There is no denying that I love desserts of all kind, particularly cake. When I was in Melbourne, my aunts took me to a Chinese bakery that brings me immediately back to the time when I was young. My mother is not a big fan of cakes and all things sweet. Fortunately, my father was. He made it a point to always celebrate a birthday with a cake. Even a belated one. I still remember the few bakeries we went to get our cakes. Since we don’t do surprises, my father often brought me to the shop to select a cake that we all would like. I love going to the cake shop, not minding having to wait for my father to make his purchase. I simply wandered around drooling over the variety of cakes on display. The most common, vivid and general favourite you can find in a Chinese bakery is the fruit cake (not the candied one) or creamed cake topped with slices of fruits like strawberries, kiwis, cherries and grapes - very similar to glazed fruit tarts, only with sponge base instead of pastry. I always picked the one with those plumpy-looking cherries. Occasionally, I succumbed to all things cute and picked a normal cake with icing cream.

Now that I’m older and know how to bake a cake, I conciously choose not to make a fruit cake. Have you ever attempt to make something you remembered from your childhood, only to be dissappointed because it doesn’t taste like what you remember? That why I’ve choose instead to preserve the love of those fruit cakes in my mind.

Fortunately, this entry isn’t about fruit cake. This is about a disgustingly rich chocolate and whisky mud cake I baked last Saturday.

Rich Chocolate and Whisky Mud Cake
extracted from Tempted:150 very wicked desserts (Murdoch Books)
serves 16-20
• 250g (9oz /1 cup) butter, chopped
• 200g (7oz / 1 1/2 cup) chopped dark chocolate
• 375g (13oz / 1 2/3 cups) caster (superfine) sugar
• 125ml (4 fl oz/ 1/2 cup) whisky
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
• 185g (6 1/2 oz / 1 1/2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
• 60g (2 1/4 oz/ 1/2 cup) self-raising flour
• 40g (1 1/2 oz / 1/3 cup) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons whisky, extra

chocolate glaze

• 80ml (2 1/2 fl oz / 1/3 cup) pouring (whipping) cream
• 90g (3 1/4 oz / scant 2/3 cup) chopped dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 160ºC (315ºF/Gas 2-3). Grease a 20cm (8 inch) square tin and line the base and sides with baking paper.

Put the butter, chocolate, sugar and whisky in a saucepan. Dissolve the coffee granules in 125 ml (4 fl oz / 1 /2 cup) hot water and add to the mixture. Stir over low heat until melted and smooth.

Stir the plain flour, self-raising flour and cocoa into a large bowl. Pour the butter mixture onto the flour mixture and whisk until just combined. Whisk in the eggs. Pour into the prepared tin.

Bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted in the centre of the cake. Pour the extra whisky over the hot cooked cake. Leave in the tin for 20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack placed over a baking tray to cool completely.

For the chocolate glaze, put the cream in a small saucepan and bring just to the boil. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate. Stir until combined and smooth. Set aside to cool and thicken a little. Spread the glaze over the cake, allowing it to drizzle over the sides. Leave to set.

Motif

• Some white chocolate, to melt

Melt the white chocolate in a bowl over a pot of boiling water or use a double boiler. Fill a piping bag with the melted chocolate. Here’s a quick way to make a disposable piping bag if you don’t have one available. Make the shapes you want on a baking paper. Let it set (if you are pressing for time, put the baking paper on a tray and put into the freezer for 15 minutes or so to set.)