Chocolate Mud Cake

Who doesn't love chocolate?

I never used to, people thought that I was crazy for not liking it however it was a very good thing as it meant that I didn't WANT to eat it. Now I have to convince myself not to eat it!

I made this chocolate mud cake with a salted caramel middle and a chocolate ganache icing for my boyfriends Nanna's birthday. It was a simple yet extremely yummy cake!

The biggest problem I had with this cake was the icing. It was a warm day so the ganache did not set as fast as I wanted it to (note to self: no ganache on a warm day!).

There are two ways you can do this cake:

Sometimes there is just no time left (or you want to keep your sanity)  to make cake from scratch, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a packet mix! So many people think that packet mixes are a cheats way... yes in a way they are but they are also a  lifesaver because otherwise those people would not get their dessert!

The Simple/running out of time way
You will need

• 1 packet mix of chocolate mud cake (my favourites are Duncan Hines and Betty Crocker) 
• 2 cups icing sugar 
• 1/2 cup butter 
• Pinch of salt
• Caramel topping/sauce 
• 1 block of chocolate 
• 1 small jar of thickened cream (around 220mL) 

To make the cake 

• Follow the instructions on the pack mix! 

To make the filling

• Using an electric mixer combine salt, icing sugar and batter.
• Mix in the caramel sauce, adjust to taste. 

To make the icing 

• I followed Martha Stewart's recipe
• http://www.marthastewart.com/865175/ganache 

Cake from scratch way:

To make the cake

• Once again for this cake I used a Martha Stewart recipe 
• http://www.marthastewart.com/333219/dark-chocolate-cake-with-ganache-frostin

To make the filling 

• Using an electric mixer combine salt, icing sugar and batter.
• Mix in the caramel sauce, adjust to taste

To make the icing 

• I followed Martha Stewart's recipe
• http://www.marthastewart.com/865175/ganache

The way that I decorated this cake was to use Caramel Jersey's and just did a rough job on the icing with my favouite palette knife. Sometimes the simple cake designs are the best way to go, for this cake I didn't plan it out before hand it was one of those times that I got into the kitchen and just decided what I was going to do when inspiration struck. 

The best part of left over chocolate ganache (which i had) was that you can take advantage of it. I had some strawberries sitting in the fridge so I dipped the strawberries in the leftover chocolate ganache. 

Happy baking.