Strawberries and Cream Mud Cake

So I suppose there is no point avoiding it....tomorrow is my birthday. I mean seriously didn't we just do this like not that long ago? I can't believe how fast it has come around....but nonetheless, yes it is tomorrow. And as I firmly believe it is wrong wrong wrong to work on your birthday, I thought I better take a cake into work with me today.

I thought about it for a long time and went through many recipe books trying to figure out what to make. Something new? Something bold? A tried and true favourite? But no matter how many books and web sites I looked at, nothing really grabbed me as something that I would like to make for MY birthday cake. So then I sat down to think about what sort of cake would I really like, what sort of flavours do I love? I knew I wanted something that involved fruit, something that was not too rich, something that I hadn't made before....well I've never made a mud cake before....but not a chocolate mud cake, that would be far too rich....how about a white chocolate one? But then how to incorporate the fruit....I know! A Strawberries and Cream Mud Cake! I couldn't find any recipes that matched the vision I had going in my head so instead I found a really great white chocolate mud cake recipe and decided to just kind of wing it from there!

Strawberries and Cream Mud Cake (adapted from Exclusively Food)

For the Cake:
450g of white chocolate (I used 2 x 220g blocks of Dream)
300g butter
1 cup of caster sugar
1.5 cups milk
3 tspns vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
1.5 cups plain flour
2 tbspns strawberry essence
Pink food dye

Pre-heat oven to 160C (145C fan forced). Grease and line a 28cm round springform tin. (Just for the record I hate lining springform tins, but for this recipe I just placed a sheet of baking paper over the bottom tray, sealed the tin around it and let the overhang bits just kinda hang out the bottom of the tin.)

In a large bowl, combine the chocolate, butter, milk, sugar and vanilla. Microwave in 40 second bursts, stirring in between, until the chocolate has melted and all ingredients are combined. Let it sit and cool for a minute or two.

Add the eggs to the mixture and stir well.

Add the sifted flours and mix until all the lumps are gone.

Now remove just under half of the mixture to a seperate bowl. To this bowl add the strawberry essence and 2-3 drops of the food dye. Give it a good stir.

Pour half of the plain mixture into the tin. Top with half of the pink mixture. Use a skewer to swirl the two mixtures together - being careful not to rip the baking paper underneath. Top with the remaining plain mixture and then the pink mixture, again swirling the two layers together with a skewer.

Bake in the oven for anywhere between 75 and 100 mins....mine took about an hour and a half. It really depends on your oven so once it hits the 75 mark just keep an eye on it and as soon as a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean it's done.

Let the cake sit and cool for 10-15 mins before you try and remove it from the pan :)

Now while the cake is cooking you can make the frosting!

For the Frosting:
375g white chocolate melted
300ml thickened cream
2 cups icing sugar
2 tbpsns strawberry jam

Combine all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat well for 3-4 mins. You may need to add more cream / icing sugar depending on the consistency your after. Once the cake has cooled, cover with frosting.

(Now here I have to recommend putting the cake in the fridge overnight. Purely because it allows the flavours to develop even more.)

This frosting was great, it had a subtle strawberry flavour, but maintained the creaminess of the white chocolate and, of course, the cream. Also with all that chocolate in there, it sets nice and firm once you put it in the fridge, not solid, but firm and then as you bring the cake to room temp (like you should before serving a mud cake) it just softens beautifully. And just before you serve the cake, top it with gorgeous fresh strawberries....

Everyone at work brought something in for morning tea and the sneaky buggers presented me with a bouquet of baby pink carnations, aswell as a card signed by everyone. I felt very very spoilt.

I have to say the cake was delicious, I was really proud of how it came out. It has that dense moist mud cakey texture and the flavours were not over whelming but they were simple and subtle and it was exactly what I wanted it to be :)

Em x