Hello!
This weekend went by far too fast – I wanted to share this recipe with you yesterday, but here we are! Why do I always seem to think there’s more time than there is?
If you’re still reeling too, I can guarantee this Mars Bar Chocolate Loaf Cake will help make things a whooooole lot better.
I LOVE a loaf cake, don’t you? They feel so comfortingly non-fancy (not that I don’t like fancy cakes, hello rainbow cake!), easy and straightforward. LOVE.
Don’t think easy to make means boring though. This Mars Bar Chocolate Loaf Cake has a triple hit of chocolate, with chocolate chunks, cocoa powder and that mars bar glaze…
I’ve made this chocolate loaf cake recipe many times. A good, customisable recipe to have up your sleeve is so handy! You can finish it off however you like – with whipped cream and strawberries would be yummy, or simply sliced warm and eaten with vanilla ice cream.
WHAT I DID is make a Mars Bar sauce to top it with, then decorate with more Mars Bar slices! When I was a teenager and sleepovers were all the rage (I would totally still have them now if it didn’t involve sleeping on the floor too), me and my friends used to make a very simple no-bake dessert using melted mars bars and double cream that helped inspire this recipe!
As you can imagine, a lot of the sauce didn’t make it into any containers to set, just directly from the saucepan to our mouths…
The yummy glaze doesn’t end up tasting actually like a mars bar, more like a delicious caramel chocolate sauce. If you prefer, you could leave glaze plain and beautiful, or sprinkle on some flakes of chocolate or pretty bright sprinkles (or your other favourite chocolate bar if it’s not a mars!).
This cake is just as easy to make as it is to slice and eat, with cup of tea after cup of tea. Simple, reliable, and delicious, this it the recipe you need when you want ultimate chocolate fudginess, but with less effort.
The mixture of light and dark brown sugar (called light muscavado and dark muscavado sugar) in this recipe are what give the cake it’s intense chocolate flavour. That combination, along with the yoghurt, helps to keep this cake moist and chocolatey for days too!
- For the cake:
- 175g unsalted butter, very soft
- 125g light brown sugar
- 1 tbsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 50g dark brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- up to 35ml milk
- 1 heaped tbsp greek yoghurt
- 175g self-raising flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 4tbsp cocoa powder
- 100g milk chocolate chunks
- pinch salt
- For the glaze:
- 3 full size mars bars (2 to melt, 1 to decorate with)
- 1 small tub double cream (normally 60ml)
- For the cake:
- Preheat your oven to 160C/gas 3 and prepare a large (2lb) loaf tin by lining it with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl, cream together your butter and sugar and then beat in your three eggs, one at a time. Add the vanilla and salt, and mix in.
- Next, sift in the self-raising flour and cocoa powder to remove any lumps, and finally, stir in the chocolate chunks. Add enough milk (you can also use almond milk or other milk substitutes) until the batter is loose and glossy.
- Pour the batter into your loaf tin, then bake for 45 minutes (check after 40 minutes but it could need a few minutes longer). It's done when a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean (unless you hit a pocket of molten chocolate of course, but that will look like melted chocolate, not cake batter!).
- For the glaze:
- In a saucepan on a low heat, warm the tub of double cream and add the two Mars bars, cut up into chunks. Let the chocolate melt, stirring gently all the time. Once the glaze is cooled slightly and thickened, pour over the top of your loaf cake and top with more chopped up mars bar or chocolate chunks.
Cocoa Powder Geek Talk
You can, of course, use whatever cocoa powder you have to hand to make this cake, but if you love baking, I’d recommend stocking up on this amazing Callebaut cocoa powder. It’s the best I’ve ever tried (I don’t have any relationship with the brand!).
Happy baking!
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Nicky says
April 12, 2016 at 12:18 pmOh wow that sounds amazing! I love those decent sized chunks of Mars Bar on top too. I’m a bit of a chocoholic, so most of that sauce would probably end up in my belly before getting to the cake 🙂
Kerry Cooks says
April 12, 2016 at 12:36 pmDon’t worry, that happened here too but it makes enough to have some for the cake too! 🙂
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours says
April 12, 2016 at 12:02 pmOh that does sound good! I do like yoghurt in cakes, makes them far moister. love the idea of the Mars bar glaze!
Helen @ family-friends-food.com says
April 12, 2016 at 11:13 amThat looks totally amazing, and I would happily eat a slice or two RIGHT NOW. I know what you mean about the weekend, too. Where did it go?!
Kerry Cooks says
April 12, 2016 at 2:51 pmHaha, I’m still searching for it! 🙂