AThis is going to sound crazy but I can never smell food cooking in this oven. This was a 20 cm square and took around 3 hours 20 minutes. Was thinking of doubling recipe next time. Would that double the time or doesn't it work that way? Sorry, very much the novice with mud cake

I made Pams recipe and it is amazing!

What temperature was your oven at? I don't use that recipe, but I wouldn't have thought a square that size would take quite that long. But if it was fine to eat, it doesn't really matter.

No, a doubled recipe won't double the cooking time.

AIt was at 150

I probably usually cook at 160/165ish - I twist my dial somewhere in that range. (It's all very scientific, as you can see.)

If you used baking strips of any kind, that will extend the times too. I find I don't need them - just use the foil to keep the top from burning.

I used foil on the top but I didn't worry about baking strips. 

What are your thoughts on filling? I am going to use ganache but was wondering if I should use milk chocolate ganache or white chocolate ganache? 

Also I intend on icing the cake with either ganache or buttercream and sticking chocolate panels to it. 

What would be your suggestions??? 

Thanks so much for all your advice so far :)

Definitely use ganache, rather than buttercream.  It is delicious and goes perfectly with mud cake.  I personally would not use white ganache unless you have made a white chocolate mud cake of some description.

I have not yet made a mud cake, but it sounds as if it is meant to be very moist. relatively dense, and intensely chocolate.  If the mud cake just isn't working for you, I would highly recommend the double chocolate cake (link below).  It comes up often on CC and is very popular.  It is one of my two go to chocolate cakes.  (the other is a more traditional lighter devil's food type chocolate cake).  It is the one I consider a fudgier cake - moist, deeply chocolate, but not wet, and lighter than I envision a mud cake to be (texture not color).  It is a very dark brown color.  I use Hershey's special dark cocoa.  It has coffee, but I don't even taste it.  I have never had it go wrong. The recipe makes a lot of better - enough for 3 8" or 9" pans.   Give it a try! 

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Double-Chocolate-Layer-Cake-101275

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A

150C is 150C whether using gas or electric but ovenss can and often do vary. I'd guess that the oven in your new house runs low. I recommend checking it with an oven thermometer.

Yortma - That looks like a good recipe. I will have to give it a go. I guess I will have to convert the ingredient measurements but I have seen posts about that. If I was to do an 8 inch tin how far do you fill it? Sorry…I know these are really basic questions but not having done a lot of cakes from scratch I am not sure. 

Cevamal - I have cooked cakes in this oven before but they have always called for the fan to be on. My cakes cook perfectly with the fan on. So like you said, I might have to turn it up just a little to do the mud cakes. 

Thanks so much to everyone who has helped me in this thread. Seriously….I wish I had found this site earlier. I am very thankful! 

This recipe will fill 3 8"  pans very nicely.  It rises a bit (although is ultimately quite level) so don't fill the pans more than 2/3.  I have converted the amounts to metric. ( I do most everything by weight).  I hope you like it.  I have been using it for several years.  

3 ounces (85 grams) good quality chocolate 

1.5 cups hot coffee 350 ml.  Instant is fine

3 cups sugar (600 grams)

2.5 cups flour (12 ounces, 340 grams)

1.5 cups Hersheys special dark cocoa powder (4.5 ounces 134 grams)

.75 cup oil (175 ml)

1.5 cups buttermilk 350 ml 

(1 tsp = 5 ml for the other ingredients)

for me, this recipe makes 3 8 or 9" cakes, 2 10" cakes, 1 14" cake (rounds)

Just wanted to add that I do this recipe by weight too.

Is that just plain white sugar??

It is plain white sugar, although I always use baker's sugar which is a finer texture, but not necessary.

 Chocolate SMBC (SMBC with cooled good quality melted chocolate added) with a little Godiva liqueur is a nice  complement to a dark chocolate cake.  Is is lighter in color, texture and flavor,than ganache,  but definitely chocolate, not too sweet and so nice to work with. It is really good! I agree that white chocolate ganache would also work well.i  t is  much sweeter  than SMBC,

APlease check out woodlandbakeryblog.com she has so many wonderful recipes there and I believe that she has a mud cake recipe. Every recipe of hers that I have tried has turned out exactly as intended. She is an experience pastry chef who is gracious enough to break her recipes down from "bakery batches" to smaller quantaties for the home baker. She also has videos to guide you through each recipe. Hope this helps.

Ok, so my first cake turned out really well but then I thought I would double the mixture and well….flop!! haha. Part of my problem is time… I don't have much so I have rushed it and I would say thats why it turned out that way. 

I have bought a 6" and 4" tin and I was wondering how I work out the amount of batter to put in each tin and how long to cook it for. I have been using Pams recipe in the 8" tin. 

I am stressing because time is drawing near and to add to the mix I have two 18 month olds with gastro :(

Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!! TIA

Your 6" tin will take 1/2 the batter.  Your 4" tin about 1/4 of your batter.  That leaves batter left over.

You could make a 3rd cake (another 4") or you could over fill both tins and then have higher cakes or lots of cake trimmings to eat as therapy for having to cope with two sickies, whilst still being wonder woman.

For baking time, I am just going by my own recipe (not Pam's).  I would do 1 hour for the 4" and 1 hour 10 mins for the 6" (and then I would most likely have to leave them in longer, because mine are never ready on time.  Often 2/3rds longer if I drop my temperature by 10 degrees.)

All the best.

Thanks for that!! I like the extra cake for therapy..lol

I have tried and succeeded with adding instead of normal milk, lemon milk. add lemon to milk but DONT STIR, leave it for 5 mins while you get the recipe ready. once the recipe tells you to add milk, add the lemon milk as nicely as possible so it dosent curdle. aswell as the lemon milk, use 1 cup of coffee to make it extra moist and delicious! hope this helps x

AWhat are your thoughts on putting the fan on in my oven and turning it down a bit to cook a little quicker? I cooked another cake last night and while it turned out it took just over 4 hours. I hate our new oven! I cook other cakes without any problem.