This mudcake recipe is enjoyed by people who don’t eat sugar, but if you really have a sweet tooth, you will find it bitter.

The recipe is taken from an e-book, Sweet, by Alice Nicholls.

Ingredients for cake

200 g raw chocolate or 90% dark chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup raw cacao powder, sifted

2/3 cup solid coconut oil

2 tsp rice malt syrup

6 eggs at room temperature, separated

1 1/2 cups hazelnut meal

Ingredients for ganache

1 cup coconut cream

2 tbls raw cacao powder, sifted

1 tsp rice malt syrup

1. Preheat oven to 170°C (less for a fan forced oven). Brush a deep round 20 cm cake pan with melted butter and line the base with baking paper. Use a solid or silicone cake pan, not a springform tin.
2. Combine the coconut oil, chocolate and raw cacao powder in a medium heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir until smooth and well combined. Remove the bowl from the pot and set aside for 10 minutes or until the mixture is lukewarm.
3. In a large bowl, use electric beaters to whisk the egg yolks and the rice malt syrup until thick and creamy. Add the chocolate mixture and whisk until well combined. Add the hazelnut meal and again whisk until well combined.
4. Place eggwhites in a clean dry bowl and using electric beaters, beat until soft peaks form. Using a large metal spoon, stir one third of the eggwhites into the chocolate mixture. Gently fold remaining eggwhite through the chocolate mixture.
5. Pour the mixture into the prepared cake pan and bake for 30 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and leave in pan to cool.
7. To make the ganache, combine the raw cacao powder, rice malt syrup and coconut cream in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water, stirring until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. Place in the fridge to thicken the ganache.
8. Spread the ganache over the cooled cake.
9. Use a warm knife to cut the cake cleanly.
10. Store the cake in the fridge.

Tips

1. The original recipe says to cook for one hour, but I have always found 30 minutes sufficient cooking time.
2. When the cake comes out of the oven it seems to be swimming in oil, but as soon as the cake is out of the oven, the oil is reabsorbed. This is why you can’t use a springform tin – the loss of oil makes the cake dry.