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A moist chocolate fudge cake sponge, topped & filled with THE BEST chocolate frosting you will ever make!

So let me introduce to you the only chocolate fudge cake recipe that you are ever going to need. I realise saying that this contains the BEST chocolate frosting ever is quite a statement, but I honestly think it is – its so delicious! I also realised after my Facebook requests post that I hadn’t actually posted my go-to chocolate cake recipe!

This recipe is what I’d make a bruce cake out of to make a Matilda cake, it’s the cake I would use when I am craving chocolate, it’s the recipe I would use if you want something epic and indulgent – it is epic. 

A classic bake

When I posted my recipe for my Victoria sponge – celebration cake I knew you all loved the classics, so I hope this suits well too! However, this cake is so much more indulgent. You can easily make a chocolate version of my Victoria sponge, but this is definitely more dense, and more chocolatey. It’s basically heaven in a bite.

This is the sort of cake that you want to have a slice, and then shove it all in your face. Yes its gooey, and has many more ingredients then you think it probably should have, but it is WORTH IT. Honestly, worth it. It also does seem a little faffy, but again.. its worth it!

Layering it up with the best frosting on the planet, and you will want to devour every single crumb. Because of how it bakes however, it can often take a long time in the oven, and even sometimes less. It’s all down to the mixing!

The cake mix

This recipe will sound like a lot of ingredients, but it’s worth it. Melt the chocolate and butter, and then mix everything into one big bowl… you don’t need a mixer for this bit. 

  • Chocolate – when making this, you want to use dark chocolate in the mixture for best results. I always use 70%+
  • Butter – unsalted butter, or baking spread, will work for the sponges 
  • Coffee – this is mentioned below, but trust me… 
  • Flour – I use plain flour, as your raising agents come elsewhere so you don’t need self raising flour. It’ll make the sponge too delicate 
  • Cocoa – I like my cake super chocolatey, so I add this in as well as the chocolate 
  • Raising agents – baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda for this beauty of a cake 
  • Sugar – a mixture of brown sugar and caster sugar is wonderful – all of one, or all of the other works perfectly though 
  • Eggs – I use medium eggs in my baking, but 3 large would work instead of 4 medium 
  • Buttermilk – this is an important ingredient – you can make your own though with 1tsp of lemon juice mixed into 75ml milk 

Coffee

Chocolate cake is one of those classics that you don’t want to mess with, but sometimes they can be terrible, or not chocolatey enough, or just not moist enough. I have seen over the past few months that people use coffee or instant coffee in a chocolate cake of forms to make the cake more moist and chocolatey – so I tried this!

I personally cannot taste the coffee, and neither could my family – however, If you don’t like coffee, or never buy it then no worries – you can use just water, but the depth of flavour might not be the same!! Please please PLEASE trust in using the coffee though – I really am sure that you will love it! It just makes it basically the best sponge ever!!!

The BEST EVER frosting

The magical ingredient in the chocolate frosting is the evaporated milk – I discovered this after trawling through the internet for hours on end and found a couple of mentions that it might be better – and holy smokes it was.

  • Butter – for this frosting, you MUST use a block butter. You do not want to use any form of spread 
  • Sugar – icing sugar, as always
  • Cocoa – a nice rich cocoa powder is best, I use a 100% cocoa powder 
  • Vanilla – a little bit of vanilla, as always again 
  • Evaporated milk – this is so important. Condensed milk is not a substitute, if you can’t get evaporated milk, add double cream whipped in really well, but it’s still not quite the same 

Tips & tricks 

I do NOT use an electric mixer for this cake recipe, because it will most likely over do it. I just do each bit by hand, and then fold it all together to get a thick fudge cake that bakes to perfection. However, a mixer is good for the frosting side of things! 

It is very soft, so it can be difficult if you want to spread the cake in buttercream, so I find its easier just to make layers. If you do want to cover it, you’ll need to refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to firm it slightly first, and it’ll be easier

Chocolate Fudge Cake with the BEST Chocolate Frosting Ever!

A moist chocolate fudge cake sponge, topped & filled with THE BEST chocolate frosting you will ever make!
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Category: Cake
Type: Chocolate
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Cooling Time: 2 hours
Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes
Servings: 14 Slices
Author: Jane's Patisserie

Ingredients

Cake Ingredients

  • 225 g dark chocolate
  • 225 g unsalted butter
  • 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
  • 125 ml boiling water
  • 175 g plain flour
  • 25 g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 200 g white/golden caster sugar
  • 200 g light brown sugar
  • 4 medium eggs
  • 75 ml buttermilk

Chocolate Frosting

  • 250 g unsalted butter (not stork)
  • 500 g icing sugar
  • 50 g cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 100-125 ml evaporated milk

Decorations

  • Sprinkles
  • Anything!

Instructions

For the Cake!

  • Preheat the oven to 160ºc/140ºc fan and grease & line two 8″/20cm cake tins – leave to the side.
  • In a heatproof bowl, microwave the dark chocolate & butter until melted
  • Pour the coffee granules into the boiling water and mix – add the coffee to the chocolate/butter mix and stir well until smooth!
  • In a separate large bowl add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb, sugars and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other well
  • Mix the eggs with the buttermilk – and then add all the ingredients together and stir
  • Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens)
  • Once baked leave to cool in the tin and remove afterwards

For the Frosting!

