(Smokey) Caramel Mud Cake

Yesterday was our tenth wedding anniversary.  We felt we definitely needed a bit of fuss - and some cake!

There is no oven in the van (or any cooking facilities) so I chef outside using our hotplates and a large electric frypan.

According to Google it is possible to bake a cake in an electric frypan but I haven't yet tested the theory.

Instead I chose to use one of our Cobb Cookers.

Our wedding cake was a chocolate mud cake, baked by us as a group effort.  I adapted that same recipe to make a caramel version.

White chocolate buttons and brown sugar were used and the result was quite good, albeit a bit smokey from extended time on the Cobb Cooker (using BBQ charcoal rather than heat beads). The smoked flavour wasn't completely unpleasant but I'll use heat beads next time I'm baking!

This is the modified recipe:

250g chopped butter
180g white chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup hot water
1 1/4 cups plain flour
1/4 cup SR flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
dash of vanilla

Preheat oven to moderately low 160 deg. Grease a deep 23cm round pan with butter and line the base with baking paper. (I used a heavy pan and three layers of baking paper to offer the cake base more protection during cooking).

Place butter, 180g chocolate, sugar and hot water in a pan. Stir over moderate heat until melted. Allow to cool.  Add remaining ingredients to cooled mixture. Stir until they're thoroughly combined.

Pour into pan and bake 1 hr 15 min to 1 hr 25 min - or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Allow to stand 5 in before turning onto a wire rack to cool.

I checked the cake every half hour and added more charcoal during cooking.  The cooking time was longer than stated above, which I expected - in total a bit over two hours.