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Hot Fudge Pudding Cake is a delicious, vintage recipe that everyone absolutely loves! A fudge sauce forms under a rich chocolate cake as it bakes in the oven.
If you follow us over on Instagram, then you probably know that we just came home from a family vacation at Hershey Park in Hershey, Pennsylvania! This was our second year visiting the park, and we decided that on this trip we would sign up for the Create Your Own Candy Bar at Hershey’s Chocolate World, located just outside the amusement park.
Each of us had the chance to make a custom chocolate bar – choosing the type of chocolate we wanted as the base, additional ingredients to include such as chocolate or butterscotch ships, pretzel bits and more; we designed our own label for our candy bars; and we got to watch it being made right before our eyes! Here are a few photos from our fun production tour:
So all of that wonderful chocolate had us craving a sweet treat when we got home – and we decided to make this fantastic Hot Fudge Pudding Cake from the Hershey’s Kitchen website.
This Hot Fudge Pudding Cake is outrageously good – and it couldn’t be any easier to make! A simple batter (made from Hershey’s cocoa of course) is first spooned into the bottom of a lightly greased pan or baking dish. Then a dry cocoa mixture is sprinkled on top of the batter. Finally – right before baking – hot water gets poured over the top of the dry cocoa mixture. But don’t stir it in – that process creates this fantastic, almost-crunchy topping on this Hot Fudge Pudding Cake as it bakes!
Then – once the Hot Fudge Pudding Cake comes out of the oven, just use a spoon to serve. You’ll end up with a super moist cake with a warm and fudgy pudding center – plus a sweet crunchy topping! Served with some vanilla ice cream – this is one amazingly good dessert that any chocolate lover will enjoy!
Disclaimer: I was not compensated by Hershey’s for this post. We are simply sharing our vacation story with you today as well as the inspiration behind our recipe.
Additional note: We’ve received a few reader comments below complaining that the cake was very runny and not fudgy. We’ve retested the recipe ourselves and can confirm that it is written correctly. But feel free to bake the cake for a few minutes longer if necessary (ovens may vary), and also make sure that you allow the cake to sit for 15 minutes before serving to give the sauce time to set up.
You may enjoy these other Chocolate Dessert recipes:
- Mexican Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
- Double Chocolate Pudding
- No-Bake Chocolate Cheesecake Pie
- Chocolate Ranger Cookies
- Homemade Magic Shell
We love seeing what you made! Tag us on Instagram at @afamilyfeast or hashtag #afamilyfeast so we can see your creations!
Hot Fudge Pudding Cake
Recipe adapted from Hershey’s Kitchens
Ingredients
- 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar, divided
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened Hershey’s Cocoa powder, divided
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1 1/4 cups hot water
- Vanilla ice cream, if desired for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Heat a pot of water on the stove to very hot (just under a simmer).
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine ¾ cup of the granulated sugar, flour, ¼ cup of the cocoa, baking powder and salt. Stir in milk, melted butter and vanilla and mix until smooth.
- Pour the batter into an lightly greased 2-quart ceramic dish (as shown in our photos) or a 9-inch square baking pan (if it’s a non-stick pan, you don’t have to grease it) and spread evenly.
- In a small bowl, stir together the remaining ½ cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, remaining ¼ cup cocoa and mix well. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter in your dish or pan. Pour the hot water over the top – but do not stir!
- Bake 35-40 minutes if using a glass dish (or 30-35 minutes if using a metal pan) – or until the center is almost set. Remove your dish from the oven and allow it to stand for 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, spoon the cake into individual serving bowls – making sure to spoon the fudgy sauce from the bottom of the pan over the top of the cake. Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream if desired and serve immediately.
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Hi
I have a question 🙂 The temperature…is it in celcius or farenheit? I don’t want to just assume and get it wrong >.<
Hi Saida – our temps are Fahrenheit.
Martha ~ I’m a big fan of this recipe, and have been for many years, as you will see from a response I left above to a comment left by Shelby, so I will skip background information here.
Something sort of clicked for me when I was reading through the other comments from folks who were having issues with the cake coming out too soupy, or runny.
For one thing, sometimes older ovens tend not to get up to proper temperature, even when the dial says it is. Thermostats can fail over time, and need to be replaced. BTDT! Check your oven temperature with a stand alone oven thermometer to be sure it’s coming up to temperature as it should. Even being ten degrees off can create problems.
The other thing that came to mind right off, was the butter. It is very important that if a recipe calls for “butter” that butter be used ~ not margarine. Even stick margarine contains varying amounts of water, and tub margarine is worse. “Diet” margarine I won’t even discuss! This can add more water to a recipe, as well as less fat, which can make a recipe soupier than desired, and the results much less than desirable.
So, if any of these issues are what you’re dealing with, and your fudgey cake is leaving you flat, fixing them and trying again will likely render you much better results!
Unfortunately, if those aren’t the problem, I have no suggestions to offer. Hope this proves helpful for someone. (And remember, DON’T stir in that hot water at the end!)
Thanks for all of your suggestions Shari! (I appreciate all of the time you’ve put into suggesting why the recipe isn’t working!)
Hi Martha!
Lovely recipe 🙂
Just wanted to know if this recipe is still great if you have leftovers. ie cover leftovers, store in fridge, reheat in microwave (or oven), then let sit again for 15 mins before serving.
Otherwise, I will scale it right down. It’s just that scaling it down for 2 serves is a little difficult.
Thanks 🙂
Hi Viviane – Yes! You can store the leftovers in the refrigerator and it reheats beautifully in the microwave (you won’t need to reheat for long – just enough to take the chill off and warm it up a bit). Enjoy!
This looks soo good! I really want to make this but I don’t have enough cocoa powder, would it be ok if I melted some chocolate into the batter?
Hi Anita – not sure but you can try…I would add some extra flour since the cocoa powder helps absorb some of the liquid.
OMG this is something unique! It looks like heaven to me 🙂 I can’t even wait for tomorrow, need this today!
Hope you enjoy the recipe Sandra!
Just made this, it was amazing!!
Thanks Tricia! So glad you enjoyed the recipe!
My mom used to make this when we were younger. It was so good will need to make this & see if it taste as good as I remember.
I hope it is as good as you remember Mary!
There is something definitely wrong with this recipe. Runny and tasted like raw flour. I did everything right by the recipe and waited at least 15 minutes for it to thicken. My oven cooks correctly so that is not the problem either. I was so disappointed…..really wanted to eat it.
Wow Susan – I’m stumped again! We actually made the recipe this past weekend to confirm that it was written correctly (it came out fine for us) – and checked our recipe against the original that appears on the Hershey website and it is correct as written. I’d suggest baking it for a little longer if it’s that undercooked. I’m sorry the recipe didn’t work out for you!
If I don’t have unsalted butter should I hold off on making? Anyone used salted butter?
Hi Sara – usually I’d say hold off but for this recipe I think you will be OK if you only have salted butter!
I used salted butter and it came out just fine in my opinion. I’m the type that I like those chocolate candy bars that have the sea salt on top–so perhaps you might just use a tiny pinch less of salt in the recipe if you don’t like that kind of thing.
This looks decadent. Since it is just my husband and I, would the recipe work if I halved it?
Sure Robyn – You’ll want to bake it in a smaller dish and I would imagine the baking time might be different (probably less time than the original).