Hands down Mud cake is my favorite chocolate cake of my entire lifetime.
I acquired this recipe way back as a pastry chef in my first job out of school
Once I tried it I knew why it was their signature cake
It brought new meaning to the phrase “sells like hot cakes”
Super rich, dense chocolate bundt cake that borders on brownie-like.
Chocolate that is enhanced by the addition of coffee and the whiskey takes this recipe to a level you have never experienced!
I know what some people are going to ask and that is, “can I leave out the whiskey? And the coffee?”
Well yes, I suppose you can; but don’t blame me if your experience with this cake is just “meh”
I really recommend to follow the ingredients as listed
But I get it, some of you don’t do alcohol in any way shape or form.
In that case you can replace the whiskey with more coffee, and if you don’t do coffee either? Ay ay ay, just use water 🙁
Another question I know I’ll get is, “What can I use instead of bourbon?”
Because let’s face it, not everyone has a bottle of Jameson laying around.
Rum can be a suitable substitution, but I really recommend the whiskey.
As you can see I’ve decorated my finished cake with a sugar glaze in the colors of fall.
I was wishing it was Thanksgiving tomorrow because well, my dessert platter is ready!
The sugar glaze is optional of course, as the original recipe actually used just ganache
You are going to love the moistness of this cake and the fact that it can be stored at room temperature for at least 4 days is a plus in my book
I do think this cake gets better after the first day and it is best served room temperature, however I kind of love the cold texture of this cake!
It reminded me a a thick dense fudge brownie!
Ok enough of me gabbing about this cake, just make it!
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL YOUTUBE VIDEO FOR HOW TO MAKE THIS CAKE

Mississippi Mud Cake
For more recipes like this one, click the links below!
- Mini Chocolate Bundt Cakes
- Raspberry Truffle Cake
- Fudge Brownies
Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cake
For the chocolate glaze combine 4 Tbs coconut oil witih 5 Tbs cocoa powder and 1½ Tbs agave, heat stirring constantly over a low heat
For the colored glaze: 2 cups of confectioners sugar with 2-3 Tablespoons of almond milk makes a very pourable glaze (just be sure the cake is 100% cooled before you do it) add color to your liking
- Vegan Butter or Coconut Oil 8Tablespoons (113g)
- Vegan Semi Sweet Chocolate 3ounces (85g)
- Unsweetened Applesauce 2 Tablespoons
- Light Brown Sugar ½ cup (105g)
- Granulated Sugar ½ cup (100g)
- Flax Meal 2 Tablespoons (16g)
- Warm Water 5 Tablespoons (75ml)
- Vanilla Extract 2 teaspoons (10ml)
- Whiskey 2 Tablespoons (30ml)
- Strong Brewed Coffee ½ cup (120ml)
- *Or do what I did and use 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules and hot water
- All Purpose Flour 1 cup + 1 Tablespoon (133g)
- Natural Cocoa Powder 3 Tablespoons (30g)
- Baking Soda ½ teaspoon
- Baking Powder ¼ teaspoon
- Salt ¼ teaspoon
- Combine the flax meal with the warm water and let stand to thicken about 10 minutes
- Melt the vegan butter or coconut oil with the chocolate over a low heat stirring constantly
- Sift together half of the sugar(s) with the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa powder
- In a mixing bowl combine the other half of the sugar(s) with the flax paste, applesauce, vanilla extract, coffee and whiskey, mix well.
- Add the melted chocolate and butter and mix well.
- Add the sifted dry ingredients a heaping spoonful at a time while mixing on low until it is all incorporated
- Pour into the prepared bundt pan and bake in a preheated 375° F oven for 15 minutes then turn the oven temperature down to 350°F for another 20 minutes
- The cake will rise a lot and then fall slightly as it nears the end of bake time and when you insert a a toothpick into the center it will come out clean, you will know it's done
- Cool completely and then ice with sugar glaze as I mentioned in the above text.
