With a few exceptions, my entire kitchen philosophy revolves around collecting and creating the kind of recipes that would draw gasps and moans from guests with only a minimal effort on the part of the cook, and this brownie pudding cake fits the bill perfectly.
The name is perhaps a bit misleading, because this dessert is neither a brownie, nor a pudding. Instead, a rich, fluffy chocolate cake “floats” here on top of a gooey, sauce-like bottom layer. It’s truly decadent but also a clinch to make, which is ideal for the situations where you need to feed a large crowd but don’t want to put all of your energy into dessert. Most people would serve it with vanilla ice-cream, but I like my chocolate dark, and need no vanilla-anything to make the most of it.
Here’s the recipe:
Devil’s Food Brownie Pudding Cake
Makes one 9″ x 13″ pan or two 8″ square pans
- 2 C flour
- 4 T dutch-process cocoa
- 3/4 t salt
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 1 1/4 C sugar
- 1 t baking soda
- 1 1/4 C buttermilk (I use regular whole milk with a little over a tablespoon of white vinegar or lemon juice, which does the exact same thing and frees me from the burden of buying and using up a whole darn quart of it)
- a long shot of vanilla extract
For the topping:
- 1/4 C white sugar
- 1/2 C dark brown sugar, packed
- 3 T cocoa
- 1 3/4 C boiling water
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix together flour, sugar, cocoa, and salt. Separately, mix baking soda and buttermilk, and add vanilla. Add to the dry ingredients along with melted butter, and mix well (note that you do not need a mixer for this – I used a large glass Pyrex cup and a spatula, which allowed my kids to mix things by hand – their favorite thing to do). Spread in a greased 9″ x 13″ pan or two 8″ square pans.
Separately, mix together all dry topping ingredients and spread evenly over the batter in the pan. Pour boiling water over all – it will look like a lot of water, but that’s how it’s supposed to be. Bake for 25 minutes, or until you end up with a cake on top and a molten bottom.
This is what your finished cake will look like:
The cake is lovely, dark and deep – serve it warm with vanilla ice-cream or be like me and eat it straight out of the pan. For supper.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Mmmm! With everyone posting Christmas cookie recipes, I think I needed a chocolate-and-more-chocolate recipe to rebalance. Thanks!
Oh gosh, I couldn’t wait to make this! I whipped it up just a bit ago, and my molten bottom wasn’t very thick. Where did I go wrong? I am usually good at following recipes to a “T”; so I am lost where I could have messed this up. Any ideas? Nontheless, it was still DELICIOUS!!!G
Mine is not thick either – it’s nothing like an actual pudding. Perhaps it just looks thick in the picture? What you are supposed to have on the bottom is something like a molten sauce. It does get a little thicker as it cools.
Oh whew thanks! It does look on the thicker side in the photo. Mine wasn’t so thick, but it was definitely molten-hot and rich and lovely. It did thicken a bit now that’s it cooled; but like you said, it’s best served warm!
The name is misleading – but I didn’t come up with it, to my defense. The reason it looks thicker in the photo I think was because it has cooled down by photo number 100 (not that it helped, but anyway).
No worries at all. It’s decadent and delicious. I totally recommend it. It’s like chocolate therapy! And, it definitely fulfilled your philosophy of “minimal effort”! I had all the ingredients on hand and whipped it up in no time. Definitely two thumbs up!
@Greta you know what else I realized I forgot to tell you? The thickness of your bottom layer “sauce/pudding,” whatever you like to call that, will depend on how long you bake it. If you underbake it, you end up with a lot of runny puddingy batter which still tastes of baking soda cause it’s not fully cooked (not great, imo). If you bake it a little longer, you got more of a cake on top and fudge sauce on the bottom. Because I am giving the baking time in this recipe, and because different ovens can bake slightly differently (some not as hot as others regardless of what the thermostat says), you may need to increase the time.
OMGoodness, I just made this tonight for my hubby’s birthday and it was a giant hit. Thanks for sharing, this was an awesome recipe!
Glad you liked it, Chrissy, thanks for giving it a try.
Holy moly that looks fantastic! Can’t wait to make this.
Kendra
Kendra Bailey Morris recently posted..Rotisserie Chicken Salad Recipe
Please do, and let me know how it went!
Yep. I’m coming here the next time I’m meal planning.
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It really is one of those recipes that calls for the basics. Glad you liked it. I’ve modified this recipe considerably out of a less-than-spectacular version that somehow was handed down in my husband’s family. I am not (originally) American – seems like this is a pretty standard dessert here. Among other fundamental changes, I ditched milk+too much baking powder combo in favor of buttermilk+soda (no off-taste, richer, fluffier texture), upped the cocoa, and upped the butter from 1 1/2 T (which left it tasting chalky) to a whole stick. Therein lies the magic.