Toblerone mud cakes & raspberry compote

In my mind, any good menu ends in chocolate.  I can barely go 24 hours without a hit of the dark stuff and I am continually perplexed as to why someone hasn’t turned the chocolate advent calendar into a year round phenomenon. That’s not to say I’m not fussy when it comes to how I take my chocolate. Sometimes I want a bit of cake that is moist rather than sticky, tender rather than oozing, and a chocolate content that is restrained rather than I-must-lie-down-on-the-couch.

I use the term "mud" loosely here – the consistency is denser than sponge but more forgiving than your typical mudcake. The addition of Toblerone sees it riddled with lovely bits and blobs of nougat. And served warm, little rivulets of cream, raspberry compote, and chocolate crumbs gather at the bottom of your plate, acting like some kind of hedonistic grand finale.

Toblerone mud cakes

Ingredients

375g caster sugar

180ml milk

100ml thin cream

250g butter, room temperature, coarsely chopped

290g Toblerone, finely chopped

260g plain flour, sifted

50g cocoa powder, sifted

Pinch baking powder, sifted

2 eggs, lightly whisked

Raspberry compote

250g raspberries

80g icing sugar

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

Thickened cream to serve

Method

Preheat the oven to 175C. Butter and line 10 x 250ml capacity moulds and set aside.

Combine the sugar, milk, cream, butter and chocolate in a bowl and place the bowl over a pot of simmering water and stir until smooth. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature. Add the sifted flour, cocoa and baking powder to the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Add the eggs and stir to combine. Pour the mixture into the moulds, filling them three-quarters full and bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool in the moulds before turning out.

For the raspberry compote, plop the raspberries, sugar and vanilla seeds in a saucepan. Place on low heat and gently break up with a fork. You want to release the juices and get a sticky jam kind of consistency, being careful not to break up the fruit too much.

Serve warm with a dollop of cream and a drizzle of the raspberry compote.