...and you know Christmas has been and gone, when....

...your snacks take on a distinctly Festive flavour...

(that's a homemade (can you tell?) Gingerbread woman, and a bought mini-Panettone, and Stollen.)

You know Christmas is only a few days away, when...

...there are huge quantities of butter and eggs out on the bench, getting to a nice room temperature....

Best. Mudcake. *Ever*

Okay, here's the recipe for the wonderful mudcake I made recently, from the book I borrowed from the Bookmobile.
It lasted perfectly for over a week, and would have lasted even longer I daresay, had it not been so delicious and edible....

(Taken from The Australian Women's Weekly Cook: How to Cook Absolutely Everything, published 2006)

I'll write it out as I did it, rather than copy the recipe out verbatim...

Mud Cake
250gm Unsalted butter, chopped
200gm White chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 1/4 cups Brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 cups Water
2 cups Plain flour
2/3 cup SR flour
1 tsp Vanilla
3 Eggs, lightly beaten

Combine butter, chocolate, brown sugar, and water in a saucepan.

Stir over low heat until mixture is smooth.

Leave to cool for 15 minutes- you can decant it into a bowl for this purpose, if you wish.












Whisk in sifted flours.

Make a smiley face with your eggs.

Beat them lightly.
Add to mix.

Add vanilla.

It will look very bubbly/lumpy- that's okay!

Pour into a lined cake tin.















Bake at 150C (130C if fan forced) for about two hours. Cake is ready when a skewer comes out cleanly.

The cake will have a very thick sugary crust, which will sound hollow when tapped.





 

Leave in tin for 10 minutes, then remove from tin and leave to cool on a wire rack for an hour or two.













While you wait, make the frosting (or icing, whichever term you prefer)

Frosting

125gm Butter, chopped
1 cup Brown sugar, firmly packed
1 1/2 cups Icing sugar, sifted

(Now personally, I added maple syrup to the frosting for flavour as I found it didn't taste like caramel at all, just a very sickly sweet buttery sugar taste. If you have suggestions for caramel-i-fying the frosting, I'd love to hear them!)

Melt butter in small saucepan. Stir in brown sugar and milk, bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 3 minutes.

Let cool for 5 minutes.

Gradually stir in icing sugar until frosting is of a spreadable consistency. (I put it in the fridge for a while to help it thicken, as it wasn't as firm as I would have liked)

Ice cake, being as decorative as you wish.

In the end I decided to do half smooth, half fluffy.














Put in fridge to harden the frosting.

Eat.

This is a very dense, rich cake, quite sweet.
Take advice from an experienced mudcake eater- cut very thin wedges!
It tastes better this way, and also means you won't feel sick. And can go back for seconds.

It will last for a week, easily.

If you don't eat it all before then.