It’s no secret that I love baking for others, so when my cousin recently got engaged, I was stoked to be asked to make the cake. Actually, I lie. I volunteered (code for insisted) and she might have just been too nice to say no.
Shel and I spent many weekends together when we were younger – we were neighbours for many years, and our dads worked a lot and so our mums would often get together and take us out on the weekends.
Mum holding me, and Shel with her mum, my aunt Trixie.
It’s hard to believe how time has flown. That picture is probably about 25 years old now! I remember when people who were in their twenties seemed old to me.
Back to the cake – their theme was blue and green, James’ and Shel’s favourite colours. She had originally intended to dye the cake batter, but we decided (I may have vetoed it) that colouring the icing was a far better option. They told me they liked rich, dense cakes and not the airy fairy type stuff.
Armed with the Planet Cake book I set out to make a cake. And because I couldn’t stop at just one cake (the Asian in me considered that not having enough cake would be a travesty!) I decided to make two – a dark chocolate mud and a white chocolate mud. I should add that I hate white chocolate and would never eat it on it’s own, but I was hoping it would end up tasting more like a vanilla butter cake.
The book told me that the cake would take three days – one to bake, one to level and ganache, and another to decorate. Three days! Surely the cake would be stale by the time we got to eat it. I had never made a recipe from this book before and wasn’t sure if it was trustworthy so I googled it – everything from reviews to potential problems. There were a lot of mixed reviews, but I suspected it to be more because the book was so popular rather than because the recipe was a dud.
So I put my faith in Planet Cake and gave it a go.
The cakes both turned out beautifully – rich. moist and with a good crumb and kept very well. Eating it on Saturday, you wouldn’t know that it had been baked on Wednesday. This is probably due to the fact that you split the cake into layers and brush each layer with an apricot syrup. I personally thought the dark chocolate mud cake was a hands down winner, the white chocolate ganache was a little too sweet for me – but many thought they were both equally good. The white chocolate mud is a lovely cake too; it tasted more like a rich butter cake.
I don’t normally eat much cake (especially if I’ve baked it) but I couldn’t stop pinching slivers of these. The mud cake itself is quite high, but because it’s divided into three layers and ganached in between, your end cake will be about 7cm high and serve quite a few people.
- 220g butter
- 220g dark chocolate, cut into pieces
- 25g instant coffee granules
- 160ml water
- 125g self-raising flour
- 125g plain flour
- 50g unsweetened cocoa powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda not baking powder)
- 480g caster sugar
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- 7 tsp vegetable oil
- 100ml buttermilk
- 2 parts chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 1 part cream, heated until just below boiling
- Preheat the oven to 160C. Grease an 8" square or 9" round tin and line the base and sides with baking paper that extends 2cm above the top of the tin.
- Put the butter, chocolate, coffee and water into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the chocolate has melted, then remove from the heat.
- Combine buttermilk, oil and eggs in a bowl.
- Mix the flours, cocoa, sugar and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture and melted chocolate mixture, stirring with a large spoon until completely combined.
- Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour 40 minutes or until a skewer poker into the centre of the cake comes out clean though it may be a little sticky. Leave the cake in the tin to cool.
- For the ganache, put the chopped chocolate pieces into a bowl and pour the heated cream over it. Stir gently to combine.
Don't open the oven door too much.
If your cake is getting too dark on the top, place a piece of foil over the top of the cake to prevent further browning.
I've found the baking times in this recipe to be quite accurate. If your cake is sinks in the middle, it's probably not cooked through.
If your oven is too hot, the middle will not cook through. If the cake is cooking too quickly lower the temperature by 20 degrees and place a container of water in the oven with the cake to create humidity and keep the cake moist.
When assembling your mud cake, slice into 2-3 layers and brush each layer with apricot syrup to keep it moist.
Cut the chocolate into small pieces, larger pieces don't melt through resulting in a lumpy ganache.
