Chocolate Fudge Drip Cake Recipe

Sep 22

Sep 22 Chocolate Fudge Drip Cake Recipe

Chocolate fudge cake can be eaten now! Woohoo for Autumn you beautiful, beautiful season. Woolly hats, cosy jumpers, pumpkin spice in everything. Autumn is bae!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the endless watermelons of summer but Autumn means looser clothes, comfort food, hot chocolate, rain serving as a constant, valid excuse to be anti-social, LOVE it!

This particular chocolate cake recipe has a really special place in my heart. This is the cake that my favourite aunt would bake for us on our birthday and it always reminds me of feeling special. For that one day, my family were eating this awesome cake because of me. I was a very self-centred child. Over the years, I’ve pimped up the toppings but I never deviate from the sponge recipe cos it’s ace! Mainly because it’s the easiest sponge I’ve ever come across, there’s no separating or creaming or folding. Literally, just bung it all in bowl and whisk, job done.

It was this aunt who taught me to bake and I remember asking her where the recipe came from when I was little because usually she would have this one, go-to, book (the Be-Ro book) but her chocolate cake recipe was on a little piece of card. I had visions of it being handed down through the generations only to be told, “some wuman wrote intae the teletext wi it and we thought, let’s gie it a go”. Ah the teletext, the internet of the 80’s. Whoever that ‘wuman’ was, thank you so much! It’s been a Colligan staple for over 30 years now and it ain’t going anywhere for the next 30.

What You'll Need

Sponge

9 eggs
18oz sugar
15oz self-raising flour
6oz cocoa
12oz butter

Toppings

200g fudge
100g dark chocolate
150ml double cream
2 cups butter
5 cups icing sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract

Method

Line 3, 8-inch cake pans with parchment paper
Combine 3 eggs, 6oz sugar, 5oz flour, 2oz cocoa, 4oz of butter and 3 tbsp of boiling water
Mix with an electric whisk until smooth, careful not to over-work it
Repeat until you have 3 batches and pour into the 3 lined pans
Bake at 180C for 45-55mins, until a skewer comes out clean
Leave to cool in the pans for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack
When completely cool, level out the tops

Wrap in cling film and place in the freezer for 1 hour
In a bowl, mix together 2 cups of butter, 5 cups of icing sugar and 2tsp of vanilla with an electric whisk
Use this vanilla frosting to layer between the sponges, stacking them one on top of the other. On the top layer, I like to flip the sponge upside down to have a more even, flat surface to work with
Finally, coat the outside with a layer of frosting, smoothing with a palette knife so that the dark chocolate colour of the sponges shows through

Return to the fridge for 30 minutes
Transfer the remaining frosting to 3 piping bags with small, flower-style tips
Add the chocolate to a bowl, breaking it into small pieces
In a pot, warm 150ml of double cream until just boiling and pour this over the chocolate. Be sure to remove the cream from the heat quickly or it will boil over
Leave the cream and chocolate to sit for a few minutes and then stir together, it should create a smooth, creamy ganache
When the ganache has cooled, transfer to a piping bag and cut a small hole in the bottom
With the piping bag, create drips of ganache across the top of the cake. Don’t overthink this part, I messed up a few times but that’s what the fudge is for, to cover any mistakes

Leave the chocolate to cool for 30 minutes
Pipe the frosting on top in a crescent moon shape
Slice 2/3 of the fudge into thin squares, chop the remainder into small cubes

Place the larger squares on top of the frosting at an angle and round the sides
Sprinkle the smaller cubes around the larger ones

Ta Dah ! A chocolate fudge drip cake, all for you. If I may, I'd recommend sitting down with a cup of really good coffee, switching off life and eating a giant piece all to yourself. Enjoy!