Creamy Slice

Fudgy Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel

A dense, dark, coffee-deepened chocolate cake, baked in one tin and finished with warm salted caramel poured over each slice.

Total
1 hr
Prep
20 min
Bake
40 min
Serves
10
Level
Easy
Tin
20 cm springform
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Every chocolate cake recipe promises fudgy and most deliver dusty. The difference is liquid: this batter holds nearly half a litre of it between the buttermilk and the hot coffee, which is why it pours like a thin sauce and bakes into something closer to a baked truffle than a sponge.

The coffee is not there to taste of coffee. It blooms the cocoa and sharpens the chocolate, the same way a pinch of salt sharpens anything sweet. You will not find it on the finished plate.

Make the caramel while the cake cools and pour it warm, at the table, over each slice. It is the one part worth doing in front of people.

Ingredients

For the cake

For the salted caramel

To finish

You will need

  • 20 cm springform tin
  • Balloon whisk
  • Heavy saucepan
  • Wire rack

Method

Oven 180°C · fan 160°C · 350°F

  1. Heat the oven and line the tin

    Heat the oven to 180°C / 160°C fan. Butter a 20 cm springform tin and line the base with baking paper. Butter the paper too, because this cake is fudgy enough to cling.

    Tip Brew the coffee now so it is genuinely hot when it goes in. Hot liquid blooms the cocoa and is what makes the crumb dark rather than dusty.

  2. Whisk the dry ingredients

    In a large bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa, sugar, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt until no cocoa streaks remain. Break up any lumps against the side of the bowl with the whisk.

  3. Add the wet ingredients

    Make a well in the centre. Add the eggs, oil, buttermilk and vanilla, and whisk from the middle outwards until just smooth. Stop the moment the flour disappears.

  4. Pour in the hot coffee

    Pour the hot coffee down the side of the bowl and whisk it through. The batter will go alarmingly thin, and that is correct. Pour it into the tin.

    Tip A thin batter bakes into a moist crumb. Do not be tempted to add more flour.

  5. Bake for 40 minutes

    Bake for 38–42 minutes, until the top springs back and a skewer comes out with a few damp crumbs but no wet batter. Start checking at 35 minutes.

    Oven mitts sliding the springform tin out of a glowing oven

  6. Make the caramel while it cools

    Cool the cake in its tin for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the sugar in a heavy pan over a medium heat without stirring, swirling the pan, until it is a deep amber. Take it off the heat, whisk in the butter a cube at a time, then the warm cream. It will bubble furiously. Stir in the salt.

    Tip If the caramel seizes into a lump, put it back on a low heat and keep whisking, and it comes back.

  7. Release the cake

    Run a thin knife around the edge, unclip the ring and lift it straight up. Leave the cake on the tin base and let it cool another 15 minutes.

    Two hands lifting the springform ring away from the baked chocolate cake

  8. Dust, slice and pour

    Dust the top with cocoa through a small sieve and scatter over a few coffee beans. Cut thick wedges with a hot, dry knife, then pour warm caramel over each slice at the table.

    Amber caramel pouring from a spoon onto a wedge of chocolate cake

Baker's notes

  • The cake is better on day two. The crumb tightens slightly and the chocolate flavour deepens.
  • No coffee in the house? Use the same volume of boiling water. You lose a little depth but the texture is identical.
  • For a dairy-free version, use oat milk soured with lemon juice, and make the caramel with coconut cream.

Keeping it Keep the cake covered at room temperature for 3 days, or refrigerate for 5. The caramel keeps for 2 weeks in a jar in the fridge; warm it gently before pouring.

Questions, answered

Why is my chocolate cake dry?

Nearly always over-baking. This one is done when a skewer still carries damp crumbs. Take it out then, because it carries on cooking in the hot tin for several minutes.

Can I bake it as two layers?

Yes. Split the batter between two 20 cm tins and bake for 22–25 minutes. Sandwich them with half the caramel, once both are completely cold.

My caramel went grainy. What happened?

Sugar crystals on the side of the pan seeded the syrup. Swirl the pan instead of stirring, and brush the sides down with a wet pastry brush as it melts.

If it goes wrong

Three things account for most of what happens to a cake in a domestic oven. Each has its own guide.

Next slice

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