Chocolate Mud Cake is a dense, moist cake with a fudgy flavor. It’s similar to a flourless chocolate cake and tastes like a combination of brownies and fudge. Mud cakes are cooked low and slow, which contributes to the tight crumb, delicious consistency, and rich chocolate flavor.
Don’t confuse my Australian chocolate mud cake with a Mississippi mud cake; they are both delicious, but this cake is a show-stopper. It’s the perfect cake for birthdays or family get-togethers while elegant enough for fancy dinner parties or special occasions.
This is definitely going to be my next birthday cake, even if I have to make it myself!
I love dark chocolate, and this rich chocolate mud cake is loaded with chocolate flavor that will satisfy your chocolate cravings.
If you love delicious chocolaty desserts, make sure to try my Italian Chocolate Torte; it’s one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes.
Ingredients to make Australian Chocolate Mud Cake
Gather the ingredients needed to make our Chocolate Mud Cake recipe. Culinary professionals call this the Mise en Place, which means “Everything in its Place.”
Setting up your ingredients not only helps speed up the cooking process but also helps ensure you have all of the ingredients on hand to make the recipe.
Made with simple pantry ingredients
- Dark Chocolate
- All-purpose flour
- Unsalted butter
- Granulated sugar
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
- Baking powder
- Baking soda
- Table salt
- Vanilla extract
- Sour cream
- Heavy cream
Dark chocolate has the deepest flavor, but you could use part milk chocolate if you prefer a lighter flavor profile. I made the ganache using dark chocolate, but you can use white chocolate to make a ganache for a contrast of color and flavor for my classic mud cake.
Some recipes use self-raising flour, which you can incorporate, but you must eliminate the baking powder and salt from the dry ingredients.
You’ll also see caster sugar used instead of granulated sugar. Caster sugar is finer and dissolves more easily. It’s a good substitute, but you’ll need to reduce the amount of sugar by 5-10% unless you prefer a sweeter taste. I like to use caster sugar when making my Tiramisu recipe; it dissolves very nicely in the sabayon.
I use instant coffee or instant espresso when called for in baking recipes. Coffee enhances the natural chocolate flavor and takes my chocolate mud cake to a new level of deliciousness. And trust me, the cake will not taste like coffee.
Substitute hot coffee for water and instant coffee, and use decaf if you want to reduce your caffeine intake. You can also leave out the coffee, simply using hot water in the recipe.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a large mixing bowl.
- Whisk to combine the dry ingredients.
- Add the butter, chocolate, hot water, and instant coffee powder to a large saucepan over low heat.
- Heat until they have melted, mixing the ingredients together until smooth.
*Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan with a rubber spatula as needed. - Remove the pan from the heat and pour the melted chocolate into a large bowl to cool slightly (about 5 minutes).
- Add the eggs to the warm (not hot) chocolate mixture, whisking to combine.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla extract to the mixture, stirring to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to the large bowl with the wet ingredients. Use an electric hand mixer (you can use a stand mixer or mix by hand) and mix just enough to combine. You want a smooth batter, but don’t be tempted to overmix; that will only make the cake tough.
*Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed. - Pour the cake batter into the prepared springform pan.
- Place the springform pan on the center rack of a preheated oven and bake for 75-90 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
*The cake shouldn’t jiggle if you nudge the pan. - Remove the cake pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the chocolate mud cake from the springform pan to finish cooling to room temperature.
- Once the cake cools completely, use a serrated knife to remove the dome and create a relatively flat surface.
- Add the heavy cream to a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until very hot. Do not let the cream boil.
- Pour the hot cream over the cut-up chocolate pieces (in a heatproof bowl) and let it sit for 3-5 minutes.
- Whisk the ingredients together until smooth and creamy.
- Let the ganache cool for 30 minutes until it has firmed up.
- Pour the chocolate ganache on top of the chocolate mud cake.
- Spread the ganache evenly over the top of the cooled cake using a frosting spatula.
If you prefer a more traditional frosting for the chocolate mud cake, you can use my chocolate buttercream or chocolate cream cheese frosting.
The whole cake is quite an impressive sight. And the good thing is it tastes even better than it looks. It’s the perfect chocolate mud cake!
Serve the chocolate mud cake with homemade whipped cream or vanilla ice cream for an extra special treat.
