White Chocolate Easter Mud Cake

Apart from Easter Bunny and chocolate eggs, I always enjoy the celebration of Easter.  Every year kids school follows the christian tradition making pan cake for Lent, 40 days before Easter, to begin the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus.  They have mass on Ash Wednesday, the Father would made a cross onto everyone's forehand with ash and the church puts up a large cross laid with purple cloth to represent Jesus, the Royal King.  We brought palm leaves for assembly for Palm Sunday to mark Jesus entered Jerusalem and have another mass for Easter Friday before the school breaks.  The bigger kids would visit their buddies from lower grade and give them some Easter eggs for presents.  At home, kids will have Easter Bunny visiting them on Saturday night and they will find some eggs in their basket on Sunday morning.   So, a white mud cake would be a good idea to celebration this festival, don't you think?  Happy Easter!

White Chocolate Easter Mud Cake

180g white cooking chocolate, break into pieces
300g butter, chopped
2 1/4 cups caster chopped (cut down to 2 cups if you don't want it too sweet)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/3 cup plain flour
1 1/3 cup self-raising flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 eggs, beaten

white chocolate ganache
1/2 cup cream
360g white chocolate, break into pieces

Decoration
100g dark cooking chocolate
a block of milk cooking chocolate
Easter eggs
hundred thousands

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160c/140c fan forced.  Line a deep 22cm round cake pan with baking paper.
2. Stir chocolate, butter, sugar and milk in a large saucepan over low heat until smooth, let cool for 15 minutes.
3. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, make a well in the middle, whisk in 1/3 of the egg and 1/3 of the chocolate mixture.  Then repeat the process for the rest of the egg and chocolate mixture and add in vanilla essence.  Remove any lumps if possible.
4. Pour mixture into pan and bake for 2 hours.  Turn the cake onto the cake rake after 5 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, make white chocolate ganache.  Bring cream to the boil in a small saucepan, remove from heat; add chocolate and stir until smooth.  Refrigerate and stir occasionally until spreadable. It takes about 30 minutes.
6. When the cake is completely cooled, cut the top bit with a sharp knife to get a flat top.  Spread the ganache around the side and top of the cake.
7. For decoration, melt dark chocolate in a microwave safe bowl on medium heat for 40 seconds, repeat the process until the chocolate melted.  Spread the chocolate onto a piece of baking paper.  Refrigerate until the chocolate is set, then use a small round cutter to cut a few chocolate rounds.  Decorate the rounds on the edge of the cake.  You may have to put the chocolate into the fridge to harden again.
8. Use a vegetable peeler, peel the block of milk chocolate from the short edge.  Curl the chocolate strips into rounds and decorate on top of the cake.  Place the Easter eggs inside of the chocolate ring and decorate it with some little chicken.

Note:  This cake is very heavy as it is made with such an amount of butter, sugar and chocolate.  Only a small serve will satisfy your sweet tooth.  It will turn hard if you keep it in the fridge, leave it out at room temperature for about 15 minutes or wait till the cake is soft enough to serve.