Chocolate Fudge Loaf Cake!
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A thick, fudgey and delicious chocolate fudge loaf cake, topped with luscious chocolate fudge buttercream frosting, and more!
Loaf cakes!
Loaf cakes… loaf cakes… I wish I’d known about your popularity before this past year, otherwise I would have done more recipes sooner. I honestly cannot get my head around how popular my loaf cake recipes have been! So, here is another..
My Terry’s Chocolate Orange Loaf Cake, and my Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake have been super popular recently – and I love it! Although, I have had request after request for a really lovely, dense, fudgey and amazing chocolate fudge version, so here it is!
Chocolate fudge loaf cake
I couldn’t resist this from the beginning because you all know how much I adore a chocolate fudge cake. My chocolate fudge cake traybake and the cupcake version have always been popular, but nothing is as popular as the layer cake version! They all directly inspire this one, as they are all based around the same recipe!
As you may be aware, a classic and easy chocolate cake is based around five ingredients, usually. Flour, cocoa powder, eggs, butter and sugar – they make a chocolate Victoria sponge style cake, and I use that style of recipe all the time in my various bakes.. but this one is very very different.
This sponge recipe uses ELEVEN ingredients, so quite different. Flour, cocoa powder, butter, eggs and sugar are still all there, but so is instant coffee, water, dark chocolate, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and buttermilk. This will sound a bit extreme, but trust me – it’s worth it.
Chocolate, butter and coffee
This cake recipe is very easy to make. You need to melt the dark chocolate and butter together until smooth – like you would for the base of a brownie mixture – and dissolve the coffee into the water.
YOU CAN’T TASTE THE COFFEE in the end results.. so PLEASE, trust me here, and use it. The coffee is designed to bring out a rich and delicious chocolate flavour. It’s 100% worth it!!
Dry ingredients
Instead of self raising flour, you use plain flour, baking powder, and bicarbonate – they react with the other ingredients and create the texture you are after! You whisk the dry ingredients together with the sugar into a bowl with just a spatula or something – you really do not need or want to use an electric mixer here.
Eggs and buttermilk
You then whisk the eggs and buttermilk together – buttermilk is there to react with bicarbonate to create a rise in the cake – it’s very different to your regular use of self raising flour!
However, if you don’t want to buy a pot of buttermilk (which is found with the creams in the uk) you can make your own using whole milk (full-fat) and whisking in 1tbsp of lemon juice and leaving it to sit. It will look split almost, but that’s what you want!
Combine and pour
You then combine the three different mixes together, with a whisk – stir as little as possible, pour into the tin and bake! As it’s a loaf cake, it will take a long time to bake – loaf cakes are similar to bundt cakes in that sense.
Tin
I use my favourite 2lb loaf tin as normal, but they can also vary in size (never understood why?!) – so if you think your tin is too full, make a few cupcakes with the spare mix. I usually fill my tin up to about 3/4 full, so by the time it rises, the tin is full!
Frosting
For the frosting, I used the same idea as the best ever frosting ever – evaporated milk being the key ingredient. The only thing is that yes you will have some evaporated milk leftover, but don’t worry, you can freeze it!
Decoration
With loaf cakes I just like to slather the frosting all over the top, or pipe, but it’s up to you – I often use some strawberries and some more chocolate goodies to decorate and it’s done, but that’s up to you – sometimes just chocolates are good! It’s a bit more effort with the ingredients, but otherwise, it’s such an easy cake to bake! I hope you love it!
Chocolate Fudge Loaf Cake!
Ingredients
The Cake
- 175 g dark chocolate
- 175 g unsalted butter
- 2 tsps instant coffee
- 100 ml boiling water
- 135 g plain flour
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 300 g light brown sugar (or caster sugar)
- 3 medium eggs
- 75 ml buttermilk
The Frosting
- 125 g unsalted butter (room temp - not stork/spread)
- 250 g icing sugar
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla (optional)
- 50-75 ml evaporated milk
Decorations
- Sprinkles
- Chocolates
Instructions
For the Cake
- Preheat your oven to 180C/160C Fan, and line a 2lb loaf tin!
- In a microwave proof bowl, add the chocolate and butter and heat and mix until melted. I usually do 30 second bursts!
- Add the coffee granules to a mug, and pour over the boiling water and mix until smooth - add the coffee mix into the chocolate/butter and mix until smooth.
- In a separate bowl, add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and sugar to a large bowl and whisk until distributed.