Pour the heated cream onto the chopped chocolate pieces and gently stir. Do not whip or you will create air bubbles.
If you still have chunks of unmelted chocolate, reheat the ganache over a saucepan of boiling water.
- 300g unsalted butter
- 300g white couverture chocolate, chopped
- 270ml water
- 300g plain flour
- 150g self-raising flour
- 400g caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1½ tsp natural vanilla extract
- 3 parts white chocolate, chopped into small pieces
- 1 part cream, heated to just below boiling
- Preheat the oven to 180C conventional (not fan forced). Grease an 8" square or 9" round tin and line the base and sides with baking paper that extends 2cm above the top of the tin.
- Put the butter, chocolate and water into a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the chocolate has melted, then remove from the heat.
- Mix the flours, sugar and pinch of salt into a large bowl. Add the melted chocolate mixture, eggs and vanilla stirring with a large spoon until completely combined.
- Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 1 hour 40 minutes or until a skewer poker into the centre of the cake comes out clean though it may be a little sticky. Leave the cake in the tin to cool.
- For the ganache, put the chopped chocolate pieces into a bowl and pour the heated cream over it. Stir gently to combine.
Don't open the oven door too much.
If your cake is getting too dark on the top, place a piece of foil over the top of the cake to prevent further browning.
I've found the baking times in this recipe to be quite accurate. If your cake is sinks in the middle, it's probably not cooked through.
If your oven is too hot, the middle will not cook through. If the cake is cooking too quickly lower the temperature by 20 degrees and place a container of water in the oven with the cake to create humidity and keep the cake moist.
When assembling your mud cake, slice into 2-3 layers and brush each layer with apricot syrup to keep it moist.
Cut the chocolate into small pieces, larger pieces don't melt through resulting in a lumpy ganache.
Pour the heated cream onto the chopped chocolate pieces and gently stir. Do not whip or you will create air bubbles.
If you still have chunks of unmelted chocolate, reheat the ganache over a saucepan of boiling water.
Apricot Syrup
100g apricot jam
100ml hot water
- Combine both ingredients, stir to dissolve then strain to remove pieces of fruit.
Looks devine!! I’ve been eyeing off the Planet Cake’s books and now I think I need to get them! Stunning work on the cakes!
Thank you! I thought it was pretty good for a first try. To be honest, I just followed the instructions in the book.
Try bookdepository – it was so cheap there that I couldn’t not buy it!
Loved your creation , so lovely! =)
Very nice looking cake! I was just wondering how high a tin you used? It doesnt really say in the book. Thanks in advance!
Hi Katie, My cake tin is 6cm high, however the book does say to line the rim higher than the height of the cake tin, so I’d say line with baking paper about 2-3cm higher than the sides of the cake tin. In my experience, the cake will rise to about 8cm (total) with about 1-2cm of the dome at the top that you will have to cut off to ensure a flat cake. Hope that helps – just drop me a line if you have any more questions, I’m always happy to help.
where do the eggs come into it?
Oops, all fixed now. Thanks for noticing!
Hi,
I am so glad I managed to stumble my way onto this blog, I am preparing to make a carved cake for a Thanksgiving Dinner Party in a few weeks and my biggest concern (despite the massive amount of carving I know I need to do and the potential for disaster in that) is what cake recipe to use? I want to go with mud cake because I know it will remain moister than a regular cake but I tested one out today and had the cake literally crumble in my hands as I turned it out of the tin. Yes, I took it out while still warm… I know my error now! But I’m also curious whether the fact I live at altitude could have had anything to do with this. Do you have any suggestions for baking either of these cakes at over 8000ft?
Hi Suz, Hmm, that’s a bit tricky. This cake is easy enough to make, but from a quick search of Google, I see that quite a few people have had trouble with it. It might be that at the high altitude you’re at, you might not be able to make a carved cake – this cake will still be delicious uncarved though! This particular cake is very crumbly on the outer layers – the domed top in particular needs to be cut off. The inside is very moist though, so if you are carving, you might need to take off some of the outer bits.
