Chocolate Pudding Cake

Published on February 11, 2022

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Quick Summary

Chocolate Pudding Cake-a rich and moist chocolate cake with a silky chocolate pudding sauce. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you will be in chocolate dessert heaven!

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I love a good chocolate dessert: One Bowl Brownies, Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Cookies, and the list goes on.

This Chocolate Pudding Cake (hot fudge pudding cake) is an all-time favorite. If you like chocolate, you are in for a real treat!

It is the weirdest cake ever, but SO SO good! You make the cake in a 9×13 pan and before it goes into the oven you sprinkle a mixture of brown sugar and cocoa over the cake batter. And that's not all, you also pour boiling water over the cake.

It feels SO wrong to pour water over the top, but trust me on this one. The cake will look like a disaster, but don't worry. When you pull it out of the oven you will feel like a magician because you will end up with a chocolate cake that rich, gooey, and out of this world delicious!

After you spoon into the cake and find the chocolate pudding at the bottom, you will swoon! The chocolate pudding sauce is silky, smooth, and makes the cake extra special.

Cake Ingredients

Flour- use all-purpose flour, if you need the cake to be gluten-free, you can use your favorite gluten-free flour.
Brown sugar– always pack your brown sugar when measuring!
Baking powder AND baking soda– look at the dates and make sure they are fresh!
Salt– to bring out the flavors.
Chocolate chips– I use semi-sweet chocolate chips, Guittard is my favorite brand. You can use dark chocolate or milk chocolate chips.
Butter– I use unsalted butter.
Unsweetened chocolate– make sure you use unsweetened chocolate, you can find it in the baking aisle.
Buttermilk– to keep the cake super moist.
Vanilla extract– always vanilla!
Cocoa powder– you can use unsweetened cocoa or Dutch processed.
Boiling water– to pour over the cake. I know it sounds weird, but this is the secret to the pudding cake! Make sure your water is nice and HOT!

How to Make Chocolate Pudding Cake

Preheat the oven and grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan and set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, 1 cup of the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Whisk until well combined. If there are lumps of brown sugar, use your hands to break them up. Stir in chocolate chips and set aside.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter and unsweetened chocolate together over medium-low heat.
In a separate small saucepan, heat buttermilk over low heat until barely warmed. You don't want it to bubble or boil. Remove from heat.
Remove chocolate and butter mixture from heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour mixture over dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk and stir until combined. Spread into the prepared pan.
Combine the remaining 1 ¼ cups brown sugar with the cocoa in a small bowl. Whisk until smooth, using your hands to break up any brown sugar clumps. Sprinkle mixture evenly over the chocolate cake batter.
Pour the boiling water evenly over the cake. Yes, it will look like a mess, but I promise this is how you make the pudding cake.
Bake until the center is firm to the touch. Your house will smell like chocolate heaven.

How to Serve

Let the cake cool on a cooling rack for at least 30 minutes before serving so the cake has time to set up.

To serve, invert each serving on a plate so that the fudge sauce on the bottom becomes a topping. Spoon any extra sauce in the pan over the top.

I like to serve the cake warm with vanilla ice cream, but it's good plain too. If you want to eat it right out of the pan with a spoon, go for it!

How to Store

Let the pudding cake cool to room temperature; cover and store in the refrigerator for up to one week. You can reheat in the microwave, for about 30 seconds or in a 350 degree F preheated oven. The cake will get gooey again after it is heated up.

Cake