Chocolate Mud Cake is a dense chocolate-y cake topped with Mascarpone Coffee Topping. Homemade mascarpone is added to whipped cream to make a delicious topping. Every bite is a decadent delight.
Prepare a 9 inch spring-form pan and preheat oven to 180 °C
Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together. In a separate bowl or jug, mix water, oil, vinegar and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Stir in chopped chocolate. Pour the ready batter in prepared pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes.
Check the cake for doneness by inserting a skewer or toothpick inside and it comes out clean. Once the cake is done, allow it to cool inside the pan only.
for the chocolate syrup
Quickly work on preparing the chocolate soaking syrup. Heat the water, icing sugar and cocoa powder until boiling and slightly thick for 2-3 minutes. When thick add chopped chocolate, and whisk rigorously to remove lumps and melt the chocolate.
Poke tiny holes in the cake using a toothpick or skewer. Pour the warm syrup in still warm cake allowing it to be absorbed in whole cake. Let the cake cool completely in the pan before demolding it.
for the chocolate barks
Melt 100 grams of dark chocolate for barks. Spread a layer of melted chocolate on a sheet of parchment paper. The thickness should be such that it's easy to remove when chocolate has set. If it's too thin then it will break. Once the chocolate is set, using a knife gently make a lines in chocolate and brake it on those lines or you can just roughly break them randomly.
for coffee mascarpone whipped cream
Whip mascarpone cheese in a separate bowl, set aside. In another bowl, take whipping cream and add coffee powder and whip them together. Gently fold in coffee whipped cream into mascarpone. Spread on top of the cake and decorate with chocolate barks.
Notes
The original recipe calls for baking for 25-30 minutes but my batter was very runny, so I had to bake it for 35-40 minutes. You can adjust the timing as per your batter and oven.
You can prepare the chocolate soaking syrup while the cake is baking but since mine took longer and the syrup quickly sets then has to be used as a spread on ready cake. I wanted to specifically use it to soak as I was planning to top the cake with coffee-flavored mascarpone cheese and whipped cream. So I prepared it immediately after the cake was baked and cooled slightly. I poured it on top of the cake while still warm and allowed the cake to cool completely.
My hubby set the chocolate and he did it a bit too thick, I recommend spreading it thinner.