White Chocolate Mud cake

Heres the White Chocolate Mud Cake I made for Mothers Day.


White Chocolate Mud Cake

Ingredients

CAKE:

250g butter

150g white chocolate

440g caster sugar

250ml milk

225g plain flour

75g s/r flour

1 tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs - lightly beaten

GANACHE:

125ml cream

300g white chocolate

Handy Hint:it can be difficult to judge if this cake is cooked but the crust of the cake should be thick and sugary will keep for a week but not very likely

Method

Preheat oven to moderate - would guess 180C/160C for fan (I used fan at 160C). Grease the bottom & sides of DEEP 20cm round cake tin. Put the chocolate, butter, sugar & milk in a pan and slowly heat (without boiling) until smooth - leave the mixture to cool which will take approx 15 mins. Whisk the two flours into the chocolate mix, then add the eggs & vanilla. Then pour the mix into the cake tin. Cover the tin with tin foil and bake for approx 1hr. Remove the foil and leave the cake in the cake tin for 10mins before turning out onto wire rack to cool. To make the ganache topping: Bring the cream to the boil in pan then pour over the chocolate that you have already broken into small pieces. Stir with a wooden spoon until the chocolate has melted and then cover & pop in fridge for approx 30minutes - stirring occasionally - before spreading over cooled cake.

Mothers Day

Today was Mothers Day in New Zealand and we had a wounderful lunch with the Whanau(Family). I made Mini Pecan pies from Jo Seagers web page and a delicous White Chocolate Mud cake.

Baby Pecan Pies
These are delicious served warm as a dessert or can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. They also freeze well. It's best not to double the recipe, if you want to make more just make a second batch after the first.

Ingredients
For the pastry:
125g butter
1 cup flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
For the filling:
1 cup pecan nuts
60 g butter
1 egg
1 cup soft brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Method
Spray two 12 cup mini muffins tins with non stick baking spray. Place ingredients into a food processor and run machine until the pastry clumps around the blade. Divide pastry into 16 small balls and, with floured hands, press into the bases and up the sides of 16 muffin trays. Place the pastry-lined tins in the freezer to chill for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is really firm and hard. Divide the nuts between the pastry-lined cups, breaking the nuts in half if necessary. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C. Melt the butter, whisk in the egg, brown sugar and vanilla essence until smooth but somewhat gluey. Using a small jug, pour approximately a teaspoon of this mixture into each nut filled cup and bake for 20-25 minutes until the pastry is golden brown and the filling set and crisp. remove from the oven for 5 minutes in the tins, until the pies are cool enough to handle. Give each pie a little twist to loosen the bottom, then carefully lift out to cool completely on a wire rack.