C.A.M. - Mud Cake Scratch-Off

So for this months cake I've decided to go back to basics. Instead of making a fancy layered cake I'm going to test a few different mud cake recipes and have my family sample each of the cakes and pick the one we like the most. It's one thing to have a cake that looks nice but it needs to taste fantastic too! Eventually I'd like to make different variations on my mud cake recipe, adding different liqueurs, flavorings, nuts etc, but I need the perfect base recipe first.
So there are some mud cake recipes that I've heard several people mentioning on the Cake Central forums that I'd like to test out. I've also found a couple of recipes by Googling that have great reviews. So the recipes I've narrowed down to as contestants in my mud cake scratch off are as follows:

Bluehue's chocolate mud cake (can be found on the Cake Central forums)
Pams chocolate mud cake
Australian Women's Weekly Mississippi mud cake
Best Recipe's best reviewed mud cake
Exclusively Foods chocolate mud cake (this is the recipe I used for last months cake)


I'll be judging the cakes based on the following criteria:
1. Flavor
2. Texture/Crumb
3. Moistness
4. Ease of recipe
5. Cost

I will also be preparing each of these cakes exactly the way I would as if I were using them for a fondant covered layer cake. That means that after they've been baked and cooled I'll wrap them in glad wrap and freeze them for a week, then allow them to defrost overnight in the fridge before serving them.
Also, as a side note I should mention that if you're ever going to bake mud cakes to never eat them on the day they've been baked, mud cakes are best at least 3 days after they've been made.
Edit: I also want to add that freezing mud cakes before you defrost and serve them actually improves the flavor!!

I love mud cakes, although I've discovered that they seem to be predominately used in the Australian baking industry. Here in Australia most weddings you go to will have a mud cake as the wedding cake. They're wonderfully rich, and moist, last a very long time, take to freezing extremely well and have a delicious dense, nearly fudge-like, texture. They tend to remind me more of a large brownie than your traditional cake. They're perfect for covering with fondant as they're heavy enough to take the extra weight and can be flavored pretty easily. After using mud cakes for the last couple of my cakes I've decided to stick with mud cakes from here on unless I'm specifically asked to make a different type of cake for someone.

Z's 1st birthday is coming up in about 1 and a half months so I'm also making plans for that. I've already designed the birthday cake and made plans for all the birthday decorations to make so as I make the decorations I'll continue to post for those of you interested in any tutorials.