Chocolate Fudge Cake
Hilary contacted me and asked about helping her find a dense, extremely chocolaty and fudgey, chocolate layer cake. So I contacted Chef Terrell Garrett and he sent me this recipe that calls, The Absolute, Ultimate, Deep, Dark and Rich Chocolate Fudge Cake.
With a name like that, who can resist? It’s not a layer cake as requested by Hilary, but I think you will enjoy it like it is.
Chef Garrett say’s “This cake is every chocolate lover’s dream and not your typical cake. It is almost a flour-less chocolate cake and very dense.”
Chocolate Fudge Cake
Yield: 12 very rich and dense servings.
Ingredients:
l pound dark chocolate or 2 2/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter
4 large eggs, separated
1 1/2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon hot water
How to Make Chocolate Fudge Cake at Home
In a saucepan set over low heat, or in a microwave, melt together the chocolate and butter, stirring till smooth. Beat in the egg yolks, one at a time, then add the flour, sugar and hot water, stirring till smooth.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites till stiff but not dry. Fold them into the chocolate mixture. Spoon the batter into a greased 8-inch round cake pan, which you’ve lined with parchment paper. Bake the cake in a preheated 425 degrees F oven for 15 minutes (cake won’t look done in the center). Remove the cake from the oven, leaving it in the cake pan, and cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Remove the cake from the pan, place it on a plate and serve topped with sweetened whipped cream.
on April 12th, 2007 at 7:11 am
I asked Chef Garrett to describe how he would “beat” the egg yolks and egg whites in his recipe. He said,
“Beat either with a hand-held mixer or a standing mixer such as Kitchen Aid, until well mixed but don’t overdo it by beating in too much air. Remember, you’re looking for a dense cake and this is surely it. ”
When I asked him if you could use a common kitchen whisk, he said
“A whisk will work fine for the eggs. I wouldn’t try one with the rest of the recipe for the chocolate cake, however. The mixture is just too dense. It would require a lot of muscle and would also clog up the whisk. “
on April 17th, 2007 at 12:53 am
hi, can you recommend an easy to cook chocolate frosting that will go with this chocolate fudge cake?
thanks in advance.
Karen
on April 17th, 2007 at 11:52 pm
Hi Karen
I don’t think you want any icing for this cake except the whipped cream I suggested in the recipe, because this cake is so rich anything that is regular icing based would be overkill.
I suggest you try serving it with the whipped cream first to see if you really want to do anything else.
Chef Terrell
on April 23rd, 2007 at 11:02 am
How many will this serve?
on April 23rd, 2007 at 11:03 am
I see the 12 servings - but only an 8-inch pan. Serve thin like a cheesecake, then?
on April 25th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
Dear Reluctant Gourmet,
I thought I would try this chocolate cake recipe today - seemed very simple, and so it was. PLEASE tell me what went wrong with this dessert I’ve been dreaming of ever since I read the recipe:
My cake rose in the pan - looked absolutely gorgeous. With 7 minutes to go, I left the room - came back when I heard the oven ping. And … the kitchen smelt like something was burning. In the oven was a BLACK beautifully domed cake with a charred crust. Oh Well! Determined not to be disappointed, I left it to cool. An hour later I put it into the frig. 2 hours later the dome has deflated and cracked. The outermost layer is hard (burnt) about a 0.5cm ring is sort of cooked and the rest is still molten liquid chocolate.
So what went wrong?
I thought that 425 deg was too high but I always try a recipe exactly per instructions for the first time before I decide how I want to change it. I wish I’d gone with my gut feeling and used a lower temperature. Any thoughts that can help? I was keen to try this out before I made it for company I’ve invited over next week.
Disappointed and deflated!
Veronica
on April 28th, 2009 at 6:05 am
Hi Veronica,
Thanks for telling us about your experience with this recipe. I emailed Chef Garrett to tell him about your experiences and see what he has to say, but have not heard back from him yet.
I also contacted my friend Chef Jenni Field who is a pastry chef and here is what she had to say,
“Since the entire baking time is only 15 minutes, I have a hard time believing that, after only 7-8 minutes it was doming and rising. My only thought would be that they set the oven to 425C instead of F–if such a thing is even possible on a home oven.
Having said that, I’ve never seen a cake baked at such a high temp–a muffin, yes, but not a cake. Even so, I can’t imagine that 15 minutes was enough to burn the crust through to a depth of 5 mm unless the oven was set at an extremely high temperature.
Personally, I would have baked it at 325F. Chocolate–and the bulk of this cake is made of pure chocolate–is very delicate and burns at temperatures over 140F. ”
Hope that helps.
on May 1st, 2009 at 10:38 am
Thanks for that response. My oven only does Farenheit so I couldn’t have gone wrong there. Also I’ve never had a problem with other recipes and when cakes call for a 350 deg oven, this one does just fine. I also did a check with placing a thermometer in it, and its pretty close to true heat.
I wait with interest to see if Chef Garrett has any advise on this.
Meanwhile … no chocolate is ever lost in this home. With a chocoholic husband and son, it has been spooned out of the pan in great delight and gone down the hatch just the same!
on May 11th, 2009 at 3:41 pm
i think that fudge cake was totally the best cake ever
on May 23rd, 2009 at 10:39 am
Fudgealicous
on June 5th, 2009 at 9:59 pm
I love to bake cakes but my cakes never come out good. plz tell me the temp and time at which i should bake if i am using a microwave. please help.
thanks
on July 1st, 2009 at 12:07 pm
Before I make the cake, did you find out if the baking temperature is 425 or should it be 325.
on July 1st, 2009 at 12:37 pm
I have not heard back from the chef so I would go with 325 degrees F.
on July 10th, 2009 at 6:57 am
This looks great! I’m going to try it for my family since they are pretty much my test subjects! haha
-Devin
on September 8th, 2009 at 3:40 am
i like this a lot, the juicy chocolate fudge yum :);)
on December 15th, 2009 at 3:15 pm
I am only 11 years old and the cake turned out perfect.My family were very proud and it tasted delicious. The only thing that i had to change was the duration of time it was in the oven. I only kept it in 10 more minutes ,other than that it was perfectly wonderful!
Hi Jiva, I’m thrilled the recipe worked for you. Thanks for sharing. - RG
on April 5th, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Hi, just tried this cake, it looked amazing and I’ve been dreaming of it for a while. So finished baking it yesterday, and tried it today. I substituted stevia in the raw for sugar and unsweetened coco powder melted with butter for the semi-sweet chocolate. I had to put lots of stevia in order to sweeten the unsweetened powder, and I tasted it before mixing everything together. The texture was wonderful, but it had a bitter aftertaste. Any suggestions to making it again with unsweetened cocoa powder or unsweetened baking chocolate squares and stevia? What ratio stevia should I be using for coco powder or for baking squares? Should I use a sugar alcohol instead? The stevia I’m using is branded “no aftertaste”, soo…. not enough stevia to chocolate ratio?
Hi Randa, for those not familiar with stevia including myself, it is a South American herb that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years. Saying that, I’m not sure what ratio you should use of stevia with coco powder and hope someone reading this blog with more insight lets us all know. Otherwise, I would suggest you contact one of the companies that markets this product and hopefully let us know what you find out. - RG
on April 23rd, 2010 at 4:28 am
Lovely
on August 17th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
To Randa. This is cake, CAKE I SAY!, forget stevia ect and eat CAKE. Maybe don’t eat too much but eat CAKE.