Chocolate Fudge Loaf Cake!
*This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details!*
A thick, fudgey and delicious chocolate fudge loaf cake, topped with luscious chocolate fudge buttercream frosting, and more!
Loaf cakes!
Loaf cakes… loaf cakes… I wish I’d known about your popularity before this past year, otherwise I would have done more recipes sooner. I honestly cannot get my head around how popular my loaf cake recipes have been! So, here is another..
My Terry’s Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake, and my Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake have been super popular recently – and I love it! Although, I have had request after request for a really lovely, dense, fudgey and amazing chocolate fudge version, so here it is!
Chocolate fudge loaf cake
I couldn’t resist this from the beginning because you all know how much I adore a chocolate fudge cake. My chocolate fudge cake traybake and the cupcake version have always been popular, but nothing is as popular as the layer cake version! They all directly inspire this one, as they are all based around the same recipe!
As you may be aware, a classic and easy chocolate cake is based around five ingredients, usually. Flour, cocoa powder, eggs, butter and sugar – they make a chocolate Victoria sponge style cake, and I use that style of recipe all the time in my various bakes.. but this one is very very different.
This sponge recipe uses ELEVEN ingredients, so quite different. Flour, cocoa powder, butter, eggs and sugar are still all there, but so is instant coffee, water, dark chocolate, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and buttermilk. This will sound a bit extreme, but trust me – it’s worth it.
Chocolate, butter and coffee
This cake recipe is very easy to make. You need to melt the dark chocolate and butter together until smooth – like you would for the base of a brownie mixture – and dissolve the coffee into the water.
YOU CAN’T TASTE THE COFFEE in the end results.. so PLEASE, trust me here, and use it. The coffee is designed to bring out a rich and delicious chocolate flavour. It’s 100% worth it!!
Dry ingredients
Instead of self raising flour, you use plain flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate – they react with the other ingredients and create the texture you are after! You whisk the dry ingredients together with the sugar into a bowl with just a spatula or something – you really do not need or want to use an electric mixer here.
Eggs and buttermilk
You then whisk the eggs and buttermilk together – buttermilk is there to react with bicarbonate to create a rise in the cake – it’s very different to your regular use of self raising flour!
However, if you don’t want to buy a pot of buttermilk (which is found with the creams in the uk) you can make your own using whole milk (full-fat) and whisking in 1tbsp of lemon juice and leaving it to sit. It will look split almost, but that’s what you want!
Combine and pour
You then combine the three different mixes together, with a whisk – stir as little as possible, pour into the tin and bake! As it’s a loaf cake, it will take a long time to bake – loaf cakes are similar to bundt cakes in that sense.
Tin
I use my favourite 2lb loaf tin as normal, but they can also vary in size (never understood why?!) – so if you think your tin is too full, make a few cupcakes with the spare mix. I usually fill my tin up to about 3/4 full, so by the time it rises, the tin is full!
Frosting
For the frosting, I used the same idea as the best ever frosting ever – evaporated milk being the key ingredient. The only thing is that yes you will have some evaporated milk leftover, but don’t worry, you can freeze it!
Decoration
With loaf cakes I just like to slather the frosting all over the top, or pipe, but it’s up to you – I often use some strawberries and some more chocolate goodies to decorate and it’s done, but that’s up to you – sometimes just chocolates are good! It’s a bit more effort with the ingredients, but otherwise, it’s such an easy cake to bake! I hope you love it!
Chocolate Fudge Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
The Cake
- 175 g dark chocolate
- 175 g unsalted butter
- 2 tsps instant coffee
- 100 ml boiling water
- 135 g plain flour
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 300 g light brown sugar (or caster sugar)
- 3 medium eggs
- 75 ml buttermilk
The Frosting
- 125 g unsalted butter (room temp - not stork/spread)
- 250 g icing sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
- 50-75 ml evaporated milk
Decorations
- Sprinkles
- Chocolates
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and line a 2lb loaf tin!
- In a microwave proof bowl, add the chocolate and butter and heat and mix until melted. I usually do 30 second bursts!
- Add the coffee granules to a mug, and pour over the boiling water and mix until smooth - add the coffee mix into the chocolate/butter and mix until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sugar to a large bowl and whisk until distributed.
- In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk and eggs.
- Add the three mixes together - I pour the chocolate/coffee mix and the egg/buttermilk mix into the dry ingredients and fold until smooth. You do not need to use a stand mixer as you may over-mix it.
- Pour the mixture into the lined 2lb loaf tin - bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes, or until baked through!
- Leave to cool fully once baked!
For the Frosting
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
- Beat the butter on it's own for a few minutes to soften!
- Add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder 1/2 at a time, and beat until combined.
- Add the vanilla, and then the evaporated milk a little at a time beating fully in-between each go!
Decoration!
- Slather the frosting onto the top of the loaf cake, and then decorate how you want - chocolates and more!
- Sprinkle on your favourite sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
- This recipe is based on my chocolate fudge cake and chocolate fudge cupcakes with a few changes to suit the loaf cake!
- I used this 2lb loaf tin as always!
- The evaporated milk cannot be switched to condensed milk.
