Chocolate Baileys Mud Cake

 

For the cake

1. 150g unsalted butter, chopped
2. 100g dark chocolate, chopped
3. 100g caster sugar
4. 100g brown sugar
5. 50g Dutch cocoa powder, sifted
6. 180ml Baileys Irish Cream Whiskey
7. 170g plain flour
8. 1.5 tsps baking powder
9. 1/2 tsp baking soda
10. 1/2 tsp salt
11. 3 eggs, room temperature

For the Chocolate Baileys Ganache

1. 200g good quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
2. 100ml cream
3. 100ml Baileys Irish Cream
4. pinch of sea salt
5. 1 Tbl / 15g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature

For the cake

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. In a pan over low heat, add the butter, chocolate, sugars, cocoa powder and Baileys. When chocolate and butter has melted, whisk together to combine making sure to get rid of any lumps of sugar or cocoa powder. Remove from heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, grease and line a 20-21cm round cake tin. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and set aside. Add the eggs to the slightly cooled chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Gently fold in the sifted flour mix until free of lumps. Scrape into cake tin then bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean (ideally you want to see some moist crumbs stuck to it. This is one cake you don't want to over-bake so better to be a little under than over). The tops of the cake will be a little cracked but this is normal for a mud cake (you'll be trimming the tops and eating them anyway!).
3. Remove from oven and cool in tin for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cooling it down completely. Trim the tops of the cake to level.

For the ganache

1. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set aside. Bring the cream, Baileys and the salt to a simmer in a pan. Pour over the chocolate and sit for a minute. Gently stir to combine then beat in the butter.
2. Set aside at room temperature and cool until it is thick enough to spread over your cooled cake. Gently stir the ganache occasionally as it cools to keep the temperature even and the ganache smooth.

Notes

1. For the ganache: feel free to use all Baileys if you prefer it boozier. Alternatively you could just use all cream for a virgin ganache :)