White Chocolate Maple Mud Cake

As you may know, if you are a regular Cakeyboi visitor, I am a huge fan of the Eurovision Song Contest.

It was the 2015 contest live from Vienna last Saturday and as custom dictates, Disneyboi and I travelled up the glens of Scotland to visit our friend Ewan for our annual Eurovision shindig.

image source

It was a disappointing year for the UK. We came fourth from the bottom, with only 5 points. We shouldn’t have been surprised though. Nobody really liked the Potato Waffle song when it was foisted upon us (whatever did happen to ‘A Song for Europe’?) and everyone expected us not to win before it even started. People’s hopes were only pinned on getting to the left hand side of the scoreboard!

Personally, I think it is shocking that we are entering a song that we know won’t win, where is our fighting spirit? We should be taking the contest seriously if we are still to participate and should only enter songs that a) the majority of the public like and b) we think may have a chance of winning (if politics were not part of it).

Having said that political voting wasn’t as prevalent as it has been in previous years and lots of ‘douze point’ were not going to neighbouring countries for a pleasant change. Still, that did nothing for the UK’s chances.

However, I digress. Cake, that’s why we are all here. And White Chocolate Maple Mud Cake was the order of the evening this year. I usually make a cake decorated with the flag of the hosting country, but as this was the contest’s 60^th birthday (which I still don’t understand as it started in 1956) I wanted to do something a little bit special.

Back when I was young, the contest had a blue logo, the word Eurovision in a circle on a blue background with the BBC logo in the middle. I still think of that as the logo and chose to put that on the cake. Now, I couldn’t create that from some bits of fruit or sweets, as I normally do for a flag cake. Instead, I purchased a cake topper online, uploading the photo myself. The website www.topyourcake.co.uk provided very fast service and I received the topper in just a couple of days.

I must apologise for the lack of and quality of the photos as these were all done in rather a rush!!

I made the cake with the flavours of maple and white chocolate and decorated the cake with the topper being the crowning glory. I also had a sound chip which I recorded the Eurovision ‘theme’ on to and some sparklers. It was a very camp cake, for a very camp affair. I actually recorded it on video which you can see below and over on the Cakeyboi YouTube page (when I get that up and running!!).

The cake, adapted from Lucy Young’s website, had a subtle creamy flavour from the white chocolate and the maple wasn’t overly maple if you know what I mean. Folk who aren’t into the syrup will be able to enjoy this also. The frosting was made from whipped cream and cream cheese.

I added melted white chocolate into the mix and as it hit the cold cream, the chocolate solidified into wee chips. When you bit into the decorated cake you got little pieces of white chocolate throughout – delicious. You may just spot that in the photo below...

It was a thick, unctuous frosting which is why I called it mud cake!  Here’s how I made it...

White Chocolate Maple Mud Cake

White chocolate and maple flavoured cake
with white chocolate creamy frosting

Cuisine:	Dessert	Category:	Cake	Yields:	1 rectangle cake
Prep Time:	30 Mins	Cook Time:	30 Mins	Total Time:	1 Hr

 

Cake Ingredients

• 100 grams white chocolate, melted
• 175 grams, unsalted butter, softened
• 100 grams caster sugar
• 3 medium eggs
• 300 grams self-raising flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 175 grams Grade A maple syrup
• 150 ml milk

 

Frosting Ingredients

• 225 grams full-fat cream cheese
• 500 ml double cream
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 150 grams, white chocolate, melted

Instructions

1. Melt your white chocolate in the microwave, start with 30 seconds a give a good stir. Follow with 10 second bursts until it is fully molten. Allow to cool.
2. Grease a 9”x13 cake tin and line with greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 180C.
3. Cream together the butter and 175 grams sugar until pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat in, followed by the maple syrup.
4. Sift in the flour and baking powder and stir this in, followed by the milk. Pour the batter into the cake tin and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean from the centre. Allow to cool completely.
5. Make the frosting, starting by melting the white chocolate and allowing to cool fully. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the cream cheese until softened. Change to the whisk attachment and pour in the cream. Beat until thickened. Add the sugar and vanilla and stir through by hand. Add the melted white chocolate and stir in by hand also.
6. Split the cake into two and sandwich together with a third of the frosting. Spread the remaining frosting over the cake. Allow to chill for a couple of hours before serving. Keep refrigerated if you have any left over.