Store any leftover mud cake in an airtight container (or covered with plastic wrap), either refrigerated for 5-6 days or at room temperature for 3-4 days. You can freeze it by wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap and then in aluminum foil. Store frozen for up to 3 months.
Recipe FAQ’s
An Australian mud cake features a dense and moist texture, making it a distinctive type of chocolate cake. It’s one of the most popular cakes in Australia, and thanks to the internet and food bloggers, it has slowly spread to the rest of the world.
It’s called a mud cake because of its moist, dense texture that somewhat resembles the consistency of wet mud.
The fry texture can be caused by over-baking or measuring the ingredients incorrectly. Overmixing the batter can also lead to a dry and tough crumb.
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Australian Chocolate Mud Cake
Equipment
- 9 inch springform pan 23 cm
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 2 cups all-purpose flour 250 grams
- 1 ¾ cup granulated sugar 350 grams
- ⅓ cup cocoa powder 30 grams
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup unsalted butter (6 ounces = 1 ½ sticks) 170 grams
- 7 ounces dark chocolate -finely chopped 200 grams
- 2 teaspoon instant coffee powder
- 1 cup hot water 240 ml
- 2 large eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup sour cream 240 ml
Chocolate Ganache
- 8 oz dark chocolate -finely chopped
- ¾ cup heavy cream
Instructions
Mud Cake
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Line the bottom of a 9-inch (23 cm)springform pan with parchment paper. Then line the sides with strips of parchment paper.
- Add the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt to a large bowl. Whisk to combine.
- Add the butter, chocolate, water, and instant coffee powder to a large saucepan over low heat. Heat until the butter and chocolate has melted, and mix the ingredients together until smooth.Scrape the bottom and sides of the pan with a rubber spatula as needed.
- Remove the pan from the heat and pour the chocolate mixture into a large bowl to cool slightly (about 5 minutes).
- Add the eggs to the warm (not hot) chocolate, whisking to combine.
- Add the sour cream and vanilla extract to the mixture, stirring to combine.
- Add the dry ingredients to a large bowl with the wet ingredients. Use an electric hand mixer and mix just enough to combine.Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl as needed.
- Pour the batter into the prepared springform pan.
- Place the springform pan on the center rack of a preheated oven and bake for 75-90 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. *The cake shouldn't jiggle if you nudge the pan.
- Remove the cake pan from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, remove the cake from the springform pan to finish cooling.
- When the cake is fully cooled, use a serrated knife to remove the dome from the cake, so you have a relatively flat surface.
Chocolate Ganache
- Add the chopped chocolate to a heat proof bowl. Set aside until needed.
- Add the heavy cream to a small saucepan and heat over medium-high heat until very hot. Do not let the cream boil.
- Pour the hot cream over the chocolate pieces and let it sit for 3-5 minutes.
- Whisk the chocoalte and cream together until smooth and creamy.
- Let the ganache cool for 30 minutes until it has firmed up.
- Spread the chocolate ganache evenly over the top of the cake using a frosting spatula.
- Serve with whipped cream.
Jane says
Both times I made this it dropped in the middle not rise. Still delicious but I don’t know why. Just required cutting the edges flat rather than the middle.
Chef Dennis Littley says
There are a variety of reasons why this could be happening. The first thing I would check is the age of the baking powder and baking soda. If they are close to expiration, I would replace them. Overmixing the batter, or opening the oven door during baking can also cause the middle to sink, as well as underbaking or having the oven temperature too low or too high.
Agnes Lauder says
I was looking for a cake for my son’s wedding. Test backed your recipe and this is it. Came out super velvety, moist and most chocolatey. Perfect shape, the ganache was icing on the cake: pun intended. I have frozen portions to test how they will hold up . Thank you so much for sharing your expertise.
Chef Dennis Littley says
You are very welcome, and I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my mud cake!~
Christy says
This cake was so delicious I didn’t even make it to the ganache. My husband and I ended up eating it plain. It’s so extremely fudgy and moist it’s like a brownie and cake mixed together. Definitely making this again!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed the cake, it is deliciously fudgy and they ganache isn’t necessary, but it does add more chocolate!