- In another bowl, mix together the buttermilk and eggs.
- Add the three mixes together - I pour the chocolate/coffee mix and the egg/buttermilk mix into the dry ingredients and fold until smooth. You do not need to use a stand mixer as you may over-mix it.
- Pour the mixture into the lined 2lb loaf tin - bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes, or until baked through!
- Leave to cool fully once baked!
For the Frosting
- Make sure your butter is at room temperature!
- Beat the butter on it's own for a few minutes to soften!
- Add in the icing sugar and cocoa powder 1/2 at a time, and beat until combined.
- Add the vanilla, and then the evaporated milk a little at a time beating fully in-between each go!
Decoration!
- Slather the frosting onto the top of the loaf cake, and then decorate how you want - chocolates and more!
- Sprinkle on your favourite sprinkles and enjoy!
Notes
- This recipe is based on my chocolate fudge cake and chocolate fudge cupcakes with a few changes to suit the loaf cake!
- I used this 2lb loaf tin as always!
- The evaporated milk cannot be switched to condensed milk.
- PLEASE USE THE COFFEE - it just makes it taste more chocolatey, it doesn't taste of coffee.
- You can make your own buttermilk with 75ml full-fat milk, and 1tbsp of lemon juice.
- This cake will last for 3-4 days, at room temp.
ENJOY!
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J x
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Sorry to say the same happened to me as a few other posters and it sank completely in the middle (whilst cooking). I’m an experienced baker and didn’t touch the oven door – it just rose up and sank. Followed to the letter so not sure what went wrong as all the other recipes I’ve followed on this site worked perfectly.
Hi Jane,
If I wanted to make this into a normal size round cake instead of a loaf cake, what would the measurements of the ingredients need to be? Cannot wait to try this x
Have a look at my normal chocolate fudge cake already on my blog..! x
Greetings! Do you have a substitute for evaporated milk?
I’d like to make it in a 9×13 inch pan. How long should I bake it? Half the time perhaps?
Greetings, do you have the nutritional values?. My daughter is Type 1 Diabetic, and it would be a treat for her to have a small slice. Or if possible I’d love to request a cake aimed at diabetics. Much appreciated, kind regards.
This is the best chocolate cake I’ve ever made, it’s so delicious!! Trouble is, it always bubbles over the top of the tin and always sinks in the middle…any tips for this please?
Sounds like your tin is smaller than mine – so you need to use less mixture! 2lb loaf tins can vary greatly so only fill 2/3 of the way!
Amazing, thank you.
Mine has just done the same. Thought I’d done something wrong but just read Jane’s comment about the size of the tin.
I gave my son the choice of every cake on your website and he chose this one. It’s come out perfectly and I have a very happy 17 year old birthday boy. Not often I get a spontaneous hug nowadays but this cake got me a huge hug.
Another amazing recipe! First chocolate cake I’ve ever baked and came out perfect. Not too sickly and the frosting perfectly balances the the dark chocolate in the cake. Can’t wait until the book comes out!
Hey! Ahh thank you so much this is so lovely. I know, neither can I, it is so exciting xx
Easy to make,a few ingredients I didn’t have,like the buttermilk and evaporated milk..and I found out my loaf tin isn’t a 2lb one!!!😂
The cake took a while to cook,maybe another 15 mins on top of what it says here,but my oven is a bit like that anyway.
Cake is dense,fudgey,chocolatey and super tasty! Am yet to make the frosting but will do toast.
If anyone’s worried about the coffee,you honestly cannot taste it.
I’ll definitely be trying other recipes after finding this one so easy(once I’ve bought a bigger loaf tin!!!!)
Hi,
I use this recipe and I love it. I was just wondering if I wanted to do this again but just to make a large batch of cupcakes how many cupcakes would I be able to make? I was thinking 18 but wasn’t sure.
Hi Jane,
Is it possible to freeze this cake please?
Thanks x
Yes it can be frozen!!
Made for a friend’s birthday – went down a storm! Thank you 🙂
Hi Jane, would it be possible to halve this recipe for use in a 1lb loaf tin, rather than a 2lb? Thanks 🙂
Yes that should be okay! x
I’ve made this cake before and it was lush! I want to make a loaf cake with a hidden heart in the middle- if I put cooked cake in heart shapes into this mixture would it be too runny or would it be okay? Hopefully that makes sense!?
This mixture is quite runny to be honest – I would use a more classic mix compared to fudge cake!
Okay- ‘l will just use the recipe from your creme egg one thank you!