This Chocolate Pudding recipe is yet another one of my sister’s recipes.  I have been making it for years and it is one of my go-to chocolate puddings.  The other one is my granny’s chocolate pudding, but that will have to wait for another day.

I call this a chocolate pudding, but it can just as easily be eaten cold as a “Messy Chocolate Cake”.  It is gooey and gorgeous!  It also freezes really well.  I always squirrel a few blocks away in the freezer.  Two minutes in the microwave on Movie Night and you have instant chocolate gratification.

Ance’s Chocolate Pudding

“Messy Chocolate Cake”

(Serves 12 generously)

Cake

Ingredients

• 500 ml sugar (2 cups)
• 500 ml self-raising flour (2 cups) OR 500 ml plain flour and 20 ml baking powder (4 tsp)
• 2.5 ml salt (1/2 tsp)
• 250 ml butter or margerine (1 cup or 250 g if you wish to weigh it)
• 180 ml water (3/4 cup)
• 80 ml cocoa (1/3 cup)
• 2 eggs
• 125 ml buttermilk (1/2 cup) OR use milk and 1 tsp vinegar
• 5 ml vanilla (1 tsp)
• 2.5 ml cinnamon (1/2 tsp)
• 5 ml baking soda (1 tsp)

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 °C (360 °F).
2. Place the butter, water and cocoa in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Switch off and leave aside while you do the next bit.
3. Place sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
4. Mix buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla in a separate mixing bowl.
5. Pour the cocoa mixture over the dry ingredients and mix.  At this point you will have quite a dry mixture.
6. Add the buttermilk mixture and mix thoroughly.  Now you should have a very wet batter.
7. Place the mixture into a large casserole dish.  You can use any rectangular dish/cake pan that is at least 10 ” squared or 9″ x 12″.
8. Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

While you are waiting for the pudding to bake, make the icing.

Icing

Make the icing while the pudding is baking as you will need to pour it over the pudding as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Ingredients

• 500 g Icing sugar (confectioners sugar)
• 250 ml cocoa (1 cup)
• 125 ml butter or margarine (1/2 cup or 125 g if you choose to weigh it)
• 160 ml buttermilk (2/3 cup) OR use milk and 1 tsp vinegar

Method

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.
2. Add the icing sugar and cocoa and stir well.
3. Add the buttermilk and mix thoroughly.
4. As soon as your pudding comes out of the oven, cut it into 12 pieces (a grid of 3 x 4) using a serrated knife.  Then pour the warm icing over.  I always run my knife through the cuts again, wiggling it a bit as I go.  This encourages the icing to leak into the cuts, making the pudding even more gooey.

Serving Suggestions

Like I’ve already mentioned, you can eat this pudding warm or cold and you can even serve it as a messy cake if you want.  It is not a stand-alone cake, however, and if you try to make a perfect round cake using this recipe, you will fail dismally.

The resulting pudding/cake is light and moist.  It does not keep its shape at all, which is why it is better served as a dessert. Plonk a bit of ice-cream on top and you will have all and sundry begging you for the recipe.

The subtle cinnamon flavour enhances the chocolate taste and gives you the warm and fuzzies even when served cold. Go on and try it.  And then tell me how much you love it!

This pudding is quite sweet, so if you don’t like too much of a sweet thing, either dish up smaller portions and add more ice-cream, or don’t pour all of the icing over the cake.

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