Hot fudge cake is rich chocolate cake that creates a warm, decadent fudge sauce as it bakes. This decadent cake is a sundae waiting to happen—just add ice cream!
Hot fudge cake is a long time family favorite recipe I’ve been meaning to share for quite a while. Quite honestly, the cake itself is so easy to assemble, and so deliciously sloppy to serve that I kind of forget about photographing it for the blog.
Sloppy food is hard to photograph to look tantalizing. Sometimes I need to remember something that my friend Joan once said, and that is that looks don’t matter as long as it tastes good. Joan insisted that the key to her wildly successful blog Chocolate, Chocolate and More was not that her photos were perfectly styled. In fact, she laughed as she said that some of her most popular recipes had the worst food photographs ever! But, she believed that her imperfect photos made the recipes look like something anyone could make.
Joan embraced the imperfections, because that is what made us real people, and not just cute gravatars and logos behind the plethora of food blogs on the internet. We used to joke that Joan had the “magic touch”, because every recipe she touched went viral.
-photo courtesy of Shanna Schad
Joan passed away suddenly and peacefully in her sleep last week, dying of a heart attack. In her wake, she leaves behind three beautiful children that she loved more than life itself, dear family members that were her foundation, and a veritable army of friends that will miss her every day.
Like many of my food blogger friends, I can’t stop thinking about Joan this week. I think of how she so freely gave advice and generously mentored dozens of food bloggers as we try to carve out a niche in the online food industry. I think of how she unfailingly lifted others up and shared content from unknown blogs like mine, just because she liked what she saw. Joan didn’t care about how “big” someone was or wasn’t. She didn’t care about anyone’s statistics as she offered guidance, nor did she offer advice to someone only if it would also benefit her. Joan cared about people. She was one of the most kind-hearted and generous women that I have been blessed to know.
Joan once told me not to compare myself to anyone else, because no one can do what I do in quite the same way. She finished by saying, “You just do YOU and don’t give a crap about stats or numbers! No one can tell your story like you do.” It’s advice that resonates daily.
So this week, as I shed tears for a friend that I never had the pleasure to meet in person, my heart breaks for Joan’s children. They lost their mother, while I’m holding my boys a little (a lot) tighter. I’m reading about symptoms of heart disease in women, and spreading the word so that another mother might live to hug her babies another day. I encourage you to do the same.
I’m also eating copious amounts of chocolate because I know that Joan would want it that way. I think that Joan would’ve loved this hot fudge cake, because it’s very chocolaty, as well as an easy “dump” cake recipe.
Dump cakes are made by “dumping” all of the ingredients into the baking pan, then giving them a quick stir before baking. The resulting cake bakes up deliriously rich, with a decadent hot fudge sauce swimming underneath, appearing as if by magic in the oven.
Joan’s blog will continue as her legacy. Each visit and click on her blog will generate revenue that goes directly to her children. Her advertisers are also donating their portion of revenue back to Joan’s family through the busy holiday recipe season. This is HUGE! So when you are searching for easy, delicious recipes, please consider searching the thousands of recipes on Joan’s website.
I hope you enjoy the hot fudge cake recipe. I know that Joan did.
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
Kirsten Kubert
Yields 8
Rich chocolate cake that makes a warm, decadent fudge sauce as it bakes. Hot Fudge Cake is a sundae waiting to happen—just add ice cream!
15 minPrep Time
45 minCook Time
1 hrTotal Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1 C. all-purpose flour
- 3/4 C. granulated sugar
- 1/4 C. plus 2 Tbs. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tsp. baking powder, divided
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. instant espresso powder
- 1/2 cup 2% milk
- 2 Tbs. canola oil
- 1 Tbs. vanilla extract
- 3/4 C. packed light brown sugar
- 1 1/2 C. very hot water
- vanilla ice cream
- whipped cream
- candy sprinkles
- candied cherries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons of the unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder, salt, and instant espresso powder in a small, round 1.6 liter baking dish (or use a 9 x 9 x 2 square pan). Pour the milk, canola oil, and vanilla into the baking dish, whisking to form a thick batter. Do not stir the batter after this point.
- First sprinkle the brown sugar over top of the batter, and then sprinkle the remaining 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder over the brown sugar. Pour the hot water over all. (Remember not to stir the layers.)
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top of the cake is set and dry on top, but still very soft and fudgy underneath.
- To serve, immediately scoop the cake into serving dishes, topping with vanilla ice cream and spooning the hot sauce over top. Add other toppings, as desired.
Notes
For optimal flow of the fudge sauce, Hot Fudge Cake is best served immediately upon removing from the oven.
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