Hi! I have only just joined this site and I am really hoping that someone might be able to help me out.

My husbands cousin is getting married on the 20th of November and she has asked me to do the cake. Now, it's just a very low key wedding otherwise I would have said no because I don't feel I can create anything massively spectacular!

I am no expert but I can cook..hehe   However, in saying that, I have had a terrible time with mud cakes. I am looking for a mud cake recipe that is not the REALLY thick dense mud cake. We had one for our wedding which was just that little bit lighter if that makes sense?

I have tried to make mud cakes before and it has been an EPIC FAIL! :(. I can't understand how you can fail at making a mud cake when you just follow a simple recipe??? I made the mud cake from 'Planet Cake' book. Has anyone else made this recipe before? I thought I must have made a big mistake so I made it a second time around and my hubby checked ALL the ingredients before I put it together and still…FAIL. I ended up having to cook it for 2 and a half times longer than it said which cannot be right!!!

If anyone has any ideas how it went so wrong…OR has a great recipe a go, I would love any help!

Thanks so much in advance! :)

In what way did it fail?

I actually don't like the taste of the Planet Cake recipe, although others rave over it.

How long you need to cook your cake depends on the size of your tin, and the temp of your oven as well.

I like the "exclusively food" recipe, although it is dense. All mudcakes are - I'm not sure how you'd get a lighter one. The whole point of them is their density!

For cooking, I like to have my oven at abut 160 degrees, and I cover the tin with foil while cooking. That seems to make the cake rise evenly, and prevents a burnt top.

Oh it failed every way possible..LOL

I have to admit that I was not keen on the taste of it myself. Too much coffee for a start. 

hmmm when I say our cake was lighter…it wasn't A LOT lighter but it wasn't really really dense. 

Mine failed the first time around because I cooked it for 2 and a half times longer and it was still a bit gooey in the middle so I gave up and threw it in the bin. I was told not to use the fan in the oven so I didn't. 

The next time around I tried with the fan on. I still had to cook it a bit longer but it ended up being over cooked on top and around the edges but what it 'should be' in the middle. 

I know it's about getting to know your oven too. We have moved into a new house and to be honest I hate our oven. I struggle to find the time to 'get to know' my oven as I have 18 month old twins! Arrgghhh!…lol 

I have cooked other cakes in there and had no problem. 

ohhh and it also sunk in the middle on the second time.

I find that if I use milk chocolate instead of dark chocolate, my cakes are lighter in flavour and maybe texture - they're a bit softer, probably.

Try the foil thing - that really helps keep the top soft while it's cooking for a long time, and seems to stop the sinking.

Here's the recipe:

http://www.exclusivelyfood.com.au/2006/07/chocolate-mud-cake-recipe.html

Thanks so much. I will try and give that one a go on the weekend. Really appreciate your help!! :)

I've tried the Planet cake recipe too and while I normally like coffee, found the taste too strong in that cake. My go-to recipe for mud is this one - have made it dozens of times and never had an issue & it's perfect under fondant. Always gets great reviews.

http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/chocolate-mud-cake-L1217.html

Hi Jen

I make the Planet Cake one all the time - and also use a very similar recipe from The Essential Guide to Cake Decorating (also Australian).

When I make an 9" round or smaller cake - the recipe works fine for me.  But I take my oven down to 140C and it always takes heaps and heaps longer than the recipes say - sometimes up to 1 1/2 times longer.

If I make really small cakes or cupcakes or larger than 9" cakes then I find I need to adjust the recipe to avoid the sinking in the middle bit.  For both, I add extra 50g of flour to say a 8-10" ratio up to 80g of flour to a 12" ratio and a bit extra bicarb.  I find adding some extra rising 'strength' and baking a bit cooler, I don't get the sink afterwards.

I always wrap my mud cake tins with homemade baking strips (damp tea-towel inside a few layers of foil wrapped around the outside of the tin and fixed with a metal paperclip or bulldog clip).

I also have more success using a dark teflon coated non-stick cake tin, than I do using tin or aluminum cake pans.

My other tip - is to make a cake batter 1 or 2 sizes bigger than you actually need, and then you can cut off the uneven top as much as you need to.  It costs a little extra, but far less than ditching the whole cake.  And the bonus is mud cake cut offs for your own tummy!!

Depending on the quality of coffee you use, will depend on whether this coffee overpowers or is OK.  If using a good quality coffee, then 1/2 or 1/4 your coffee.  It's only purpose in the recipe is to make the chocolate taste more chocolately - and definitely not to make a mocha mud.  The Planet Cake recipe is too generous on the coffee in my opinion, so I rarely add the whole amount.

I also find if I accidently undercook the mud, then the denser it is, so you might find it 'lighter' if you keep cooking it for longer. 

Other bakers find success in adding a metal flower nail into the centre of the batter - which heats up and helps cook the centre quicker. 

My only other thought toward your failure might be the type of chocolate you are using.  Which country are you from?  The Planet Cake recipe calls for couverture chocolate - one made with cocoa butter - not candy melts and not baking chocolate.  

So, every cake has its particular 'high maintenance diva' needs, and muds are no different - these are the ones I've worked out so far.

If you still have no success, then try a rich Devils Food chocolate cake instead.  

all the best to you!

