Hot Chocolate Cake
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This super fudgy hot chocolate cake so moist and incredibly fluffy! Think of it as having a warm cup of cocoa in cake form. The cake is soaked in a hot chocolate made with evaporated milk and chocolate Cortés, a Puerto Rican style chocolate bar. I served it with a light whipped cream and poured more hot chocolate on the bottom. Every bite was pure chocolate Heaven!
There’s something pretty magical about drinking hot chocolate. If you drink coffee, or even tea, you would need to have a sip of that in your daily routine. But you don’t need to have hot chocolate. That’s a drink for pure pleasure. You do it just for you. Because there’s nothing like grabbing a warm cup of hot cocoa and cozying yourself up in the couch while relaxing for a little bit. It’s a perfectly satisfying moment, no matter how it last. And who doesn’t want to have that every possible time? That why we have this cake!
For this recipe I wanted to use the traditional hot chocolate served here in Puerto Rico and many other Latin countries. What makes this hot chocolate special is that it’s made with a locally produced chocolate bar and uses evaporated milk. Trust me guys, the evaporated milk is really the secret weapon for a rich and ultra creamy chocolate without being too heavy or thick.
Everyone here loves this liquid chocolate. It’s the hot chocolate everyone craves after a “misa de aguinaldo”, which is a mass celebrated during Christmastime at 5:30a.m. or 6:00a.m. These happen during the 9 days prior to Christmas Eve, so for a week you are getting yourself out of bed very early to attend the service. The mass is celebrated with a lot of uplifting Christmas music and everyone brings their own musical instruments to be part of the musical experience as well. If you play it well or not, no one cares, probably because everyone is still pretty sleepy! Traditionally, there will be breakfast served after the mass with local pastries, mini sandwiches, coffee and, you guessed it, this thick and velvety hot chocolate made with evaporated milk. If you ever find yourself in Puerto Rico for the holidays, you need to experience this tradition for yourself!
That was the experience I wanted to recreate with this cake. A rich and decadent treat without being too heavy, as traditional French hot chocolate can be sometimes. It’s a total different mood. This is not a dense and overly sweet cake. The texture is pretty light and fluffy. What makes it decadent is the hot chocolate. The cake itself is extremely easy to make, the fun part is to soaking it in this luscious drink.
How to Make this Hot Chocolate Cake
Start by taking out the eggs and buttermilk because it’s super important they are at room temperature. You may submerge eggs in hot tap water and heat the buttermilk a few seconds in medium power on the microwave to speed up this process.
Melt a piece of the chocolate bar with water. You can do this in the stove or in the microwave, but be aware that you’ll need to reheat it right before adding to the batter.
I used a Puerto Rican chocolate bar called Chocolate Cortes. It’s the staple for making hot chocolate here. You may use Mexican chocolate tablets or dark chocolate as well. But Cortes is available in Amazon and you probably can find it in large supermarkets. And if you’re ever in Puerto Rico, you have to visit their flagship restaurant Casa Cortés at Old San Juan. Everything is made with some chocolate. My favorite is a mallorca with Serrano ham, Manchego cheese and guava sauce that’s irresistible!
Have the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt mixed and ready for when using.
For this recipe I made a sponge cake so it absorbs as much liquid as possible. For this you’ll need to mix in high speed the eggs and sugar until pale and frothy, then add the fats and liquids.
You are going to mix in the dry ingredients by hand or in the slowest speed of your mixer until no large lumps of flour. Transfer to your baking dish and bake. It’s important to not over mix.
For the soaking hot chocolate, you need to make it during the last minutes of baking the cake because is super important that the cake is still warm when you soak it, otherwise you’ll have dry cake with wet spots.
The cake needs to rest for about 1 ½ hour to make sure that even the farthest crumb absorbs the liquid, so be patient.
After it’s ready, serve it with a bit of whipped cream and pour extra hot chocolate on the plate. Get ready for that first bite!
Shop the Post
Chocolate Cortes bar and natural unsweetened cocoa powder.
3 recipes I think you’ll love if you’re loving this one:
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You may now curl in your yoga pants and get on the couch to eat this cake. You deserve it! And don’t forget to share it with us at Instagram (@devamadeo), TikTok (@DevAmadeo) or Facebook (@DevAmadeo). Have fun!
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Hot Chocolate Cake
Ingredients
Chocolate cake:
◯ Water - ¼ cup, 59g
◯ Hot chocolate bar (I used Cortes) - 1 piece, 35g
◯ All purpose flour, preferably unbleached - 1 cup, 125g
◯ Natural unsweetened cocoa powder - ¼ cup, 25g
◯ Baking powder - 2 Tsp, 10g
◯ Fine sea salt - ¼ Tsp
◯ Eggs, at room temperature - 3
◯ Natural granulated sugar - ¾ cup, 150g
◯ Butter - 7 TBSP, 99g, melted but not oily
◯ Vegetable oil - 2 TBSP, 27g
◯ Vanilla - 1 Tsp, 4g
◯ Buttermilk, at room temperature (you may use regular milk) - ⅓ cup, 85g
Hot chocolate":
◯ Evaporated milk - 1 can of 374g, 12oz
◯ Milk - ½ cup, 120g
◯ Hot chocolate bar - 2 pieces, 70g, in chunks
◯ Cornstarch - 2 Tsp, 7g
◯ Pinch of fine sea salt
Details
Yield:
A 9” cake
Total time:
2 hours, including resting time
Active time: 15 minutes to make the cake batter
Baking time:
20 - 25 minutes
Equipment:
9” baking dish or cake pan, hand whisk and silicon spatula or wooden spoon.
Steps
Making the cake:
Preheat oven to 350°. Grease an 9” baking dish or cake pan with butter or baking spray.
In a small sauce pan or in a microwave bowl melt the ¼ cup/59g of water with the single piece/35g of the hot chocolate bar. Take in consideration that you’ll need to reheat this just before adding to the batter.
In a bowl combine the 1 cup/125g of flour with the 1/4 cup/25g of unsweetened cocoa powder, the 2 teaspoons/10g of baking powder and the ¼ teaspoon of salt with a hand whisk until there are not large lumps of flour.
Place the 3 egg with the ¾ cup/150g of sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer (highly recommended) or in a mixing bowl. Mix in high speed (#8 in the Kitchen Aid) for 5 minutes, until pale and frothy.
In a stream pour the 7 tablespoons/99g of melted butter, the 2 tablespoons/27g of oil and the ⅓ cup/85g of buttermilk.
Add the flour mixture to the egg-sugar mixture. Mix with a folding motion, breaking large lumps of flour. Reheat the water-chocolate mixture just to make it steamy again and pour it over the cake batter. Mix once more until combined.
Pour batter on your baking dish. Bake 20 to 25 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when you insert it through the center.
Take cake out and with a knife or large toothpick make a few cuts or holes through the cake. Immediately pour about 1 ½ cup of the warm hot chocolate (recipe below). Let it cool down to lose the steam, about 10 minutes, then cover with plastic paper and let it cool down completely.
Serve with whipped cream and pour some extra hot chocolate on the plate.
Making the hot chocolate:
In a small sauce pan combine the can of evaporated milk with the ½ cup, 120g of skim milk, the 2 pieces/70g of the chocolate bar, the 2 teaspoons/7g of cornstarch and the pinch of salt. Gently boil, without letting it rapidly bubble, until the chocolate has melted completely and pretty homogeneous (you don’t see separation between the liquids). Stir at different moments to make sure there are no chocolate getting stuck on the bottom or corners of the pan.
Pour about 1 ½ cup over cake. Reserve the remaining hot chocolate to serve with the individual pieces.
