Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Espresso Cloud Frosting

There are simply times in every girls life when chocolate cake is a requirement. When I was thinking about what to bake for my blogs 2nd birthday, I though about lots of different cakes. I considered doing a polka dot cake, and researched online for other showstopping cakes, but I just haven’t found anything that excites me as much as Rainbow Cake!

And then it struck me – in the two years that I’ve shared recipes with you here, I have never featured a classic chocolate cake! Since making chocolate cake as a little girl is what originally gave me the baking bug, I thought it was time to rectify that!

I discovered this cake on Pinterest (see my chocolate board here!) and made it for the latest Crafternoon Tea meet up with my lovely crafty friends. It purports to be the best chocolate cake ever and it just might be… not only did it receive rave reviews for its moist sponge and delicious frosting, but its also pretty economical to make, with just two eggs and oil instead of butter (there’s butter in the frosting, don’t worry!) to produce a tall and impressive cake.

Oh and, it’s also super-easy to make – all in one bowl, just mix and bake. To paraphrase Ina Garten, how easy is that?

The original recipe is from Add a Pinch which I adapted slightly to make it more intensely chocolatey and make the frosting a little less sweet, with a delicious espresso flavour. So it became a Chocolate Fudge Cake with Chocolate Espresso Cloud Frosting!

For the cake –

• 2.5 cups plain flour
• 2 cups caster or light caster sugar
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 3/4 cup cocoa
• 100g melted plain/dark chocolate (50%+ cocoa solids)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1.5 tsp espresso powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla essence
• 1 cup boiling water

For the frosting –

• 1 cups butter
• 1 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp espresso powder
• 1/2 cup cream cheese
• 100g melted plain/dark chocolate
• 4 cups icing sugar

First, preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas 4/350F and then lets make a cake! It couldn’t be easier – combine your dry ingredients – flour, sugar, baking powder and bicarb of soda, cocoa powder, salt and espresso powder in a bowl, then prepare your wet ingredients. I used the microwave to melt the dark chocolate and added the wet ingredients to the dry without mixing them together separately first.

It’s a pretty wet batter but don’t worry – just pour it into a well greased tin (I used a 9 inch across, tall tin and baked the whole cake in it and cut it in half – or you could also use sandwich tins).

Pop into the oven for 35-45 minutes, checking on it regularly towards the end of the cooking time, then cool in the tin before turning out.

Now for the frosting! It’s easier in a mixer but you can also make it easily by hand. Combine your very soft butter in a bowl and add the icing sugar, sifting it in one cup at a time along with the cocoa powder and espresso powder and the melted chocolate. Mix until everything is combined, chocolately and gleaming, and finally, add the cold cream cheese.

TRY to resist eating it all in one go so some can make it onto the cake! It’s a fairly loose frosting, so pop it into the fridge to firm up while you’re waiting for your cake to cool.

Then cut the cake in half (or sandwich together if you used two tins) and apply a generous layer of frosting to the middle and then the top and sides. I used my palette knife to smooth it on – chocolate frosting tends to be a dream to work with but if you’re not happy with how smooth it is, dip the palette knife in hot water and wipe it off periodically while you’re frosting the cake.

So there’s your all in one bowl, delicious devils food style chocolate fudge cake! I hope you like it!

x Kerry