This chocolate fudge cake recipe was the one that I used when I was making wedding cakes, and it was the favorite choice of most of the brides who hired me. You can flavor it with a lot of things without affecting the texture of the cake, which is dense and more like a brownie than a cake, so it’s delicious.
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Things to know about this recipe.
The recipe makes two 8 or 9″ round layers, but it’s a little dicey. The 8″ will be really full, the 9″ might be less full. I used this for 8″ rounds and planned on using a cake collar to prevent overflowing batter in the oven, because the pans were pretty full. I ended up forgetting about the collar but it was fine and nothing overflowed.
Watch out for oven hot spots and pans that are darker or thinner metal. This can make the bottom of the layers scorch, but if that happens you can trim them off and it will still work.
This batter is thin and runny, but that’s fine. You’ll think it’s not right, but it’s very pourable and it bakes up fine.
This cake gives you a real chocolate flavor because it uses melted chocolate, so it’s closer to a fudge flavor than a basic chocolate cake. Once you make this you won’t go back to any other recipe.
Chocolate Fudge Cake Recipe
Equipment you’ll need (All links in the supplies section are Amazon affiliate links)
- Two 8″ round cake pans
- Parchment to line the pans
- Mixer and mixing bowls, measuring cups and spoons
- Microwave or double boiler to melt the chocolate
- Rubber spatula to scrape the bowl
- Whisk or wooden spoon
- Wooden skewer to test the cake
- Cooling rack
- Cake boards
- Knife to level the cake layers
This makes two 8-9″ round layers, or one 9×13″ layer:
- 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 3 cups sugar
- 2 1/4 cups AP flour
- 1 1/8 tsp baking soda
- 3/4 tsp salt
- 4 tsp instant coffee dissolved in 1 1/2 cups hot water, or 1 1/2 cups coffee (decaffeinated is fine)
- 3/4 cups sour cream
- 3/4 cups vegetable oil
- 3 eggs
To make the cake:
Preheat the oven to 350 F.
1. Line the baking pans with parchment paper or waxed paper on the bottoms, but don’t grease the sides of the pans. I used reusable 8″ silicone pan liners.
2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave on high for 15 seconds at a time, stirring in between. When it’s almost completely melted don’t heat it anymore, just stir it until the residual heat melts the final chunks. Overheating it can burn the chocolate!
3. Combine the sugar, flour, baking soda, and salt in a mixer and combine well.
4. In another bowl, blend the coffee, sour cream and oil with a whisk.
5. Break the eggs into another bowl and whisk to combine them.
6. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients while the mixer is running on low. Beat on medium speed to combine everything for about 30 seconds. Scrape the bowl to make sure all of the dry ingredients aren’t sticking to the bottom of the bowl, and finish mixing until everything is combined. If you have lumps in the batter, break them up and stir it until it’s smooth.
7. Add the eggs to the mixer while it’s moving on low speed, mix on medium for 30-45 seconds until everything is combined.
8. Add the melted chocolate to the mixture and beat on medium speed until it’s all combined.
9. Pour the batter into the prepared pans (it will be very liquid, this is right!) My 8″ pans were about 3/4 full, and I forgot to use a collar, but they baked fine without any overflowing.
10. Bake for 35-45 minutes until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean. I could always tell when this cake was done because it started smelling like chocolate all of a sudden. Once you make this a few times you’ll be able to tell when it’s ready without timing it! I had to let mine bake for about 50 minutes this time until the tester came out clean, so the time can vary depending on how much batter is in the pans.
11. Put the pans on a cooling rack and let the layers cool completely in the pans. Once they’re cool enough you can wrap them with plastic wrap (still in the pans) and let them sit out at room temp overnight.
12. If you need to level the cakes before taking them out of the pans, use a serrated knife and cut the layers off even with the edge of the cake pan (if you used a 2″ tall pan this is a good way to get a layer that’s exactly 2″ tall.)
13. De-pan the layers by turning them out onto cake boards and decorate (as long as they’re totally cooled off.) To store them for longer, wrap them well in plastic wrap and freeze or refrigerate, or let them sit out at room temp if you’ll be using them by the next day.
This cake is delicious and goes well with any kind of buttercream. I made a Bailey’s version of it and added Guinness buttercream to it recently…Here’s the article with that variation.
It pairs well with a fudge filling, and of you use a chocolate truffle filling you’ll have people begging you to make it for them again! It’s also good with raspberry preserves and raspberry meringue buttercream.
