk chocolate frosting : Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature.
In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy(about 1 min). Add the sugar and beat until it is light and fluffy(about 2 min). Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the chocolate and beat on low speed until incorporated. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until frosting is smooth and glossy (about 2-3 min).

To make the white chocolate ganache : Heat the white chocolate and heavy cream over low heat in a small saucepan. When cream just reaches boiling point, remove from heat and leave aside. Stir with a spoon to make a smooth mix. Add the food colour and stir to blend.

To assemble: Place a layer of chocolate mud cake on a plate or cake stand. Dollop 1/2 cup of raspberry buttercream and spread out with an offset spatula. Try to stay 1/2 inch away from the edges as the buttercream would spread once covered with another layer. We don’t want it to stick out from the sides.
Place the second layer and repeat the same process.
Cover with the third layer. Frost the outside (top and sides) with milk chocolate buttercream. Stick the cake into the fridge for 15 minutes.
Make the white chocolate ganache 5 minutes before you take the cake out from the fridge.Once the ganche is cool, but still flowing freely when you lift it with a spoon, spoon it onto the cake slowly. Be gentle on the edges to create the drippy effect.
Let the ganache set properly before decorating with flowers.