Dark Chocolate Easter Mud Cake

Well, they say balance is the key to a healthy life don't they?! I thought I'd better balance out the white chocolate mud cake in this post with a dark version here. It wasn't actually my intention to use two mud cake recipes, but it's worked out nicely!

Don't you just love the fudgy gooey-ness of that chocolate icing.... It never really set solid and so you ended up with chocolate icing all over your fingers, face, clothes. Just me that's a messy eater then? I think children would love this, but their parents probably wouldn't.

The recipe comes from Sue Lawrence's book 'On Baking' here. It's not the same as her more recent publication 'Book of Baking' but if you ever see a copy, snap it up, it's a treasure trove of delicious recipes. I can't find a link online to this recipe, so don't feel able to reproduce it here but chocolate mud cake is a fairly common recipe.

The cake was quite cracked when it came out, but never fear, the delicious fudge icing will fill in all those cracks without a problem!

Chocolate fudge icing
55g butter
3tbsp milk
200g icing sugar, sifted
25g cocoa powder (I used Green and Blacks)

This is easy - just place all ingredients in a bowl and place over a pan of hot/simmering water until all melted. Leave to cool (the recipe says completely) before using. I found that if I left it to cool completely it formed a bit of a crust if I didn't stir, so I poured it onto the cake when it was still pourable rather than completely set.

Sprinkle generously with mini eggs.....

Why are Cadbury's Mini Eggs so addictive? I'm a confirmed 70% chocolate fiend and I think that these are pretty much the only milk chocolate I just cannot resist...

This is just such a moist delicious chocolate cake - I love the way this little egg is being dragged down into the chocolately depths of the cake.... Cake and fudgy icing are sure to be adored by all the sweet of tooth this Easter and this definitely goes on the 'tried, tested and delicious' recipes list!!!