A very chocolatey, moist Chocolate Fudge Cake that is similar to chocolate mud cake, but not as dense. Made with both melted chocolate and cocoa, AND topped with chocolate ganache, this one is sure to satisfying your chocolate cravings!
Super easy to make, very forgiving, no stand mixer or beater. Just one bowl and a wooden spoon!
Chocolate Fudge Cake
I may be disowned as an Australian for saying this, but I’m not the hugest fan of classic Chocolate Mud Cake. I find it too dense and doughy, and it gets stuck to the roof of my mouth. It’s very……erm…..mud-like.
Duh.
Creative writing isn’t my forte, is it?? Hey – I’m a food blogger. Not a writer! 😂
So this isn’t a classic Chocolate Mud Cake because it has a bit of lift in it, but it is still way fudgier and mud-cake like than 99% of other chocolate cakes, including my own everyday Chocolate Cake. Call it a Chocolate Fudge MUD CAKE if you want!! (Bit too much of a mouthful for me…. 🙂 )
Why I love this fudge cake so much
I know there are a LOT of chocolate cake recipes “out there”. But here’s why I love this Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake so much:
It’s intensely chocolatey – thanks to the use of both melted chocolate AND cocoa powder.
Beautifully moist and fudgy – hence the name!
Terrific flavour. It truly tastes of chocolate which, as odd as it sounds, is actually rarer than you might think.
You just need a wooden spoon. No stand mixer, no electric beater.
It’s virtually foolproof. I’ve cooked it on high for shorter periods of time, and low for longer. I’ve had to dash out of the house before it was fully cooked and left it in the oven (turned off) to finish cooking. And it always works out. Why? Because it’s so fudgey, it is actually hard to overcook so it becomes dry and it is not meant to rise very much so you don’t have to worry about that part either!
The Chocolate Ganache Frosting is crazy easy too. Cream + chocolate, melt, mix, cool. No beating!
Everyone goes mad over this. Chocolate on chocolate. Enough said!
How to make this fudgy moist cake
You would be forgiven for thinking you’re making a brownie when you start making this Chocolate Fudge Cake. Because that is in fact where the roots of this cake recipe is drawn from.
Did you know… The reason you see hot water in chocolate cake recipes is because it makes the cocoa “bloom”, making the cake taste more like chocolate!
↑↑↑ Crackage is normal! It’s kind of like that crinkly top of brownies – because this cake has lift in it from baking powder, it “bursts” through the crinkly top. But don’t worry, the cracks are less prominent once it cools (because it sinks a bit) and it’s completely hidden under Chocolate Ganache!
Difference between chocolate fudge cake and mud cake
I had someone on Instagram asking me what the difference is between Fudge Cake and Mud Cake so I thought I’d explain!! Chocolate mud cake is so dense that it cuts cleanly with perfect edges and virtually no crumbs.
In contrast, fudge cakes have more of a cake-like texture, like what you see in the close up of the slice at the top of this post.
Chocolate Ganache Frosting
I’m of the opinion that if we’re going to make a Fudgy Chocolate Cake, let’s really drive home the decadence and chocolate flavour by frosting it with chocolate ganache.
If you’re new to Chocolate Ganche, you’re going to really love this. Rather than beating icing sugar and butter for ages and ages like we do with Chocolate Buttercream, Chocolate Ganache is made simply with cream and chocolate that’s heated until the chocolate melts.
When hot, it’s a chocolate sauce you want to pour over everything.
When it cools, it has the consistency of peanut butter. Easy to spread and swirl on your cakes or cupcakes, and everything in between.
My everyday Chocolate Cake is beautifully moist and it’s the one I make most often.
But I figure we all need a blow out Chocolate Cake in our repertoire too. And this Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake is my blow-out Chocolate Cake recipe. It is rich. It is chocolatey. It is moist and fudgy. And I absolutely love it.
I hope you consider trying it! – Nagi x
Get your chocolate fix!
Everyday Chocolate Cake – try it decorated with Mirror Glaze!
Chocolate Cream Pie (outrageous!!!)
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
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Easy Chocolate Fudge Cake
Ingredients
- 125g / 4 oz dark chocolate chips (Note 1)
- 100g / 7 tbsp butter , salted (or unsalted butter + 1/4 tsp salt)
- 1 1/4 cups white sugar , caster / superfine best (Note 2)
- 1/4 cup oil (vegetable, canola)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 eggs , at room temperature
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder (Note 3)
- 1 cup flour , plain / all purpose (Note 4)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 cup boiling hot water
- 1 tbsp coffee granules , optional (Note 5)
Ganache
- 1 cup heavy / thickened cream , 30%+ fat (Note 6)
- 250g / 8 oz dark chocolate chips (Note 1)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 150C/300F (standard) or 130C/265F (fan). Grease a 22 cm / 9″ springform cake pan and line with parchment / baking paper.
- Melt butter and chocolate: Place butter and chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Microwave 3 x 30 seconds on high, mix in between, until melted. Mix.
- Oil, vanilla & Sugar: Add oil, vanilla and sugar, mix to combine (this brings down batter temp).
- Eggs: Add eggs and mix until combined.
- Dry Ingredients: Sift cocoa, baking powder and flour (and coffee, if using) directly into the bowl. Mix until smooth, batter will be thin. Some small lumps is ok.
