Heavy Chocolate Mud Cake (My Style)

Dad's 60th birthday cake 

- Heavy Chocolate Mud Cake (My Style) 

7 inches round removable bottom cake tin

INGREDIENTS

[Chocolate cake base] 

A

4 egg yolks

20g sugar

60g Canola cooking oil 

60g milk (liquid) 

80g low protein flour (cake flour) 

15g cocoa powder 

1 teaspoon of Vanilla Essence 

B

4 egg whites

50g sugar

1/4 cream of tartar (I used approximately 1 teaspoon of Apple Cider Vinegar)

[Chocolate ganache] 

250g 52% Beryl dark chocolate  

126g whipping cream 

20g butter 

[Filing and Decoration] 

100g of pre-roasted walnuts and sunflower seeds

Honey 

STEPS

1. [Preparing Cake] Whip egg yolk and sugar. Add in milk, Vanilla essence and oil. Mix well. Add in sieved flour and cocoa powder. Mix well to form the egg yolk batter. 
2. Whip egg whites till huge bubbles are formed. Add in vinegar. Add in sugar in 1/3 proportion at each time. Whip the egg whites till stiff peak (sharp pointy edge). Your egg white batter is done. 
3. Scoop 1/3 of egg white batter into the egg yolk batter and fold in using the scrape and fold method with a whisk/spatula. Continue mixing everything carefully and slowly until the cake batter is formed. 
4. Pour the cake batter into the cake tin. Give a few knocks on the table before inserting it to be baked in a preheated oven at the bottom rack 140 degree Celsius with bottom fire only for 20 minutes. Then, switch the fire mode to top and bottom fire and continue baking for another 10 minutes. Change the temperature to 150-160 degree Celsius and continue baking for another 30-40 minutes until completely cooked. 
5. Overturn the cake on a cooling rack and let it cool before you take out the mold from the cake. 
6. Slice the cake into 3 layers. 
7. [Prepare chocolate ganache] Melt all ingredients for chocolate ganache using double boil method. When 3/4 of the chocolate is melted, switch off the fire (use low-fire). The remaining heat will melt the chocolate completely on its own. This is important so not to over-heat your chocolate. Leave cool to be used later. 
8. [Assembling the cake] Place the first layer of cake on the cake board. Apply 1/3 to make a layer of slightly thicken (still kind of watery but won't slip off everywhere) chocolate ganache. Sprinkle walnuts and sunflower seeds (pre-roasted). Place the second layer of cake. Repeat with chocolate ganache spread and nuts sprinkle. Place the third (last) layer of the cake and coat the whole cake with the remaining ganache. Top with remaining walnuts and sunflower seeds as decoration. 
9. Chill the cake in the fridge for a couple of hours. 
10. [Before serving] If you are serving this cake for people who have sweet tooth, it is better to drizzle some honey on top of the nuts before serving. This helps to give your cake a glossy shiny effect, giving a mouth-watering sensation. You can omit this if you prefer really bitter sweet kind of chocolate. 

It isn't captured close enough but I hope you can see how generous I was with the sprinkle of nuts - This is a must threat for people who love chocolate and a lot of nuts. 

Also, not to forget that this is really one of the easiest decorative cakes I've ever come up with. It took only 3 hours to complete the whole cake.