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I made this Chocolate Fudge Cake with Caramel Frosting for my partner’s 30th birthday and it was SUCH a hit that I knew I needed to share it! It’s my absolute favourite chocolate cake recipe combined with an easy caramel frosting. The cake is pretty foolproof and the buttercream makes use of pre-made caramel for extra ease.
This is a fantastic celebration cake. Feel free to half the quantities of ingredients if making for fewer people, as it is rather large! The cake relies on lots of liquids, and has oil as the base rather than butter for a really moist and rich cake. It also has a whole hot chocolate poured into the batter for extra chocolate goodness. The frosting is made using just butter, caramel/dulce de leche and icing sugar. I use the squeeze bottles of caramel you can find in most UK supermarkets, but any pre-made jar/tin will work!
This cake is a really fabulous option for birthdays, celebrations or just to make on a Sunday when you fancy putting some time into creating something delicious. You could opt to make a naked cake or just add frosting in between layers instead of all over. I do find this to be fairly heavy, but just what you want for big occasions!
Allow yourself enough time for the cake to cool before frosting. Hands on time is entirely up to you depending on how special you want the decoration to be! The buttercream makes enough to top the entire cake. Adjust if you want to pipe extra on top, or if you only want to use a little.
Tips for the best Chocolate Fudge Cake with Caramel Frosting
- Cocoa Powder: As this is a key part of any chocolate cake, try to get yourself the higher quality variety.
- Batter: The batter will be fairly runny, but that’s what keeps it moist. Be careful when pouring it into the tin, but trust the process!
- Oil: Use vegetable or sunflower. Try not to use anything flavoured like extra virgin olive oil or peanut oil, otherwise this will overpower the other flavours.
- Buttercream: Make sure your butter is room temperature before using to prevent the mixture splitting/becoming grainy.
- Hot Chocolate: I essentially make a hot chocolate to pour into the batter. This is where the hot chocolate powder, boiling water and milk come in. This just adds an extra chocolate-y moisture bomb.
I make my Chocolate Fudge Cake with Caramel Frosting 8″ circular cake tins (just like these) and recommend a high speed mixer for when combining the dry and wet ingredients (with a mixer like this).
Chocolate Fudge Cake with Caramel Frosting
Ingredients
- 350 g Plain Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 2 tsp Baking Soda
- 4 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 300 g Granulated Sugar
- 4 tsp Hot Chocolate Powder
- 200 ml Boiling Water
- 120 ml Milk
- 4 Large Free Range Eggs
- 4 tbsp Golden Syrup or Honey/Light Molasses/Light Corn Syrup
- 300 ml Vegetable Oil
For the Buttercream (Enough to cover whole cake)
- 400 g Unsalted Butter Room Temperature
- 900 g Icing Sugar
- 4 tbsp Caramel
- Extra Caramel Optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6. Line 4 x 8" cake tins.
- In a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder, sugar.
- Get the kettle on – essentially we are going to make a hot chocolate. Combine the boiling water, hot chocolate powder and milk in a mug. Set aside.
- Make a well in the dry mix, and add the eggs, syrup and oil. Once thoroughly combined, slowly pour in the hot chocolate mixture until it has all been incorporated. The batter will be fairly thin.
- Pour the batter into the tins and bake for 25 minutes, until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a wire rack.
For the Frosting
- Once cool, make the frosting: beat the butter on high with an electric mixer. Add half the icing sugar and the caramel and combine for several minutes until combined. Add the remaining icing sugar until you reach your desired consistency.
- Layer up the cakes on a board: start with one of the cake rounds, top with buttercream and spread evenly (optional: add extra caramel in the middle). Repeat with each layer.
- If covering the whole cake: Once you've layered up, spread a good amount all over the cake, don't worry too much about keeping it smooth at this point. Let it chill in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
- Add another thick layer of buttercream on the cake, smooth over the top with a spatula and smooth out and around the edges with a tall cake scraper. A cake turntable will make this easier!
- Add any extra decorations (I used some chocolates cut up) and serve!
