Weekly Bake-Off: Mississippi Mud Pie

Do you love baking and are you a fan of Mary Berry? Then perhaps you should check out the Weekly Bake-Off blog. I recently discovered the Weekly Bake-Off where the aim is to work through all one hundred recipes in Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes, one per week.

The recipe is set by the host every Monday and then should you take on the challenge a picture of your efforts should be tweeted by the end of the week before all resulting pictures are rounded up on the blog at the end of the week.

The recipe this week was Mississippi Mud Pie! I've never made it before so was a little apprehensive as to what it would be like but in fact it turned out quite well. I followed the recipe faithfully, it called for 39% cocoa plain chocolate which I couldn't seem to find but when I googled it... turns out this is Bourneville! However, were I to make this again I think I would go for something a lot more chocolatey as the taste test panel felt that although quite tasty, it didn't quite deliver that chocolate intensity that you might expect and that it was not quite chocolatey enough. They also described the texture as half way between a mouse (or a mousse even!) and a torte.

When cooking the sides puffed up massively above the height of the tin which was quite alarming when the middle stayed put...however, don't panic, when you take it out of the oven it cools in the tin and sinks back down to level again!

Overall, I enjoyed the bake and will definitely be joining in with the Weekly Bake-Off again. Why not give it a go as it's a great way to widen your repetoire and Mary Berry's recipe book is currently only £4 on Amazon... a bargain. Happy baking!

For the crust:

• 100g crushed digestive biscuits ( I blitzed mine in a mini food processor)
• 50g butter, melted
• 25g demerara sugar

For the filling:

• 200g plain chocolate (39% cocoa solids)
• 100g butter
• 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
• 1 tbsp boiling water
• 300ml single cream
• 175g dark muscovado sugar
• 6 large eggs, beaten

Grease a 20cm springform tin and heat the oven to 180c/Fan 160c/Gas 4. First make the base by mising together, the biscuits, the melted butter and the demerara. Press the biscuit mixture in to the base of the tin in a even layer.

For the filling, break the chocolate in to pieces and then gently heat it in a pan with the butter, coffee powder and boiling water until completed melted. Once ready remove from the heat and then beat in the cream, sugar and eggs. The prepared mixture is then poured in to the tin over the biscuit base. Bake in the oven for around 1 hour and 15 minutes or until set. Leave to cool in the tin, before removing and serving with whipped cream and a dusting of icing sugar.

* Adapted from Mary Berry's 100 Cakes and Bakes (My Kitchen)