Chocolate Fudge Cake with the BEST Chocolate Frosting ever!
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A moist chocolate fudge cake sponge, topped & filled with THE BEST chocolate frosting you will ever make!

So let me introduce to you the only chocolate fudge cake recipe that you are ever going to need. I realise saying that this contains the BEST chocolate frosting ever is quite a statement, but I honestly think it is – its so delicious! I also realised after my Facebook requests post that I hadn’t actually posted my go-to chocolate cake recipe!
This recipe is what I’d make a bruce cake out of to make a Matilda cake, it’s the cake I would use when I am craving chocolate, it’s the recipe I would use if you want something epic and indulgent – it is epic.

A classic bake
When I posted my recipe for my Victoria sponge – celebration cake I knew you all loved the classics, so I hope this suits well too! However, this cake is so much more indulgent. You can easily make a chocolate version of my Victoria sponge, but this is definitely more dense, and more chocolatey. It’s basically heaven in a bite.
This is the sort of cake that you want to have a slice, and then shove it all in your face. Yes its gooey, and has many more ingredients then you think it probably should have, but it is WORTH IT. Honestly, worth it. It also does seem a little faffy, but again.. its worth it!
Layering it up with the best frosting on the planet, and you will want to devour every single crumb. Because of how it bakes however, it can often take a long time in the oven, and even sometimes less. It’s all down to the mixing!


The cake mix
This recipe will sound like a lot of ingredients, but it’s worth it. Melt the chocolate and butter, and then mix everything into one big bowl… you don’t need a mixer for this bit.
- Chocolate – when making this, you want to use dark chocolate in the mixture for best results. I always use 70%+
- Butter – unsalted butter, or baking spread, will work for the sponges
- Coffee – this is mentioned below, but trust me…
- Flour – I use plain flour, as your raising agents come elsewhere so you don’t need self raising flour. It’ll make the sponge too delicate
- Cocoa – I like my cake super chocolatey, so I add this in as well as the chocolate
- Raising agents – baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda for this beauty of a cake
- Sugar – a mixture of brown sugar and caster sugar is wonderful – all of one, or all of the other works perfectly though
- Eggs – I use medium eggs in my baking, but 3 large would work instead of 4 medium
- Buttermilk – this is an important ingredient – you can make your own though with 1tsp of lemon juice mixed into 75ml milk


Coffee
Chocolate cake is one of those classics that you don’t want to mess with, but sometimes they can be terrible, or not chocolatey enough, or just not moist enough. I have seen over the past few months that people use coffee or instant coffee in a chocolate cake of forms to make the cake more moist and chocolatey – so I tried this!
I personally cannot taste the coffee, and neither could my family – however, If you don’t like coffee, or never buy it then no worries – you can use just water, but the depth of flavour might not be the same!! Please please PLEASE trust in using the coffee though – I really am sure that you will love it! It just makes it basically the best sponge ever!!!

The BEST EVER frosting
The magical ingredient in the chocolate frosting is the evaporated milk – I discovered this after trawling through the internet for hours on end and found a couple of mentions that it might be better – and holy smokes it was.
- Butter – for this frosting, you MUST use a block butter. You do not want to use any form of spread
- Sugar – icing sugar, as always
- Cocoa – a nice rich cocoa powder is best, I use a 100% cocoa powder
- Vanilla – a little bit of vanilla, as always again
- Evaporated milk – this is so important. Condensed milk is not a substitute, if you can’t get evaporated milk, add double cream whipped in really well, but it’s still not quite the same


Tips & tricks
I do NOT use an electric mixer for this cake recipe, because it will most likely over do it. I just do each bit by hand, and then fold it all together to get a thick fudge cake that bakes to perfection. However, a mixer is good for the frosting side of things!
It is very soft, so it can be difficult if you want to spread the cake in buttercream, so I find its easier just to make layers. If you do want to cover it, you’ll need to refrigerate the cake for 30 minutes to firm it slightly first, and it’ll be easier
- This cake will last for 3-4+ days at room temp
- You can freeze this cake for 3+ months
- I use this cocoa powder
- I use this dark chocolate
- I use these cake tins for this bake


