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(Picture from Green Gourmet Giraffe – http://gggiraffe.blogspot.com/ )

Mississippi Mud Cake

(Originally from Australian Womens Weekly – Cakes & Slices Cookbook)

This is a deliciously chocolately cake with a biscuity shell and an extremely dense, moist center.

Best served lightly dusted with icing sugar, with clotted/”dolloping” cream and Raspberry Coulis.

Despite the fairly long baking time, this cake is definitely a crowd pleaser and one most people have never experienced.

Ingredients:

Cake

250g butter, chopped

150g dark chocolate, chopped

2 cups of Sugar

1 cup hot water

1/3 cup whiskey

1 tablespoon dry instant coffee

1 1/2 cups PLAIN flour

1/4 cup self-raising flour

1/4 cup cocoa

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Raspberry Coulis

500g Fresh/Frozen Raspberries

Directions:

Cake

1. Lightly grease a medium sized circular pan and line the base with grease paper (cut a circle the size of the pan and place it on the bottom).
2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, water, whiskey and coffee in a double saucepan (or heat-proof bowl) and stir over hot water until the chocolate is melted and the sugar dissolves and becomes smooth. Set aside to cool
3. In a large bowl, sift the flours and cocoa then add the chocolate mixture along with the eggs and stir together.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake at 160*C for 1:15 hours (Yes – this one takes a while)
5. Allow the cake to stand for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire cooling rack (if you turn it out too quickly it will break apart)
6. The cake will usually have cracks in the top and the biscuity top will occasionally collapse in the center – don’t stress though as this is normal for this cake. You can lightly dust the cake with icing sugar before serving for decoration – though I usually don’t as I prefer it not to be as sweet.

Raspberry Coulis

Coulis is generally made with reduced sugar-syrup blended with fruits, however I much prefer this method to offset the sweetness of the cake with the fantastic tartness of the Raspberries. To make the coulis, simply blend 500g of the raspberries into a puree and then put it in the fridge until serving. Alternatively if you prefer the coulis to be sweeter you can add 50g of caster sugar and 50ml of water to every 500g of Raspberries.

Serving:

As this is a very dense cake (if you’ve never had it before you WILL be surprised by just how dense it is) and most people have had “Fake Mississippi Mud Cake” from restaurants and cake shops – make sure you save some room for dessert . Serve small slices with the Raspberry Coulis drizzled around the plate and a generous dollop of the clotted cream.

Variations:

I love this recipe so much that I have on a couple of occasions made a bunch of different variations of the same recipe. You can easily swap out the Whiskey and instant coffee with a variety of other flavours to make interesting and often just as delectable alterations. Some of the ones I’ve tried include:

Mint – Swap 1/3 cup whiskey with 3tsp Peppermint Essence and Water to make up 1/3 cup. Omit Coffee Powder

Orange – Swap 1/3 cup Whiskey with 1/3 cup Cointreau. Swap Coffee Powder with Orange Rind

Coconut – Swap Whiskey with 1/3 cup Malibu and Omit coffee (I tried dessicated coconut but its best without)

Black Forrest – Omit Whiskey and use 1/2 cup of water, and add 1/2 cup of dried mixed berries to the flours before pouring in the chocolate.

Enjoy!