Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes with Orange Sabayon

Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes with Sabayon - decadent and dairy free!

We enjoyed these little cakes for afternoon tea the other day.  I've been wanting to try steaming chocolate mudcakes in the Thermomix Varoma, and they worked really well, turning out lovely and moist, although they cracked open a bit - I just turned them upside down.  ;)  I think they could've done with a little more chocolate though (being the chocoholic that I am!!), so next time I think I'd put in some chunks of 70% cocoa chocolate.  I had some egg yolks in the fridge that needed using up, so I made sabayon too, and they tasted delightful together!  I use fresh orange juice in my sabayon instead of rum, and I use Rapadura instead of sugar, which gives it a lovely, rich flavour.  The cakes were still hot when we drizzled the sabayon over, so it kind of soaked in, but it still tasted delicious.

I got the idea for this mudcake recipe from the 'Budget Busters' Thermomix cookbook, but I've added a few of my own tweaks (of course!).  I also halved the recipe so it would fit in my Varoma in silicon cupcake cups, making fourteen to sixteen cupcakes, depending on the size of your silicon cups.

Steamed Chocolate Mudcakes

1.  Place all the ingredients into the Thermomix bowl in the order listed and beat for 30 seconds on speed 6; scrape down sides of bowl and beat for a further 10 seconds on speed 6.

- 40g extra virgin macadamia oil (or grapeseed oil)

- 200g cool water

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- 20g balsamic vinegar

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 100g Rapadura

- 25g honey

- 260g spelt flour or gluten free plain flour

- 30g cacao powder (or cocoa)

- pinch sea salt

Stir in some dark chocolate chunks or chips if you like.

2.  Pour into ungreased silicon cupcake cups (only fill a little over half way!) and place in the two layers of the Varoma.  Pour water into the Thermomix bowl to just above the blades (not hot water), place lid and Varoma on top, and cook on Varoma temperature, 20 minutes, speed 2.  (Mine were filled a bit too full, as you can see below!)  Remove lid and set aside while you make the sabayon.  (Or you could make a chocolate sauce or vanilla custard to drizzle over instead.)

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Sabayon

1.  Make sure the Thermomix bowl is clean and dry.  Place nutmeg in bowl and grind for 10 seconds on speed 9.  Remove from bowl and set aside.

- 1 whole nutmeg

(Of course, you can use pre-ground nutmeg, but you'll get more flavour if you grind your own!)

2.  Mill the Rapadura for 20 seconds on speed 9, until fine:

- 80g Rapadura

3.  Add remaining ingredients to Thermomix bowl and cook for 8 minutes at 80 degrees, speed 4.  (You can use the butterfly if you like - it makes it lighter and fluffier.)

- 1 tsp ground nutmeg

- 5 egg yolks

- 5 tblspns fresh orange juice

- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste

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Now turn the cupcakes out of their cups, place them upside down on a plate, and drizzle over some sabayon... Enjoy!