Lynley says
Hi Dennis
This is the best cake I have ever made! I used a bigger cake tin and increased the ingredients by 1.5 as it was for a 21st birthday party. Everyone commented on how good it tasted, and it made me feel like I knew what I was doing! Thanks so much again. I look forward to exploring your other recipes:)
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear that everyone enjoyed my mud cake, its one of my favorite chocolate cakes!
Justin says
Hi Dennis,
I’m just about to give this recipe a go and wanted to check the diameter of the springform pan you use. Mine is 23cm and I would lime a nice tall cake.
Thank you!
Chef Dennis Littley says
Hi Justin, That is the size I used to make the cake. 9 inches = 23 cm so it should come out as shown in the pictures
Ashley says
G’Day!
Instant classic. I was asked to make a mud cake for a birthday and well it is probably the only cake I have made that almost all the young guests ate.
Great texture and mouthfeel. Excellent taste. Everything that you expect from a great mud cake. I have already shared this onwards with recommendations…
Thank you!
(curious about your cups measurements as 240ml, at least Aussie cups are 250, maybe based on UK cups. Is that a standard in the US?)
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you enjoyed my mud cake recipe. About the measurements, 240 ml is what we normally use for exchange, but since I don’t measure in metric, I’m using the numbers recommended for conversion. I did just google it and saw that some of the results did use 250 ml. I’m not sure why there is a difference.
Tanya says
Hi Chef,
Going to make this recipe of your today. Can you substitute the sour cream for buttermilk or heavy cream? Or do you recommend sticking strictly to sour cream? Thanks in advance 😊
Chef Dennis Littley says
You could use Greek yogurt or buttermilk instead of the sour cream. Heavy cream should also work, but its going to have a higher butterfat content and may alter the recipe slightly.
Pieta Amadei says
Another Aussie here!- I’ve just made this and it’s absolutely delicious.Mine didn’t dome either but is soft and velvety and just perfect . I only had about 50% cocoa dark chocolate but it’s still amazing. Have already shared the recipe and it’s a keeper for sure. Can’t recommend highly enough. Thank you!
Chef Dennis Littley says
You are very welcome and thank you so much for taking the time to let me know you enjoyed my mud cake recipe!
Carmelita says
Hi Chef Dennis
I’m in Australia and stumbled upon your recipe when searching for a birthday cake for my husband. I have now made it two times in the space of 10 days as my daughter also requested it for her birthday. It is absolutely delicious.
One question, both times the cake did not “dome” when cooked. Is there something I am not doing correctly that is causing this? The result is delicious regardless.
Look forward to your expert advice.
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you found my Mud cake recipe and have been enjoying it. Actually not doming isn’t a bad thing, it means the cake cooked more evenly. It might have to do with your stove or a lower oven temperature in the conversion from Fahrenheit to Celsius
Natalie Davies says
Do you have to use a springform pan or can I use a regular bake tin?
Chef Dennis Littley says
You would need a deep cake pan a regular depth cake pan won’t be big enough.
Christie says
If I were to split this into two cakes – how long would I bake each one for? I’ve made this and it’s amazing, would love to make smaller cakes!
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’ve never made it in two pans, so I’d just be guessing around 45 minutes,
Dean says
Hi chef, what is the cocoa percentage of the dark chocolate you used?
Chef Dennis Littley says
I used 70% dark chocolate for the Mud Cake.
Dani says
As an Aussie I can say whole heartedly this is 💯 a true Aussie mud cake
I make this cake for every birthday/event and we all absolutely love it EVERY TIME
Emma says
Absolutely delicious cake!!! I’ve made this twice now and it has been perfect each time. It’s definitely a recipe I’ll return to many times.
Just one request from an Australian if it isn’t too much trouble. Could you please state the weight for each ingredient rather than (US) cups? That’d save me having to convert into the AU equivalent. 🙂
Chef Dennis Littley says
I’m happy to hear you’ve been enjoying the mud cake! I’ll see what I can do to make the conversions, 98% of my traffic is US based which is why I list in cups.
Dani says
Yes!!! I have to google the weights too and it’s a bit of an effort when you’re already multitasking
Chef Dennis Littley says
Weights have been added.
Chef Dennis Littley says
Weights have been added.
Jo says
Hi Dennis,
Is it possible to sub the sour cream for natural full fat yoghurt?
Thanks in advance ☺️
Chef Dennis Littley says
Yes you can use full fat sour cream as a substitute for the Yogurt