Mud cake

by Ed Halmagyi

Ingredients

  • 250g unsalted butter
  • 200g dark chocolate
  • 2 Tbsp instant coffee powder
  • 1 tsp natural vanilla extract
  • 250g caster sugar
  • 225g plain flour
  • 1½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 40g cocoa powder
  • 3 eggs
  • 80ml buttermilk
  • chocolate icing, to garnish

Instructions

1 Preheat oven to 160°C. Combine the butter, chocolate, coffee and vanilla in a heatproof bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring until melted.
2 Sift in the sugar, flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and cocoa, then beat in the eggs and buttermilk. Mix until smooth, then pour into a lined 22cm cake tin and bake for 45 minutes, until a skewer can be inserted and removed cleanly. Cool on a wire rack, then ice.