Chocolate Fudge Cake with the BEST Chocolate Frosting Ever!
Ingredients
Cake Ingredients
- 225 g dark chocolate
- 225 g unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp instant coffee granules
- 125 ml boiling water
- 175 g plain flour
- 25 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200 g white/golden caster sugar
- 200 g light brown sugar
- 4 medium eggs
- 75 ml buttermilk
Chocolate Frosting
- 250 g unsalted butter (not stork)
- 500 g icing sugar
- 50 g cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 100-125 ml evaporated milk
Decorations
- Sprinkles
- Anything!
Instructions
For the Cake!
- Preheat the oven to 160ºc/140ºc fan and grease & line two 8″/20cm cake tins – leave to the side.
- In a heatproof bowl, microwave the dark chocolate & butter until melted
- Pour the coffee granules into the boiling water and mix – add the coffee to the chocolate/butter mix and stir well until smooth!
- In a separate large bowl add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, bicarb, sugars and mix well so the ingredients are all mixed with each other well
- Mix the eggs with the buttermilk – and then add all the ingredients together and stir
- Pour the mixture into the two tins and bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes (can take a little longer in some ovens)
- Once baked leave to cool in the tin and remove afterwards
For the Frosting!
- With an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter until its very smooth and supple (couple of minutes)
- Gradually add the icing sugar & cocoa powder alternatively with the evaporated milk until all is incorporated and add the vanilla essence – beat for a couple of minutes so its extra smooth & creamy.
- The more evaporated milk you add the more runny it’ll be, and I have found about 100ml-125ml is perfect for me! If it's a little hotter weather however, you may find you need less!
For the Decoration!
- Decorate your cake how you like and ENJOY! I spread half my buttercream on the first cake, add the second sponge and repeat!
- And then I sprinkle on all sorts of sprinkles!
Notes
- This cake will last for 3-4+ days at room temp
- You can freeze this cake for 3+ months
- I use this cocoa powder
- I use this dark chocolate
- I use these cake tins for this bake
ENJOY!
Find my other Cake Recipes on my Recipes Page!
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J x
© Jane’s Patisserie. All images & content are copyright protected. Do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words and credit me, or link back to this post for the recipe.
Can you warm this cake up in the micro, like other fudge cakes?
Does anyone know if you could use self raising flour in this recipe instead of plain flour, or would this not work?
Hiya! You need to use plain flour, not self raising. x
I’m wanting to make this as a 10inch cake how would you adapt the recipe?
Fantastic chocolatey moist cake. A recipe I will use again especially as it wasn’t too sweet. You get two generous layers. The butter cream was enough for the middle (I used 300g), top and sides. It so nice when you get a recipe that actually works.
Hi Jane
What percentage of cocoa in the chocolate do you use- i have 70% or should i go more?
Always 70% or more! x
Hiya, I’m planning on baking this however I’m unable to find dark chocolate for baking which is 70% or more. I have dark chocolate from the baking aisle but it only has 54%. Will this be okay? I’ve always used this for other bakes before so hoping it will be okay! Thanks x
Made the chocolate back to basics recipe which is great but used the frosting recipe from this cake which is beautiful. Can I freeze this buttercream and also would you be able to do anormal buttercream recipe and add evaporated milk.
Love your recipes
Hiya! All buttercream can be frozen for 3+ months and then brought back to room temp and mixed again.x
Hi, I’ve just made this cake for the second time for my birthday cake, it was perfect again, but my boyfriend pointed out that there’s no salt in the recipe? Or any of your cake recipes. Can I ask why you don’t add salt to any of your cake recipes? Thank you!
Hiya! This is just how I’ve written the recipes and what I perfer, though if you’d like to add salt the of course please do! Hope this helps! x
Hi Jane, I would like to make this cake in a roasting tin roughly A4 size, doubling up the recipe, would I be able to slice the cake through the middle to add the cream or would the cake be too soft and fall apart? I have both your books, would a different recipe be better, what would you recommend. Many thanks for your great recipes and advice.
Oh wow made this for my Husband’s birthday and everyone loved it. Tasted delicious. I have both your books and have baked a lot of your recipes. The instructions are easy to follow and all turn out amazing. Never had a fail yet. Thanks Jane x
Hi I have made a basic chocolate sponge but would like to use this filling would it be chocolaty enough or should I add some melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder ? Thanks x
Will dark brown sugar be ok instead of light?
Yes this should be fine, it will just change the flavour ever so slightly! Hope this helps! x
Would this cake be suitable to stack? I’m looking at doing an 8inch and 6inch? Or would it be too soft?
It will be supported with dowels.
Thanks very much
Hiya! Yes, if supported with dowels then it should be fine! Hope this helps! x
How much would increase this recipe by to make a 3 layer 10inch cake?
Hi, I made this cake last night and this morning (2 layers last night and 2 this morning). Both times it took over an hour to cook and was a brownie like crust on top, however skewer came out clean and seems nice and soft. Followed the recipe to a T and mixed it just enough to get rid of any lumps so don’t feel like it was overmixed. Any idea why it would come out like that on top? Thank you.
Hiya! As this is a fudge cake – these are naturally denser and with a more ‘brownie’ like texture. Hope this helps! x
Just made this evening and mine also took waaaay longer
than stated. My oven is old but other JP cakes come out
amazingly well. Also mine domed a lot on the top, not as
thick a cake but smell pretty good.
With lashings of frosting and sprinkles, I don’t think anyone is going to judge me for the height of my sponge 😉
Hi my comments keep deleting for some reason so apologies if I have posted 3 times. I have three questions. I made this chocolate cake for my friends 7 year old daughter and have frozen the sponge and now been thinking maybe the coffee flavour might be too overpowering for children? Would you say that’s right? Also I have stupidly added self raising flour rather than plain. Is this sponge ruined? Plus if I do take the coffee out do I still add the water? Thanks Dawn
Hiya! How did it turn out? Also, the coffee is not overpowering at all you can’t taste it I promise, its to enhance the chocolate flavour! Hope this helps! x
Hi, can I make the sponges the night before decorating? How should I store it please?
I would just place them carefully into a cake box or tin, with parchment in between the layers. They are soft sponges so chilling them to handle may make this easier x
Hi Jane
I made this for my husbands birthday and he absolutely loved it. I’m hoping to replicate it for my sons 1st birthday! But he is allergic to eggs, is there any alternative to the eggs in the recipe. Thanks
Hiya! Unfortunately I have not tried this recipe vegan before. Sorry! x
Does it matter if I don’t have buttermilk and cannot make the substitute?
Hiya! Sadly the buttermilk is an important ingredient for the raising agent and the end results. Hope this helps! x
Hi do I need to use all dark chocolate as I have half dark and half milk here. I’ve made it loads with the dark but I haven’t brought enough dark this time
Hiya! For best results, I recommend using all dark chocolate yes – at least 70% cocoa! Hope this helps! Team Jane x
I used lactose free greek yoghurt instead of buttermilk – turned out fabulous!
Tried this, but when turning out the sponges and then trying to frost them, the sponge disintegrated rendering it someone useless! What did I do wrong? The middle of the sponge was nice and moist?
Hiya! This cake is sadly naturally more delicate. Hope this helps! x