  • With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until its very smooth and supple (couple of minutes)
  • Gradually add the icing sugar & cocoa powder alternatively with the evaporated milk until all is incorporated and add the vanilla essence – beat for a couple of minutes so its extra smooth & creamy.
  • The more evaporated milk you add the more runny it’ll be, and I have found about 100ml-125ml is perfect for me! If it's a little hotter weather however, you may find you need less!

For the Decoration!

  • Decorate your cake how you like and ENJOY! I spread half my buttercream on the first cake, add the second sponge and repeat!
  • And then I sprinkle on all sorts of sprinkles!

Notes

ENJOY!

Find my other Cake Recipes on my Recipes Page!

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J x

© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.

610 Comments

  1. Christina on July 23, 2024 at 3:51 pm

    I don’t have instant coffee, just freshly ground coffee. Could I use 125ml of this black coffee?

  2. Tracy on July 11, 2024 at 10:16 am

    Hi Jane – I’ve made cakes (square for Minecraft theme) but want to cover the sides. – how much extra icing would I need for this? (23 cms square)

  3. Ella on March 12, 2024 at 12:52 am

    Hey! this cake sounds amazing! Will Dutch pressed cocoa work okay or does it need to be different? Trying to work out if I can use other ingredients i have in the house.

  4. Stephanie Gray on February 29, 2024 at 9:02 am

    Hi can I freeze the sponge as need to make in advance and if so how would you store for best outcome please. I would like to make it a week in advance.

    • Jane's Patisserie on March 18, 2024 at 1:26 pm

      Yes you can! I always double wrap sponges in clingfilm, and then foil, and freeze!



    • Nutmeg on May 2, 2024 at 11:55 am

      The cake fell apart….. never happened to me before. Went?



    • Jane's Patisserie on May 4, 2024 at 12:53 pm

      Hey! In what way do you mean? It’s a delicate sponge so you need to be careful with it when moving it about x



  5. Holly on January 20, 2024 at 6:18 pm

    Wanting to make this over the weekend for my daughter’s 3rd birthday. Can you help me adapt this for two 6 inch tins. How do I adapt the cooking time ? Do I need baking bands? Will it be the same temp?

    Thanks in advance! X

  6. Nikki on December 10, 2023 at 5:18 pm

    Hi how would I make this into a 3 layer? I have 3 x 8” tins

  7. Lois on October 27, 2023 at 9:31 pm

    Please help! I’ve just made this for my daughter’s birthday in 2 days and it’s come out like a brownie. It’s extremely fragile, didn’t rise much in the tin and seems quite gooey. I’m not sure where I went wrong. I followed the recipe exactly and am usually pretty successful at baking! It is possible I under-mixed it? I was worried about over mixing so maybe I mixed to little….

    • Jane's Patisserie on October 28, 2023 at 11:46 am

      Hiya! This can be because of under mixing but also under baking – this is a denser cake as it’s a fudge cake so it won’t be super light x



    • Pratima on February 21, 2026 at 5:51 pm

      The boiled water volume is mentioned incorrectly. It is 125 ml for whichever number of slices we select, whether 10 slices or 4 slices or 14 slices. The ingredient list needs to have boiled water in ml adjusted according to the number of slices selected. Water is missing from ingredients and fixed volume of 125 ml has been mentioned as part of the recipe



  8. Teyanne on September 29, 2023 at 7:40 am

    5 stars
    Hello,

    Could the icing be made black? I am looking to create a black icing cake that can also be piped on the top?
    Thanks.

  9. Niamh on September 17, 2023 at 7:03 pm

    5 stars
    Hey Jane!

    I never normally leave comments but with this cake I just had to, what a FANTASTIC recipe- thank you so much! The cake was heavenly and the condensed milk addition to the frosting made it just so good. An absolute showstopper, so tasty! Your recipes are always so reliable and I know that they can be trusted for great results. Thanks so much!

  10. Jenna on August 14, 2023 at 3:56 pm

    Can you warm this cake up in the micro, like other fudge cakes?

  11. AW on July 25, 2023 at 7:50 am

    Does anyone know if you could use self raising flour in this recipe instead of plain flour, or would this not work?

    • Jane's Patisserie on July 28, 2023 at 9:32 am

      Hiya! You need to use plain flour, not self raising. x



    • Charlotte on April 9, 2024 at 4:05 pm

      I’m wanting to make this as a 10inch cake how would you adapt the recipe?



    • Jacqui Ramjee on November 28, 2024 at 7:10 pm

      5 stars
      Fantastic chocolatey moist cake. A recipe I will use again especially as it wasn’t too sweet. You get two generous layers. The butter cream was enough for the middle (I used 300g), top and sides. It so nice when you get a recipe that actually works.



  12. Debbie on June 15, 2023 at 3:03 pm

    Hi Jane

    What percentage of cocoa in the chocolate do you use- i have 70% or should i go more?

    • Jane's Patisserie on June 19, 2023 at 11:28 am

      Always 70% or more! x



    • Harriet on June 29, 2023 at 11:22 pm

      Hiya, I’m planning on baking this however I’m unable to find dark chocolate for baking which is 70% or more. I have dark chocolate from the baking aisle but it only has 54%. Will this be okay? I’ve always used this for other bakes before so hoping it will be okay! Thanks x



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