- Hot water: Add hot water. Mix until incorporated.
- Bake: Pour into the cake tin and bake for 1 hour or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out moist but clean. Check at 50 minutes. The surface will crack (sometimes badly!) but sill subside when it cools and gets covered with frosting so don’t stress!
- Cool: Remove sides from the cake pan and transfer to a cooling rack to cool. Cool completely before carefully handling to remove base (Note 7).
Ganache (Note 8)
- Place chocolate and cream in a heatproof bowl. Microwave 3 x 30 seconds, mixing in between, until chocolate melts. DO NOT let cream come to boil.
- Stir chocolate until smooth. Refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours or until thickened to a spreadable consistency like peanut butter.
- Spread over the cake – tops and sides. Use a teaspoon in a swirling motion to achieve the textured surface you see in the photos.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Chocolate Fudge Cake recipe published May 2016. Recipe slightly updated November 2018 with improved cake texture and a more streamlined process. New photos, new video, new words!
Let them eat cake! 10 classic cake recipes
LIFE OF DOZER
I shooed him outside thinking that brown smear on his head was 💩
Turns out it was ganache 😂 It was driving him crazy trying to figure out a way to get to it! {PS No I never give him chocolate! I have no idea how it got there}
Outrageously delicious and so easy to make! 🙌🏻
Hi Nagi and Dozer, I made this recipe as a practise Birthday cake. I produced 2 x 26 cm cakes, by adding 50% to the volume of ingredients in your recipe, in each cake, then placed one atop the other with whipped cream/chocolate in between and frosted with smoothed out choc ganache. The gold leaf and glitter decoration was spectacular. The result was a gorgeous, knock out, superb tasting cake which all the guests loved. I am making the BIG one to-morrow for a 30th Birthday Boy in the same beautiful family. Thanks for sharing your JOY and expertise Nagi
Hi Nagi, madę this with my daughter today. The mistake we made was we used 1/4 cup sugar instead of 1 + 1/4 cup sugar. Everything else is correct but cake did not rise. Very flat. Not sure why? Thanks !
Hi Nagi and Dozer I desperately need a recipe to make a decadent chocolate sheet cake for a rectangular sheet pan measuring 35 x 53 cm. I am not confident in upscaling quantities for the size of the pan I will use.
Fabulous recipe!
I am going to make this cake this afternoon. Recipetin Eats is my absolute go-to for all recipes so I’m sure it will be great.
I was going through the comments to see the best way to store the cake and found the following:
“Thirdly, the recipe doesn’t specify storage, but I read back through all the comments. To save you time Nagi has answered other questions and states she stores this at room temperature for up to four days, but I think the recommendation would be to refrigerate if you live in a hot area. Be careful as the ganache contains cream of course.”
I made this cake and didn’t even put the right amount of water in by accident my bad. It was a little hard the first day around the edges. The next day it turned out super fudge like and moist I had to really stop myself from eating it, it was that good. Thank you what a superb cake.
Baked it at 150C as per the recipe and it was not even remotely ready after an hour. I thought the temp seemed too low. Would not recommend
I tried this recipe today. I would say that I am an intermediate baker, I bake biscuits weekly and cakes semi-regularly. But I found with this recipe that the cake overcooked and sunk in the middle (there was a section about 10cm round in the middle that was hard and depressed) and the rest was almost undercooked … I had the oven at 150 regular. Could it be the oven? Any ideas from the community where I went wrong? I love Nagi’s recipes and have her cookbook so I don’t think that the recipe is the issue! Thanks for any suggestions! 🙂
If you answer inquiries, I woud like to know if this can be made in a 9 X 13
This is a huge favorite that I make with high quality baking chocolate and it’s always a big hit. For bakers who ask how to adjust quantities, just ask your favorite AI tool 😉
Love the fact that this cake can be quickly mixed in a single bowl without the need for a mixer. Perfect chocolate cake that will be eaten in a single sitting!
Hello 🙂 I think i already know the answer but asking in case, can I bake two of these to make a layered cake? And then double the ganache frosting? Thanks so much! Love love love your recipes and instructions.
Just wondered if you ever tried this and how it went? I want to do the same thing, but wondered if it’s strong enough, or if the cooking time would be different. Hope it went well!
Any storage tips? Room temp or refrigerated?
this looks like feaces but tastes delicious!
Can I replace Dark chocolate chips with Milk Chocolate chips/bar
Made this for a French Christmas dinner as an alternative to the Yule log. It was so delicious!! I’m having a piece for breakfast now before anyone else gets to it (I had rave reviews from my tough critics). Thanks Nagi and Merry Christmas to everyone!
Does anyone know if I can make this cake using milk chocolate melts instead of dark chocolate? I just do not want to have to go to the supermarket for one packet of chocolate melts
Can this be made in a bundt pan does anyone know or ?think?
Cooking temperatures 265 fan is very hi please help
She mentioned that above if you want to reread her suggestions:
“7. Handling: Because the cake is so fudgy, it’s delicate so handle gently. The cake is more delicate when warm (as all cakes are) so don’t try to remove the base until it’s completely cool. If you don’t have a springform pan, just cool the cake in the pan.”
Incredibly easy to make and absolutely DELICIOUS! New favourite (easy) chocolate cake recipe unlocked for all future birthdays and events! Thank you 🤩 PS your instructions and notes are awesome too.