AI have only made one mud cake, but I really enjoyed the flavor and texture. Here is the recipe I used:

[URL=http://www.cakecentral.com/a/pams-chocolate-mudcake]http://www.cakecentral.com/a/pams-chocolate-mudcake[/URL]

I made it with semi-sweet chocolate instead of dark. It took a LOT longer to bake than I expected- I made mine in a 6" round and it took a full 90 minutes to cook through. I am not a fan of coffee so I substantially decreased the amount of coffee in the recipe.

Good luck!

Hi Jen

I too am making a wedding cake in November.  I've been making practise cakes for the last 11 months and tried numerous recipes with varying degrees of success. My bottom tier will be 10inch white chocolate, and this is the one I am using. I've tried others, but couldn't get it to cook fully in the middle no matter what I did. It always came out like a firm pudding. This one is yummy and works every time and doesn't need a heating core. I do wrap around the with the homemade baking strips too, and tend to melt the sugar in with the butter mixture. Great for cakes that need carving.

I use plain old eating chocolate in mine, not cooking chocolate.

http://wilkinshouse.blogspot.com.au/2012/11/white-chocolate-mud-wedding-cake.html

For tiers 8 inch and under , I am using these recipes in milk chocolate and white.  I love the texture and flavour of the white chocolate version, but over 8 inch, it has issues fully cooking in the middle. I mean, up to 6 hours and still not cooked! I gave up.  There's no eggs in the one below either, which is great cost wise.

http://www.inspired-by-chocolate-and-cakes.com/chocolate-cake.html

That's my 2 cents worth. Hope it helps

PS. I'm not a professional, nor a hobby baker. I'm a 'Mum, you can make our wedding cake, right?' baker.

Thanks so much for all of your advice!! I have some cakes to bake!!! 

This might sound like a silly question but can temps vary between gas and electric ovens? I have always used gas but our new house has electric. 

I am in Australia. I didn't realise that you need to use specific chocolate for different recipes. I am learning so much already. 

You are making this so much easier for me. I don't have the time to read pages and pages on the net with 18 month on twins in my care 24/7.  Who better to ask than those people making these cakes!! :)

Thanks :)

Here's a link to a really good thread on mud cakes.  Not only does it have several recipes but a lot of good tips.

http://www.cakecentral.com/t/726071/august-scratch-off-mud-cake

I only ever use The Australian Women's Weekly recipes. I have just made 10" dark chocolate, 8" Caramel Mud and 6" white chocolate and they all turned out beautifully. 

AI have a woman's weekly recipe but the book doesn't give how long to cook it for or the oven temperature which I thought was a bit odd

That's strange. I got the recipes online. They are all 150 degrees Celsius for 2 hours.

AYes I thought it was very strange too. Thank you for that!

You're welcome

Silly question but how do I know if cream is 35% fat? It has thickened cream, double thickened cream, cream, light cream…lol 

No questions are silly.  The fat content is listed on the label next to the ingredients - so with my Woolies Select brand of thickened cream in the fridge today, its says Ingredients: Cream (35% milk fat), Gelatin.

For ganache - you can use thickened cream (unless of course you are baking for vegetarians, then gelatin is out) or pure cream.  The only brand of pure cream I see in woolies and coles is Pura - and it works beautifully in ganache.  You don't use light cream (that's an oxy moron if ever I heard).  Double cream has about 50% milk fat - I've never used this for ganache, but it has me wondering if the extra fat would be delightful or awful?

Thank you!! Much appreciated! :)

AOkay, cake is in the oven! Is the batter meant to be quite runny?

First attempt and I add the caster sugar to the wet ingredients and turn on the mixer. Yes, going great guns. Turn around to drink my drink and when I turn back there are spatter of it on the floor and up the wall. Oops! !!

Yes it's meant to be runny. I don't use a mixer, just a whisk in the same pot I melted the chocolate etc in,

woo hoo - can you send some of those muddy oven aromas over this way please.  Now sit back and relax - it will be hours before its ready....or clean the kitchen - your choice.

My batters are very runny.  The 2 recipes I use don't need the electric mixer, just my wooden spoon or spatula - so I don't get batter on the walls, just around my lips where it belongs  (chef always get first choice to lick spoon in my kitchen!!!)

Definitely should be runny batter.  I also just melt everything in a bigger pot and then chuck all the other ingredients into the pot and then use either a whisk or a wooden spoon, depending on my mood.

AOh well all into the pot next time! Save on dishes!

AWell its been in 1.5 hours but not cooked. This is what happened to me last time I tried the planet cake recipe. I am betting another half hour to 40 minutes. I am sure it's this crap oven we have lol

I like to pour my wet ingredients a bit at a time into the dry ingredients - I find if I try to incorporate it all at once, it gets lumpy. Maybe a third of the wet into the dry at first, and then all the rest in one go. No mixer required.

AIt's cooked but it took an additional 1 hour and 50 minutes. Can I just turn my oven up a little next time or is it a case of mud cakes just being a slow cooking cake?

It's a very slow cooking cake. I usually leave my big ones in the oven for 3 hours - the smaller ones are at least an hour - an 8 inch would be almost 2 hours? Perhaps? I just check on them til they're cooked. When you start really smelling the aroma, they're getting close, usually.