Mary Berry's chocolate fudge cake recipe

Mary Berry's chocolate fudge cake is a flourless bake infused with rich chocolate, nutty almonds, and a hint of coffee.

Topped with rich chocolate icing, Mary Berry's chocolate fudge cake needs no filling. The fudgy texture of this cake makes it seem like one giant brownie. Just like Mary's classic chocolate cake recipe (opens in new tab), we'd recommend serving this mouth-watering fudge cake warm with lashings of cream or a scoop or two of ice cream. 

Ingredients

For fudge cake:

• 6 large eggs, 5 of them separated
• 215g (7½oz) caster sugar
• 265g (9½oz) plain chocolate (39 per cent cocoa solids)
• 1 level tsp instant coffee granules
• 1tsp hot water
• 150g (5oz) ground almonds

For the chocolate icing:

• 4tbsp apricot jam
• 225g (8oz) plain chocolate (39 per cent cocoa solids)
• 100g (4oz) unsalted butter

Method

1. To make this chocolate cake, pre-heat the oven to 190°C/Fan 170°C/Gas 5. Grease a 23 cm (9 in) deep round cake tin then line the base with baking parchment.
2. Place the egg yolks and whole egg in a large bowl with the sugar and beat together until thick and light in colour. Melt the chocolate gently in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water, stirring occasionally. Dissolve the coffee granules in the water and add to the melted chocolate. Cool slightly, then stir into the egg mixture along with the ground almonds.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until stiff but not dry. Carefully fold into the egg and chocolate mixture. Turn into the prepared tin and gently level the surface.
4. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 50 minutes or until well risen, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out, peel off the parchment and finish cooling on a wire rack.
5. Measure the apricot jam into a small saucepan and allow to melt over a low heat. Brush over the cake. To make the icing, melt the chocolate gently in a bowl set over a pan of hot water, stirring occasionally. Add the butter and stir until the icing has the consistency of thick pouring cream, cooling if necessary.
6. Stand the wire rack on a baking tray to catch any drips, then pour the icing over the cake smoothing it over the top and sides with a palette knife. Allow to set, then decorate if you like. This recipe is featured in Mary Berry’s Baking Bible (opens in new tab).

Top tips for making Mary Berry's chocolate fudge cake

Before topping this chocolate sponge cake (opens in new tab) with the chocolate icing, Mary Berry uses apricot jam as a crumb coat to stop the crumbs from the chocolate cake from getting mixed into the chocolate icing. It also helps the chocolate icing to stick to the cake. If you don’t have apricot jam you could opt for other jams instead like strawberry, raspberry, or blackberry. 

Mary Berry uses instant coffee granules in this recipe. The coffee deepens and enhances the flavor of the chocolate sponge and gives the overall cake a more mature chocolaty flavor. If you're not a fan of coffee, however, you could swap for 1 level tsp of cocoa powder instead.

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• Mary Berry's lemon drizzle cake (opens in new tab)
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• Chocolate brownies (opens in new tab)