Mississippi Mud Cake

I knew you were coming so I baked a rum cake with rum custard and rum

After winning a few bottles of rum at the pub quiz, I decided it
 would only be fair to the team if we had spent a night having a tipple. So I bought some cola, a few limes and a couple of packets of crisps, and of course, baked a cake with a rum twist ( well, come on- you can't invite your friends around and not offer them some cake!). I've made this cake a few times before, and it turned out rather differently this time- and I'm not too sure why. It's usually more...cakey- very dense but with more of an obvious crumb. Maybe there was a little too much liquid. Who knows. It was tasty in any case- very moist, dense and chocolatey with hints of rum and coffee coming through. I made a some rum custard to go with it, which started to scramble but some swift cooling and whisking sorted that right out. The custard tasted like melted ice cream with- RUM! Oodles of the stuff.
Yo ho ho!





Ingredients: 

225g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
300ml strong brewed coffee
50ml rum (or brandy or bourbon)
150g plain chocolate (doesn't have to be super dark, I use 52%)
225g butter
400g caster sugar
2 eggs at room temp
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract


Method:
- preheat the oven to 140C/gas mark 1. Grease and cocoa powder (tipping pout excess) a 3 pint bundt/ring tin. (I forgot to dust mine! Maybe that's why it was different?)
- sift the dry ingredients together and set aside
-melt together the chocolate, butter, coffee and booze in a heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir occasionally. Pour this in to a large bowl and whisk on a low speed. Have a tea towel or such like to hand to cover as it can get a bit splashy.
- gradually beat in the sugar until dissolved.
-increase the speed to medium and add the dry ingredients. Mix well, then beat in the eggs and vanilla till smooth.

mmm...silky smooth

- pour the batter in to the tin (it will be very runny) and bake for an hour and twenty minutes. Use a sharp knife or a skewer to check if its done- if it comes out with raw cake on, stick it back in for 10 minutes and try again.
-allow to cool in the tin for 15 before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely. Serve with whatever you fancy- cream, ice cream- or rum and rum custard a la moi! 


To see how to make the custard, go here. Once the custard is at the final stage of whisking and cooling, add a splash or two of booze. NOTE! if you want to flavour it with a drop of something, do not use a vanilla pod as it will just be wasted. That would be a shame.


Recipe adapted from Martha Day Baking, Lorenz Books