I have never baked at high altitude, so here are is a helpful article I’ve found.
From: http://www.exploratorium.edu/cooking/icooks/article-3-03.html
As elevation rises, air pressure falls, which means that bakers living at 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) will see different results than lowland bakers. Since most recipes are designed for sea level, high-altitude success requires a few clever adjustments.
Low air pressure has two main effects on baked goods: They will rise more easily, and lose moisture faster; liquids evaporate more quickly since water boils at lower temperatures at high altitude.
As leavening occurs faster, gas bubbles tend to coalesce into large, irregular pockets in a batter or dough. The result? A coarse-textured cake. Alternatively, the pressure inside a rising batter can become so great, that cell walls stretch beyond their maximum and burst. Collapsing cell walls means the cake falls too.
Quicker evaporation also has several ramifications. It makes baked goods more prone to sticking. And sugar becomes more concentrated. Some cakes won’t set. Or by the time they do set, they’ve become dry and crumbly.
Here are some guidelines for converting favorite recipes. To reinforce cell walls, adjust sugar and fat (the tenderizers), eggs and sometimes flour (the strengtheners). And reducing leavening agents relieves the pressure within the cells. Try one or two adjustments at a time and note the results. Where a range is given, use the smaller adjustment first. As altitude goes up, more adjustment may be necessary.
– With the exception of angel and sponge cakes, line baking pans for cakes with parchment, or grease well and dust with flour. Use cupcake papers for muffins so they don’t stick.
– Subtract 1 – 3 tablespoons (15 – 45 ml) sugar per cup (250 ml). A mottled surface on a cake indicates too much sugar. Then if needed, subtract 1 – 2 tablespoons (15 – 25 ml) fat per cup (250 ml) of fat.
– Add an additional egg or egg white. This adds more liquid (see #5), as well as protein, which coagulates and makes the cake set faster. Some cooks also add 1 tablespoon (15 ml) more flour per cup (250 ml) flour.
– Decrease baking powder or baking soda by 1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon (.5 ml to 2 ml) for every teaspoon (5 ml) called for in cake recipes. You may find that quick breads (biscuits, muffins, coffee cakes), squares, and cookies, which have a stronger cell structure, don’t need adjusting.
– To allow for moisture loss, add 1 – 2 tablespoons (15 – 25 ml) extra liquid per cup of liquid. For elevations above 4,921 feet (1,500 meters), add up to 4 tablespoons (60 ml) liquid as needed.
– Decrease the rising time for yeast breads and make sure the dough rises only until double in bulk. Allow the dough to rise twice before shaping. Try using 20 percent less yeast.
– Beat egg whites for foam cakes (angel, sponge, chiffon) just until soft peaks form, so they’re still elastic enough to expand as the batter rises.
– Increase baking temperatures by 25 degrees F (15 C) to allow baking to set before cells overstretch.
– Check for doneness early and reduce baking time if necessary.
Thanks so much for this… I realise it’s been months since you replied. I had every intention of writing back once my cake was done and then forgot and it’s only now that I’ve come back to make this kind of cake again that I realised I never thanked you for helping me make the most talked about, deliciously moist cake EVER! Here is a link to my blog where I adapted your white mud cake recipe.
Thanks again for all the support! http://mykitchenbucketlist.blogspot.com/2012/11/happy-turkey-cake-day.html
Haha, a very cool idea indeed! Glad I could be of help 🙂
Amazing cake! Have just tested it out for my sisters engagement, this time As its is just a trial, I didn’t put the ganache in the middle and the cake still tasted amazing as if it melts in your mouth. I’m sure the real one will taste even better! Amazing thank you soo much for posting – Rebecca
Glad you liked it! It’s a real crowd pleaser I think, a rich chocolate cake that’s not too heavy. Planet Cake says to cut it into three layers, but I think two is just right otherwise it’s a bit too much ganache.
