The Best Chocolate Fudge Cake

I have always been a fan of chocolate fudge cake! You know, the kind you get from the frozen section of the shops. You heat it up in the microwave and the chocolate melts over the top!! Lush! Or the stuff you get in a restaurant for dessert, heated up, chocolate oozing from in between the layers, vanilla ice cream from the top... sorry, I'll just wipe the drool away!

I always grew up wishing I could make one myself. It always baffled me how it was done and how amazing they tasted. And if you know me, you know I'm a sucker for anything chocolate! So I got working on it and boy oh boy have I done it! The best chocolate fudge cake!!

This recipe has become one of my most sought after recipes and my most popular on tiktok. So I thought I would finally give the people what they want and dedicate a blog post to it!

As always, I don't just want to share recipes, but help people better understand baking and how it works so more of you can start experimenting and creating your own recipes and better your baking skills. So let's get into it!

Oil and Milk

I knew I wanted this cake to be really moist. Almost every chocolate cake I have had has been dry and crumbly... not what you want! So making sure this was moist and chocolatey was of great importance to me! Rather than doing the typical butter and sugar creaming method, I opted for the oil, milk and eggs. No butter. Using the oil instead of butter keeps the mixture more tender. Because of the water percentage in butter which evaporates when baking, it doesn't keep the cake as moist.

Whole milk offers a rich and moist addition to the cake. You may ask me, can I use semi-skimmed or skimmed milk instead? My answer would be no. Whole milk contains more fat which not only adds more flavour, but helps the cake to be more moist.

After combining the wet ingredients (eggs, oil and whole milk), the sugar gets added. This doesn't need to be mixed a lot. I do all the mixing by hand. I use a whisk but mostly because this cake batter is quite runny. But more about that later!

Dry Ingredients

Then we're onto the dry ingredients. Firstly, let's talk about sifting. I ALWAYS sift my flour and cocoa powder. Depending on what brand you use, flour can get quite lumpy, and to save yourself a lot of time trying to mix out the lumps, just sift it before you add it! You may also notice that there may be bits of wheat that haven't quite been ground down enough as you sift it so it's totally worth it... just trust me on this one! :)

Cocoa powder is always lumpy in my experience, so that's a lot better sifted too. Once they're measured and sifted and mixed in, we move onto the water and coffee.

Coffee

I know a lot of people may be dubious about adding coffee. So I'm going to answer the questions I know you're thinking ;) No, you can't taste the coffee. It's just a small amount, so not enough to taste it. Take it from me, I absolutely hate both the smell and taste of coffee, you'll never catch me drinking it!! So when I say you definitely cannot taste it, I'm telling the truth! And for those of you asking, 'why you would put coffee into a chocolate cake?' it's simply that it enhances the chocolate flavour! If you ate two chocolate cupcakes, one which included coffee, and one that didn't, I guarantee you would think the one with the coffee tastes the most chocolatey.

But, that being said, if you really don't want to add the coffee, that's totally fine. Just up the water measurement by the amount of coffee you would have been adding. For example, if you were meant to add 50g of coffee and 100g of water, you would just add 150g water instead.

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Baking

After the coffee and boiling water additions, the batter will be VERY runny. This is completely as it should be! Don't worry, you haven't done anything wrong! The extra runniness of the batter makes for an extra moist cake!

This then gets carefully divided between your two cake tins and baked in the oven for around 20 minutes. Bare in mind every oven is different, so take the baking time with a pinch of salt! Keep an eye on it. This is a moist cake so I find that if the toothpick comes out completely clean, the cake is often on the overdone side. The cooking process continues even after it's come out of the oven so I take it out when the sponge bounces back at a light touch, and the toothpick comes out mostly clean.

Decoration

For the decoration I used chocolate ganache. Ganache is smoother than a buttercream and great to work with; it also hardens in the fudge but gives you a lovely melty topping if heated in the microwave so you can enjoy your cake hot or cold.

So you have a few options for this. If you like your chocolate frosting on the darker side, I would 100% recommend 70% dark chocolate. But for a nice even taste, and no bitterness, a nice mix of dark and milk chocolate works great! Like 200g 70% dark chocolate and 50g milk chocolate. And this is made up really easily using just your chosen chocolate and some double cream!

For decorating the cake, I love the messy kind of thrown-together look when it comes to a chocolate cake. But feel free to smooth it out perfectly or even add some swirls as I have in these photos. Anything goes!

DISCLAIMER: This post contains associate links meaning I receive a small commission on any purchases made through these links with no extra cost to yourself.

Equipment

Here is a list of recommended equipment I use and where to buy them!

• Whisk - https://amzn.to/3ZRbkT6

• Kitchen Scales - https://amzn.to/40iSN3D

Ingredients

Cake

2 eggs

250g whole milk

125g vegetable oil

350g caster sugar

85g cocoa powder

225g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

50g brewed coffee

200g boiling water

Ganache

250g dark chocolate, chopped

250g double cream

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C, and line two 8" cake tins with baking paper.

2. Combine the eggs, milk and oil and mix with a whisk until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and bicarb then add to the wet ingredients and whisk until smooth.

3. Add the brewed coffee and combine (if not using coffee, skip this and add 50g more boiling water when adding the boiling water). Add half the boiling water and mix well before adding the rest.

4. Separate the batter equally into prepared cake tins, and bake for 20 minutes. A skewer should come out slightly sticky. Tip: The cake is meant to be moist and the cooking will continue as the cake comes out the oven so if the toothpick comes out clean it will be too dry.

5. Leave for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Once fully cooled, wrap in cling film and place flat in the fridge. This helps to lock in the moisture and makes it easier to decorate later.

6. For the ganache, break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl, and add the cream. Melt in the microwave in 15 second increments or over a bain-marie, mixing constantly until smooth and glossy. Set aside to cool. 

7. If the cake is slightly uneven, use a cake leveller or a serrated knife to level it out before decorating.

8. When ganache reaches a spreadable consistency, using a turntable, add a generous amount on the top of one cake. Spread evenly with a cranked palette knife.

9. Place the second cake on top and spread the remaining ganache on the top and sides of the cake, smoothing with a cake smoother. 

10. Using the back of a spoon or the cranked palette knife, carefully turn the cake and swirl the spoon or palette knife slowly upwards with a small amount of pressure to make an indented line in the ganache.

11. Set in the fridge for 30 minutes to an hour before serving.

    
    

    Serving suggestion: Heat a slice in the microwave for 20-30 seconds and enjoy warm with a scoop of your favourite ice-cream.

Additional Tips:

• The addition of boiling water helps to bloom the cocoa powder and brings out the chocolatey flavour more in the cake.

• This cake can keep for up to 4 days in the fridge.

• Sieve all of your dry ingredients, including the caster sugar. This helps the batter to be as smooth as possible.