For longer storage refrigerate for up to 10 days wrapped well or freeze (un-iced) for up to 2 months
UPDATE: I have to admit that I had a lot of disasters with this recipe.
First it wouldn’t come out of the pan because #1 Bundt pans are impossible and #2 I was lazy and didn’t make a batch of my Professional Bakery Pan Grease which ensures I will have a great release every time, and I used coconut oil spray instead.
But I always try to make my failures into successes and with my stupid stuck broken cake, the Whiskey Mud Ball was born!
A perfect way to fill up the center of my bundt cake and the presentation just went from ‘Wow!” to “WHOA!!!!”
Of course I’m hoping you won’t have a major fail like me, but that also means you won’t have any whiskey balls to fill up your center! LOL
So if you want to make the bourbon balls anyway, here is the recipe!
Use any chocolate cake of your choice, or just make this Mississippi Mud Cake again
- 1 destroyed cake that didn't come out of the pan! 🙁
- *I used mine which was from a 6-cup capacity bundt pan and about ¾ of it was salvageable
- Whiskey or Rum 2-3 tablespoons or to taste
- Vegan White Chocolate 8 ounces (226g)
- In a large mixing bowl, break up the destroyed cake more than it already is!
- Add the alcohol while mixing to form a "dough" like consistency that is firm and scoop-able but not super liquid and falling apart. You may have to adjust the amount of alcohol you are adding to get a good consistency. Traditional rum balls are not wet, but dense like a fudge brownie
- Scoop them into balls and then roll the balls to form a nicer round shape.
- Dip them in melted Vegan White Chocolate
Hi. If I want to make this with eggs, how many would I need?
Hi Kim the original recipes are still at GretchensBakery.com
Thanks so much! 🙂
Hello Gretchen! Firstly I wanted to thank you for your amazing vegan recipes. I commented recently on YouTube and you were so kind to reply about me being in the same situation you were on the fence. I create bespoke Wedding Cakes and do veggie and vegan. I was veggie for 21 years before becoming vegan and now really don’t like using eggs and butter however haven’t got the vegan client base to change as I do equally have to provide a roof over my head. It’s a really confusing situation for me! My focus for 2018 is to experiment with new flavours and really push the vegan cakes and attend vegan fairs etc to gain more vegan customers.
Anyway my best selling chocolate mud/fudge type cake I am struggling to veganize it. Every other chocolate cake recipe I seem to find is just a cocoa sponge and so this has given me a bit of hope and will try this recipe soon!! I hope I can someone how veganize my current cake but it’s proving hard with the amount of eggs! 🙁 I can easily change the butter to marg and it has sour cream in it too so thought maybe just swap for soya yogurt but the eggs is a bummer especially when needing to bake 12″ rounds!! Looking forward to seeing more of your vegan recipes and good luck xxxx
Hi Lucie, yes I remember our conversation 🙂
I think you will like this vegan mud cake, it is a direct spin off from my original recipe, it is very dense almost fudgy and the vegan version was almost identical!
Hi Gretchen,
Love your website! I notice this recipe lists exactly the same quantities as your chocolate bundt cake for Valentine’s day but that cake calls for a 12 cup capacity pan and this one a six cup. Is this correct?
Do you have any advice about turning this into a round layer cake? Thank you!
Yikes thank you for catching that! It is a 6 cup recipe! You can definitely bake into cake layers, No matter what size pan you use, just fill pans half full (with parchment paper & pan grease) bake same temp 350F check at around 20 minutes to gauge how much longer
For a birthday cake…I doubled the recipe and made a two layer cake. Frosted with your fudge icing and drizzled chocolate ganache on the top. Very sweet, moist and delish.Fiance claims it’s the best cake he’s ever tasted.
Thanks so much for sharing your talent and expertise, Gretchen.
Thanks For Sharing this Amazing Recipe. My Family Loved It. I will be sharing this Recipe with my Friends. Hope They will like it.