Have you ever had chocolate cravings, proceeded to order a slice of chocolate cake and come away STILL having a chocolate craving?! For us chocolate addicts, a light and fluffy chocolate cake when you’re stuck with a craving just does not cut it. We need the dense gooey stuff. The stuff that with just one bite makes the world a better place. We need freshly baked Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake! Urgh.. so good!
Do you know the best thing about this cake? It’s so easy to make! You don’t even need an electric mixer. It also happens to be very hard to ruin this cake if you end up over-baking it. Chocolate fudge cake stays fudgy and moist.
Amp Up the Chocolate
Since we’re going all out with the chocolate, we’re adding coffee to rev up the chocolate flavour. It’s like a magic ingredient. Adding a bit of coffee to any chocolate cake really doesn’t make the cake taste like coffee. It works to somehow intensify the chocolate flavour.
We’re also about using local ingredients when it works towards a beautiful recipe. In this case, we’re using Malaysian coffee referred to locally as kopi. Once brewed, it has a buttery dark caramel kind of flavour that works well for this recipe. However, feel free to use any type of coffee you desire. The cake will come out just as good.
Let’s Get Baking with the Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake
This recipe makes a petite 6” Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake.
Ingredients:
90g dark chocolate chips
70g (1/3 cup) unsalted butter
185g (3/4 cup + 3 tbsp) caster sugar
45ml coconut cooking oil (can substitute with vegetable oil or canola oil)
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
14g (2 tbsp) cocoa powder
105g (1 cup sifted) all-purpose flour
¾ tsp baking powder
175 ml (3/4 cup) hot water
1 tsp espresso powder (preferably use kopi, a Malaysian or Indonesian local coffee)
¼ tsp sea salt
Method:
- Preheat oven to 170C.
- In a mug, add your coffee or kopi powder to 175ml of hot water. Leave to steep.
- Prepare a 6″ cake pan. Butter the entire inner surface and dust with a bit of cocoa powder. Line the bottom with parchment paper. Set aside.
- Next melt the butter together with the dark chocolate chips. Place butter and chocolate chips in a heatproof bowl. Microwave for 15 seconds on high. Stir then pop it back in the microwave for another 15 seconds. (Note: Depending on the brand of chocolate, you may need an extra round in the microwave.)
- Add oil, vanilla and sugar to your melted chocolate. Mix to combine. This brings down the temperature of your batter; necessary before you add your egg.
- Add egg and mix until combined.
- Sift cocoa, baking powder and flour directly into the bowl and mix until just combined. The batter will be thin.
- Time to add coffee. If you used kopi, you need to filter out the granules. Just pour the coffee into the batter through a fine sieve. Little bits of coffee powder escaping into the batter is perfectly fine.
- Give the batter a good stir and pour into the prepared cake pan. Bake for 50 minutes. Similar to brownies, the surface of the cake will crack but it will sink as the cake cool and it won’t look bad. It’s all part of the charm with this kopi hot chocolate cake.
- Cool the cake for at least 15 minutes before removing from the pan. This is important! Hot chocolate fudge cake is dense and needs time to rest.
Tips:
- Use a bigger heat proof bowl to melt your butter and chocolate chips. You can add all the ingredients into the same bowl and don’t need to transfer. Less to clean up is always a good thing.
- When choosing the brand of your chocolate chips, note that some chocolates melt more easily than others. I personally chose the brand Callebaut. I find that they melt easily and just tastes amazing. If you can’t find them, don’t worry. Any good quality dark chocolate chips will do. You just might have to pop it in the microwave with the butter go for 3 x 15 second rounds.
- If you don’t have kopi then just use instant coffee powder. Dissolve the instant coffee powder into the hot water. Pouring the coffee through a fine sieve becomes unnecessary in this case.
- Chocolate fudge cakes tastes good cold. If you have guests coming, you can prepare this cake well in advance and just keep it in the fridge.
Once your cake has completely cooled, it’s time to move on to making the icing.
Espresso Powder Buttercream
If you haven’t gobbled up the cake already, you can add icing. If you’re going for all out chocolate, you can choose to ice with yummy chocolate ganache. Since the cake is already so dense and fudgy, I love it paired together with something light and fluffy to balance it out. Espresso powder buttercream works particularly well. Unlike the coffee added to the cake, coffee added to buttercream will shine through.
Ingredients:
113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
150g (1 ¼ cup) icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp espresso powder
1 pinch of sea salt
Method:
- Make sure your butter is softened but still cold to the touch. Beat a mixer until it is light and fluffy. This will take about 2 minutes.
- Add icing sugar to the butter in three batches. Whip between each addition until it is nice and smooth before adding in the next batch of icing sugar. Once all your icing sugar has been incorporated, continue to whip the buttercream mixture for an additional 2 minutes or until it looks thick and creamy.
- Add espresso powder to the vanilla and stir until it has dissolved. Add this into your buttercream mixture and beat just until it is an evenly coloured.
- Lastly, add a pinch of sea salt to you cut the sweetness. Whip it all together for another minute to make sure that everything is evenly incorporated.
- Now you’re all set to ice the Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake! Spread it on top of your cake for a rustic look or pipe flowers. That’s all up to you.
Hope your Hot Chocolate Fudge Cake comes out dreamy. Don’t forget to check out our other chocolate recipes. If you’re more of a cookie fiend, check out our 4 ingredient delicious chocolate cookies or salted gula Melaka chocolate chip cookies. The world of chocolate is a wonderful place.