I’ve got a special bake for you this week – The past few Bakes of the Week have been quick, easy bakes – Tasty and handy to know but not exactly WOW! Well look no further, here’s full baking luxury for you – and its residing in my fridge! Mr C has just described it as ‘the Mother of all cakes’.
Mississippi Mud Cake is a dense, rich cake so Italian Meringue Buttercream goes perfectly with it. I like to balance the light, fluffy buttercream – This is a cake that can take lots of filling but you don’t need a heavy buttery filling. Even though this buttercream uses 500g of butter, it is still light and airy.
I seem to have an abundance of Wholemeal flour so used a good chunk inside this cake – Raspberries are at the end of their best at the moment too, so I got a bargain with these 2 punnets.
Mississippi Mud Cake with Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream
Print recipe
| Serves | 8+ |
| Prep time | 1 hour, 20 minutes |
| Cook time | 45 minutes |
| Total time | 2 hours, 5 minutes |
| Meal type | Dessert, Snack |
| Misc | Child Friendly, Serve Cold |
| Occasion | Birthday Party, Casual Party, Valentines day |
Ingredients
- 400g Soft Dark Brown Sugar
- 2 Medium Eggs
- 60g Cocoa Powder
- 2 teaspoons Strong Instant Coffee Granules (Dissolved in 200ml of recently boiled hot water - Allow to cool for 5-10 minutes before adding to the cake mixture)
- 2 tablespoons Vanilla Extract (+ 1 teaspoon for Buttercream)
- 120g Wholemeal Flour
- 200g Self Raising Flour
- 200ml Milk
- 5 Egg Whites
- 500g Very Soft Butter
- 100ml Cold Water
- 300g Caster Sugar
- 2 Punnets Raspberries
Directions
| Mississippi Mud Cake | |
| 1. | |
| Preheat the oven to 170C and line 3 x 8" Cake tins | |
| 2. | |
| Whisk together the Dark Brown Sugar and the 2 whole eggs until they become paler and fluffy. | |
| 3. | |
| Add in the cocoa - When the coffee/water mix has cooled sufficiently, add this whilst still mixing | |
| 4. | |
| Alternate adding 1 tbsp of the flours and a small drizzle of milk until all flour and milk is added | |
| 5. | |
| Continue to whisk on a medium setting for 20 seconds then distribute evenly between the 3 tins and bake for 25 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Up to this stage can be done up to 3 days in advance - this is the sort of cake that can take standing (wrapped in foil) If you can wait that long! | |
| Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream | |
| 6. | |
| Whisk the 5 egg whites until they achieve stiff peaks and very slowly add 50g of the caster sugar a very tiny amount at a time | |
| 7. | |
| In a small pan, add the remaining 250g of caster sugar and 100ml of water. Heat on a slow heat and whisk until the caster sugar has just dissolved. Stop whisking and speed the heat up to high. Brush down the sides of the pan once with a wet pastry brush to stop sugar crystals from appearing and burning | |
| 8. | |
| You are then waiting for the sugar/water mixture to reach 121C (use a sugar thermometer) As soon as it does, dip the pan into a large pan of cold water and remove immediately. Wipe down the base of the pan - you don't want any excess water dripping into the meringue mixture | |
| 9. | |
| Add a thin but steady stream of sugar/water mix into the egg white mixture, whilst mixing on a medium-high setting | |
| 10. | |
| Once it has all been added, keep mixing on a medium setting until the sides of the bowl start to feel cooler | |
| 11. | |
| Add tablespoons of the butter at a time whilst still whisking - This bit freaks me out as I always think it will curdle but it doesn't | |
| 12. | |
| Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the remaining vanilla extract | |
| 13. | |
| Mush one punnet of raspberries with a fork (you can blitz in a blender but I prefer some texture from the raspberries) and stir into the meringue mix. | |
| 14. | |
| Divide into 4 equal parts and spread between each layer of cake - Decorate as you wish on top and add the other punnet of raspberries | |
| 15. | |
| Refrigerate for 2 hours and eat | |
A small but perfectly formed number of Bake of the Week entries last week – That’s what happens when the host accidentally closes the linky early! Oops. Apologies to anyone who wanted to take part – I also had huge technical problems on the blog last week again that deleted links from previous Bakes of the Week. Happy to say all fixed now. I’m fiercely proud that everyone who takes part in Bake of the Week gets their fair share of promotion – I link to all entries in the roundup and comment (eventually), pin, Google+ & tweet every single one too. Takes ages but that’s why we do it?
NEW! ALL RECIPES ARE NOW ADDED TO YUMMLY AND STUMBLEUPON!
