Brown and wild rice, red Quinoa, squash and date salad
January 8, 2021
Oxtail in black garlic, oyster & Star Anise sauce
June 17, 2021

Top Deck Easter mud cakes

These mud cakes always impress! And to think they almost didn’t exist: I created their irresistible toffee-ish icing by pure luck. While testing various batches of ganache, I ran out of dark chocolate, so grabbed the only other chocolate I had: a slab of Top Deck. Melted Top Deck gives the ganache an amazing caramel-like taste.

Hot tip: If you need a show-off sweet treat but don’t fancy yourself a great baker, this is the recipe for you! It’s scrumptious, simple to make and bakes in 15 minutes – why make a whole chocolate cake when these are fool-proof and delicious?

Serves 12

Ingredients:

For the cakes

  • 100g salted or unsalted butter
  • 120g dark chocolate (I use Lindt 78%)
  • 150g castor sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup self-raising flour
  • 2 tbsp cocoa powder (I use Nomu or Dutched)
  • 2 eggs
  • Butter or non-stick cooking spray, for greasing

For the Top Deck ganache

  • 150g Top Deck, plus an Easter top deck for garnish
  • 3 tbsp pouring cream

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 160˚C.
  • Place the butter, dark chocolate, sugar and milk into a pot and stir over low heat until melted and smooth.
  • Pour the mixture into a bowl and sift in the flours and cocoa powder. Whisk until smooth, and then whisk in the egg.
  • Spoon the batter into a well-greased 12-hole muffin pan and cook for 15 minutes. Allow cakes to cool slightly before removing them from the pan using a palette knife.
  • To make the ganache, heat the cream in a pot over low heat, then add the Top Deck. When the chocolate is half-melted, remove the pot from heat and whisk the mixture until fully melted. Dollop the ganache onto the cakes.
  • Using a vegetable peeler, shave the small Top Deck sideways or add a whole “bunny block” to the cakes.
  • Scatter the shavings onto the cakes.