Hi Tash, This cake is still one of my favorites, the only thing i struggle with, when i cut it into layers they never match up again when re stacking and make it difficult to put fondant on and look all perfect 🙁
Can i use this recipe and pour half and half into the same size tin and then use the two cakes as layers? i no id have to reduce the temperature and cooking time, but don’t want to do it and waste a good cake if you have already tried 🙂
Id love to know if you have tried this or have any suggestions 🙂
Thanks
Hi Rebecca, I probably wouldn’t do that as in my experience this cake tends to dome on top which means you’d just end up cutting the top off two cakes, which equals less mud cake to eat. Cutting and stacking is really just practice – use a guide, for instance a ruler and go around the cake marking as you go and just take your time when cutting.
It might be worth buying a cake decorating turntable (try IKEA’s SNUDDA lazy Susan which is much cheaper than a brand name) or a cake leveler (Wilton do a cheapish one that’s essentially a wire cutter).
Remember the ganache is there to cover up imperfections like slightly off-kelter cutting, so you can use it to level out the cake.
Hi, very nice cake, I love your decoration, it looks professional!!! Congratulations for your blog.
I have the book “Planet Cake A beginnes guide to decorating incredible cakes” since a while and last week I tried the White chocolate mud cake for my husband´s birthday since he loves white chocolate (but I really prefer dark chocolate). So I follow the recipe with the amounts for a 22 cm round tin cake and I bake the cake at 180C as stands in the instructions. The recipes is really easy to execute in fact but after the cake reaches the end of the baking time which was 1hr 40 min I have checked the cake and it was cooked in the borders and top but in the middle was still uncooked
so I left the cake 20 minutes more in the oven and when I pulled out it was still uncooked in the middle and brown in the sides since the cooking time in the end was 2 hours!!!! I never cooked a cake so loooong!. Anyway what is wrong with the recipe? or what I have done wrong? Did you get the cake perfectly baked after the cooking time that stands in the recipe?. Did you do something special or different that what stands in the instuctions? I would really like to try the recipe again but I am afraid :-(.Any suggestion or idea is welcome. Thanks.
Best regards,
Victoria
HI Victoria,
Are you baking it on fan forced on conventional? I think conventional works best for this type of cake. The white chocolate cake should still be moist in the middle when you take it out of the oven, so it might be that it was actually cooked. It is actually meant to be golden brown on the outside, so I wouldn’t worry about that part. This cake is actually meant to be trimmed on the top, so it’s alright if it’s a bit overcooked on the top.
If you are really worried, why don’t you try baking them as cupcakes instead – it’s much more approachable and you can halve the recipe. Good luck!
Hi Tash,
I cooked the caked in a conventional oven, I did not use the fan. It was not moist in the middle it was uncoooked, after one hour cooling off the cake I took off the top of the cake and in the middle there was still cake batter almost liquid so it was not moisted it was uncooked. The recipe have 300 grs of white chocolate and a lot of butter which are expensive ingredients so I had to throw the cake away and I was really frustrated and dissapointed.
I did not wanted to bake cupcakes since the cake was for my husband birthday party and suposed to be a cake with candles and all.
To be hones I still think there is something wrong in the recipe from the book. I have found other people in other forums having the same problem. Thanks anyway.
I have read the other reviews about this recipe, but I baked this first time with no problems at all. I’d recommend getting an oven thermometer, and baking at 160C instead. Make sure you rotate your oven in case the heat is uneven too.