There was one entry that really got my attention – Domestic Gothess’ incredible Chocolate & Raspberry Battenberg – I’d spotted this on my travels around my favourite blogs even before it was entered. Perfectly baked and amazing photography as ever!
1. Celebrating National Cupcake Week with Espresso martini Cupcakes is Domestic Gothess. I’m really intrigued to try her cooked flour frosting – Read her post for more details.
2. Fair play to Baking Queen 74 for doing such a marvellous job of her Cherry & Vanilla Charlotte Russe – True persistence meant her bake took her an entire day. Magnificent results though! This GBBO has got a lot to answer for!
3. A thought provoking post about the use of Palm Oil from My Little Italian Kitchen and some pretty Shortbread Chocolate Cookies to go with it. Once again, I am so glad we cut down on the amount of shop bought biscuits we consume in our house.
Feel free to add up to 3 entries (old bakes are fine as long as they include the badge below) If you have chance it would be great if you could visit some of the other entries – Let them know how you found them by #Bakeoftheweek. There’s no theme as usual – Savoury, Sweet, Small, Large, Fruity, chocolatey, Biscuits, Bread, Pies, Oven Bakes & Slow Cookers all welcome!
Right, so lets spread the word and get Bake of the Week busy again! I promise no mishaps with the linky this week 🙂 You are welcome to join in if you are part of other baking groups – There’s plenty of baking love to share around!
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This cake is gorgeous!!
Aw thank you! What a lovely comment x
Ooooh this looks absolutely delightful. The Raspberry Italian Meringue Buttercream looks delicious. I love raspberries!
Thanks for sharing.
Laura x
This cake looks awesome!!
This looks and sounds amazing, I have never made the buttercream before, might be time to give it a go x
With a name like Mississippi mud cake, you sure know how to make an expat girl feel homesick! Will def have to give this a go and bring a bit of the States to the UK!
#bloggingmumsclub
What a stunning cake Helen – I’ve never been brave enough to try Italian meringue buttercream but you’ve inspired me to give it a try! A lovely selection of entries to Bake of the Week – must remember to enter next time I’m baking.
This is such an AMAZING cake Helen!!
I’ll bet each bite is like heaven 🙂 I love raspberry but unfortunately it’s very hard to get it here
Thanks for the party and for sharing this wonderful cake
Wow what a delicious cake Helen, so tasty. Look forward to linking up shortly
All of my favourite things in one cake! Love meringue buttercream too 🙂
Italian meringue is great!! I really like your cake and looks so stunning too. Very nice with the raspberries 🙂
Wow, this cake is amazing
I’m not sure if I’ve ever had Italian meringue buttercream, it looks scrumptious!!
Oh my gosh you’ve made me so hungry with this post! I love raspberries and this looks like an amazing way to enjoy them. When I’ve sorted my new oven out I’ll have to try this recipe x
I am so proud of you! You nailed the Italian meringue. It looks soooo good…. Definitely will follow your instructions on how to make it, because most of the times I fail with anythinkg that has to do with whipped eggs! he he he
What a gorgeous cake! I really love Italian meringue buttercream. It’s decadent and delicious but only for special occasions or my butt would be the size of a Volkswagen.
This cake is beautiful. I love the naked cake approach. Plus Mississippi Mud and Raspberry, what a lovely combination. I’ve never made Italian Meringue Buttercream before but that is on my never ending bake list. In fact I’ve never made Mississippi Mud Cake either, but now that I see how awesome it looks I am also going to have to add that to my bake list. Wow, my bake list is getting long! 😉 Thank you so much for sharing. Pinned!
Wow – chocolate, raspberry, meringue – so many of my favorites in this one. Looks delicious!
Oooh this looks delicious. I’ve tried making Italian meringue buttercream once before but I think the sugar wasn’t hot enough (I don’t have a digital thermometer – yet!) so it wasn’t anywhere as good as the one you’ve made.
Angela x
mmmm that looks amazing Helen – so many elements i love all in one great looking dessert cake – yum! x
3 things I love about this (besides the chocolate!): 3 layers, no icing on the sides, and raspberries. I think this will need to be my husband’s birthday cake this year 🙂
What a beautiful dessert! The cake itself looks so moist and light, but the buttercream looks heavenly! I wish I could indulge in desserts like this more often! xo, Catherine
Great photos! I would like to eat this whole cake, please and thank you. 🙂
Very beautiful cake!! If you don’t like raspberries (me) what other fruit would you substitute it with?
Hi Evi – How do you cope without raspberries?! I think a tarty fruit goes best with this recipe – Something like blackberries, blueberries or cranberries? Let me know what you try and how it goes x