American Mississippi Mud Cake

Many years ago (have you noticed most of the food I love was found many years ago!), I was treated to a lovely dessert, ie Mississippi Mud Pie in a pub run by a young chef in Normanton near Wakefield. It wasn´t until I started trying to find a recipe to make this treat at home that I realised it was the personal recipe of this excellent chef. I cannot find anything like it on the web or in cookery books. It didn´t have ice cream in, and it had a pastry base, chocolate cake (rather rich) and a creamy concoction on the top! That is as much as I can remember, my main memory is the taste … minty the first time and coffee the second time I ate it.

Lightly butter and line an 8 inch cake tin
Set oven to 170 degrees Celsius

250 grams of butter, cut up
150 grams of (Lindt) dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids), chopped
440 grams golden caster sugar
250 ml of hot water
2 tbsp strong espresso coffee
80 ml of coffee flavoured liqueur
225 grams plain flour
35 grams self raising flour
225 grams good quality dark cocoa powder
2 large eggs, lightly beaten

Place the butter, chocolate, caster sugar, water and coffee into a saucepan
Put over a low (ie gentle) heat and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon, until the chocolate melts
At this point add the coffee liqueur
Remove from the heat and pour into a large bowl
Leave to cool for 15 minutes
Sieve the flour and cocoa together, then whisk into the mixture
When combined, add the eggs and beat in until thoroughly combined
Spoon the batter into the cake tin
Put into the centre of a preheated oven and bake for about 1 hour 30 minutes … or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean
If the top of the cake starts to brown too quickly, cover the cake with a sheet of greaseproof paper or kitchen foil, then continue baking, remove from oven when done!
Leave in tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack and remove lining paper

Ice with coffee icing, or chocolate ganache

Serve with a cup of coffee