I found this with another White chocolate mud cake I did, I eventually after 2 hours 15 mins took it out of the oven and let it settle even though the middle was clearly not cooked through, but whether it was the tin, which I read some times can be it seemed to cook enough while I left it to stand, It wasn’t as nice I thought as the above chocolate mud cake maybe because it didst have the buttermilk and the fluffiness to it but definitely was still a beautiful cake! The recipe I used was very similar but with half the white chocolate to keep the cost down 🙂
Id be interested to know of any other opinions 🙂
i think the sugar needs to be melted with the other ingredients in the saucepan
I made it this weekend and doubled the recipe to fill a 2 inch half sheet pan and it was perfect. Very happy. I may use more oil next time to increase the moisture a bit but not much or try the water in a pan trick. I used 5 baking nails in the cake and baked at 145 degrees for 2 hours. I was using it for carving so mainly the centre part of the cake was what I needed. The outer edges I made an ice cream cake for my kids 🙂
Hi!
Am very excited to have stumbled upon your blog after searching for a recipe for a moist choc mud cake for my nephew’s birthday. Which one of the Planet Cake cookbooks is this from?
I have a test cake in the oven as we speak, it looks so great can’t wait for it to bake!
Your other recipes are great too, especially the level of detail and commentary, I’m glad it’s not just me who thinks similar things while I’m baking!
Keep up the great work, look forward to seeing more recipes – are you planning on baking any of Pierre Herme’s desserts? His macarons are amazing but his desserts look even more spectacular, are definitely on my bucket list for when I have a spare day or two!
Hi Andrea, I’m so sorry – I think my reply didn’t post! Thanks for your lovely comments. I love that we think similar things while baking.
I believe the book is just called Planet Cake. How did your cake turn out?
Hi Tash,
Your cake looks very tempting especially with the colourful icing decorations. You have made baking looks so easy. I used to collect recipes from my “Mak Tok” in Melaka too. 🙂 She gave me all her “ancient” recipes which some are even written in the Jawi handwriting! Glad I can read Jawi though (and that impressed my Mak Tok LOL!). Only then I never get the recipe to test. After reading your blog, you have inspired me to re-start my baking hobby which I aborted after Sekolah Menengah. Keep up the great works that you’ve done with food. All you food looks so sedap dan lazat…… 🙂
Terima kasih! To me there’s no greater compliment than inspiring people to get back to their love of food. If you have any of your Mak Tok’s traditional recipes, I’d love to see them – and maybe blog about them with your permission. I feel like our traditional recipes are often not very well documented. I have a special place in my heart for family recipes that have been passed down through generations. Let me know if you cook any of her recipes, or feel free to email me a (non-Jawi) copy at tash@akitchencat.com.au I will of course credit the recipe back to you.
Hi yesterday i made a chocolate mud cake with a white chocolate swirl (packet mixes from a cake decorating store). It is a 10inch round cake. It took a lot longer to cook the expected at 160C it was domed and cracked but in the cracks was not cooked. I reduced the oven to 155 and kept end checking it each 20 mins. Finally took it out and allowed it to cool overnight. This morning I have cut the dome top off level with the side of the pan and mostly it looks good. The sides are not burnt but whe Middle 2 inches looked slightly undercooked. Is there a way to dry it out or cook it a little more as it is for a wedding and I don’t want to waste it. I still have to cook a 12 inch so don’t want the same thing to happen. Please help. Kerrie
Without looking at the cake it’s impossible to tell, but I’d hazard a guess that your oven is running hot. If you’re going to be baking more, I really suggest getting an oven thermometer, they’re pretty cheap. It’s also possible that there was too much batter for the 10” cake tin, so it hasn’t cooked evenly.
For the next cake, I’d suggest baking at a lower temperature and when putting the cake in the oven, place a sheet of aluminum foil over the cake tin, just loose over the top – that should help it rise evenly.
Thank you I will try that. For this one I hope when I add a ganache layer to the middle and sides the fondant it will pass as a really moist cake.
Let me know how it goes baking the second one
Hi Tash the 12 inch mudcake is in the oven. I found the oven was around 5 degrees out so it is set at 155 C and I loosely covered it with foil. It is rising evenly but after 2.5 hours still looks very wobbly. How long do you think it should take?