- PLEASE USE THE COFFEE - it just makes it taste more chocolatey, it doesn't taste of coffee.
- You can make your own buttermilk with 75ml full-fat milk, and 1tbsp of lemon juice.
- This cake will last for 3-4 days, at room temp.
ENJOY!
Find my other Recipes on my Recipes Page!
You can find me on:
Instagram
Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
Youtube
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.
Cakes came out perfectly risen however after leaving it to cook when I checked it the middle had caved in on itself, how do I stop that from happening? X
Hiya! This usually means it is over baked, or a raising agent is over measured. Hope this helps! x
What can I use instead of the evaporated milk?
Hiya! There’s no perfect replacement – but you could try double cream! Hope this helps! x
A question, if I may, please. I am looking for a chocolate orange cake with a pound cake vibe; a dense cake with a moist, tight crumb. I have been pouring over and comparing this recipe to your Chocolate Orange loaf cake. This recipe seems more in keeping with my pound cake methodology. Do you anticipate I would have success adding orange zest to this recipe? Will the zest be overly acidic with the baking soda and buttermilk? Are there any pitfalls I should be aware of?
Just today I ran across your blog via Pinterest and am really enjoying reading, pinning and deciding what to try first. I too am a fan of chocolate-orange and of Biscoff!
Hiya! This is a fudge cake so will be a bit lighter in texture compared to a pound cake, but similar! You can absolutely add zest, just be sure not to add any juice! Hope this helps, enjoy! x
Hi Jane,
Thank you for all of your recipes. What percentage of dark cholate do you use?xx
Hiya! I always use at least 70% dark chocolate in baking! Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane can I make this cake and freeze it as I don’t need it till next weekend?
Yes absolutely, you can freeze it for up to 3 months! Enjoy! x
Hi Jane,
I absolutely love your recipes and have had such results since I started baking.
I would like to make a chocolate cake for my sons birthday, I am intending on covering it in fondont icing and was just wondering out of your cakes I.e. the chocolate drip cake, back to basic chocolate cake, chocolate fudge cake, hot chocolate which the best cake to make please?
Also is it okay to cover the cake in fondsnt and is there any fondont you recommend pl3ase?
Thank you 😊xx
Hiya! I’d recommend using the Chocolate Drip cake, any fondant will be fine! Hope this helps! x
Thought the quantity seemed a bit much for the 2lb loaf tin but thought I’d give it ago. Unfortunately a large quantity overflowed from the tin as it cooked. Cake left in the tin was still nice. Almost exactly the same as a recipe i used a lot in the past for a chocolate mud cake. Will scale it down to a 2 egg quantity and give it another go.
Hiya! All 2lb loaf tins can vary in size as mentioned in the post – fill your tin 2/3 full to achieve the best bake! Hope this helps! x
I’m sure this will be gorgeous but it’s been in the oven for 50 mins (just checked it as I have a habit of burning things), it’s def in a 2lb loaf tin but it’s come over the top of the tin and is lying in a heap beside the tin! There’s still plenty in the tin.
Hiya! Sounds like your tin was slightly overfilled – I always recommend filling your loaf tin 2/3 to achieve the best bake! Hope this helps! x
Can I use less icing sugar in the frosting? I have noticed that the frosting has an odd metallic taste which may be because of the amount of icing sugar.
Hiya! A metallic taste would not come from sugar – I would suggest that there may be something wrong with another ingredient you’ve used! Hope this helps x
A M A Z I N G – Froze cake for over a week before decorating, wonderful, beautifully moist and lasted very well.
Made this today and oh my gosh it was amazing !!! So moist and fudgy, yet tender and soft, with a deep chocolate flavour I paired this with Jane’s galaxy chocolate frosting and it was just incredible.
I didn’t quite put all the mixture into my loaf tin, I made 3 cupcakes or else the tin would have been a bit too full. For me, mine baked in about 55 mins, and you definitely can’t taste the coffee.
Thanks for the amazing recipe Jane <3 x
Hi Jane, This recipe is a winner! I made it and it was absolutely delicious. only thing is mine came out soft, and not as dense/moist like yours in the picture: I didnt have 3 eggs at home(had only 2 and then I added 2 tbs of mayonnaise as sub for the 3rd egg and I also added extra cocoa powder as I didnt have chocolate at home. Could that be the reason why?
It could be yes as you altered the recipe! x
Hi Jane
Looove this recipe, made it for Easter this year and my family loved it!
Do you think it would get dry if I baked it as a sheet cake, to make those letter cakes?
I have a traybake version on my blog – it is a very delicate sponge though so it’s risky moving it about too much or cutting into shapes! x
Hi Jane
I’ve only got kenco smooth coffee granules are these OK? And do I wait for chocolate/ butter and coffee to cool before mixing?is stork OK for the cake ? Thank you x
That coffee is fine, no you don’t have to wait as it all cools together, and for the cake yes it is but not the frosting xx
Just baked this for the first time. Used the tin Jane recommends and it got a huge thumbs up from the whole family. Definitely one I’ll be baking again….the evaporated milk makes the icing that little bit special.