Bailey's Chocolate Mud Cake

It occurred to me the other day, that it's been some 3 or so years since I've last tried a new chocolate cake recipe. Perhaps not a big thing for most people, but it's quite a surprising thing for me, being the type who really loves trying new recipes.

Ever since I discovered the Chocolate Beetroot Cake, which has been one of my favourite chocolate cakes so far, I never really felt the need to experiment with other mud cakes.

Well......until now.

As much as I love my chocolate beetroot cake recipe, it's not every day that I have beetroot sitting in my fridge nor do I fancy getting my fingers dyed in pink too often. And you never know you never know whether there's even better recipes out there until you try them all! So instead of using my usually recipe, I searched through the many chocolate cake recipes I had pinned on Pinterest.

There's many recipes I really want to try but Bailey's Mud Cake was the first to catch my attention- with a delicious rich texture that's every chocaholic's dream. And who can say no to the combination of Bailey's and chocolate?

It's been a while since I last made a nice cake, and even longer since I've made one which I've bothered taking time to decorate so I thought I'd brush up my cake decorating skills by practising on this one.So instead of eating it straight out of the oven as I tend to do, I tested my patience by letting it cool and icing it the next day.

Okay that's a lie- there was extra batter so I made a mini cupcake sized one to eat first!

Still not too good at getting straight edges, and it didn't help that I unknowingly scrapped my spatula against the smooth edge and didn't have enough icing to cover the whole cake. BUT looks aside, the cake did taste good!! :)

I did overbake it a tad bit hence why it's not as dense and moist as it should be, but taste-wise, the combination of Bailey's and chocolate is quite genius (if you like Bailey's of course)- the alcohol isn't too overpowering and the cake is quite chocolatey which makes for quite an interesting and pleasant taste. As much as I enjoyed it, I still prefer my chocolate beetroot cake, though I would not hesitate to make this again for something a little different!

Chocolate Bailey's Mud Cake
Recipe from Citrus and Candy

Cake
150g unsalted butter, chopped
100g dark chocolate, chopped
100g caster sugar
100g brown sugar
50g Dutch cocoa powder, sifted
180ml Baileys Irish Cream Whiskey
170g plain flour
1.5 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs, room temperature

Ganache
200g good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
100ml cream
100ml Baileys Irish Cream
pinch of sea salt
1 Tbl / 15g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. In a pan over low heat, add the butter, chocolate, sugars, cocoa powder and Baileys. When chocolate and butter has melted, whisk together to combine making sure to get rid of any lumps of sugar or cocoa powder. Remove from heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, grease and line a 20-21cm round cake tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. Add the eggs to the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Gently fold in the sifted flour mix until free of lumps. Scrape into cake tin then bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (ideally you want to see some moist crumbs stuck to it. This is one cake you don't want to over-bake so better to be a little under than over). The tops of the cake will be a little cracked but this is normal for a mud cake (you'll be trimming the tops and eating them anyway!).
3. Remove from oven and cool in tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cooling it down completely. Trim the tops of the cake to level.

For the ganache

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. Bring the cream, Baileys and the salt to a simmer in a pan. Pour over the chocolate and sit for a minute. Gently stir to combine then beat in the butter.
2. Set aside at room temperature and cool until it is thick enough to spread over your cooled cake. Gently stir the ganache occasionally as it cools to keep the temperature even and the ganache smooth. (I whipped half the ganache to ice the cake, then poured the other half whilst a little warm over the top to create a smooth layer)