It all depends on the oven, probably around another 45 to an hour but trust your own judgement. 12″ is pretty big for such a dense cake like a mudcake, so make sure you use a skewer to test for doneness.
4.5 hours later but it looks great. Thanks for all your help Tash
Great news! Glad I could help 🙂
Hi Tash
I was wondering if I could pick your brain please… I need to bake a 10×4 inch white chocolate mud cake and would love to use the recipe you have on your blog. I’m not really sure how to alter the quantities of the ingredients to do this though. Do I just double everything?! Thanks 🙂
Hi Meril, Oh I wouldn’t do that! Do you mean a 10×4″ rectangle cake? Or a 10×10 square cake at 4″ high? The way I work it out is the recipe makes one 8×8 cake = 64inch2. If you wanted to make a 10×4 cake = 40inch2. 40 / 64 = 0.625, or about 2/3 – I’d then aim to use about 2/3 of the batter for the cake you’re baking.
If you can’t eyeball two thirds – I certainly can’t – then put a big empty bowl on a weighing scale, weigh the cake batter then divide it into cake tins based on weight. Hope that makes sense.
Hi Tash,
Why do you only recommend using a conventional oven? Mine only does fan-forced. How do I modify it for baking in a fan forced oven?
Secondly, if I want to make these as cupcakes, what temperature and how long should I bake it for? Will it be just as moist?
Thanks so much for your help! Great post
I’ve actually moved house a few times now and it does work perfectly fine in a fan forced oven! I wrote conventional because after hours of research, looking through blogs and cake forums, everyone seemed to pin point fan forced cooking as the reason that their cakes didn’t rise evenly, or didn’t cook thorough or baked into a dome. In actual fact, I suspect it had nothing to do with fan forced. I’ve been meaning to update this for some time with a post about tips on getting this cake right but I just haven’t gotten around to it – so thanks for reminding me.
I’ve made them a cupcakes before, but I wouldn’t recommend it – they’re fine, but the batter is dense and it just doesn’t make for a good cupcake. Try this chocolate stout cupcake recipe, or this one instead. If you are baking them in advance, just glaze with apricot glaze to keep them moist.
Thanks for your prompt response Tash!
Good to know that fan-forced ovens will work just as well. Do you actually lower the temperature though? I’ve read that some people lower the oven temperature by 10-20C.
Thanks for the suggestion re cupcake recipe. I will try them out. I am still on the search for the perfect chocolate cupcake recipe!
Btw, have you ever tried any white chocolate mud cake recipes that have vegetable oil and buttermilk in the recipe? The PC recipe doesn’t have oil or buttermilk and I just wondered if it would be more moist with the addition of oil and buttermilk. I stumbled upon this website and saw how similar the dark chocolate mud cake recipe was to the PC one but quite different to the white mud. http://mycupcakeaddiction.com/blogs/my-very-best-ultimate-chocolate-mud-cake-recipe
Hi there. I made both the chocolate and white chocolate cakes recently and they turned out great! Just wondering how to make the white chocolate one lemon? Would you just replace the water with lemon juice? Or some of it? Thanks!
I’d just add a TON of grated lemon zest. The cake itself is quite sweet so I think that would be your best bet. And a tablespoon of lemon juice probably wouldn’t hurt too. I think it would still taste quite a lot like white chocolate, so as long as you don’t mind the flavour of white chocolate + lemon.
Hi Tash,
My sister asked me to bake her wedding cake in Malaysia, next February.
I’ve told her that’s her biggest mistake for her wedding.
But in saying that, do you have suggestion on type of buttercream that would suit best for Malaysia’s weather and humidity? And what type of cakes would be best for a three tier wedding cake?
That would be of great help !
Hi,Have you edited the recipe ? It appears to have changed from the last time I baked it?
I haven’t made this recipe in some time as I don’t have access to decent quality chocolate here. I don’t remember editing anything on this post, at least not for the past six months to a year. What do you recall to be different?