‘Brown Butter’ Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding Cake – No eggs, Dairy free (Vegan!)
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This brown butter self-saucing chocolate pudding cake is quite literally the most moist, ridiculously decadent and delicious chocolate cake you’ll ever make. It’s made entirely with just a bowl and a whisk and has pools of gooey chocolate sauce mixed soft chocolate sponge cake. Perfect for an easy dessert for a crowd!
Why you NEED to make this self-saucing chocolate pudding cake:
If you’re looking for a ridiculously easy, yet downright decadent dessert, then this chocolate pudding cake is it. I actually may be making this recipe for every holiday gathering and get-together occasion for the foreseeable future.
My entire family’s jaw just dropped with every bite. It’s like a molten lava cake meets a brownie meets chocolate fudge sauce poured onto just the best chocolate cake you’ve ever had. And yet there’s very little work done at all.
In fact, you literally just need a bowl and a whisk to make and assemble the cake.
And of course, we’re adding vegan brown butter for extra nutty richness, because you know how much I love showing off how well vegan butter can brown (my brown butter brownies and small batch brown butter chocolate chip cookies are on constant rotation in this house).
Oh, and the entire chocolate pudding cake is actually made without eggs and dairy- I know!! So it’s entirely vegan and plant-based, and yet you’d never know!!
Key ingredients (and yes, they’re all vegan!):
- Dutch-process cocoa powder: It’s very crucial that you use Dutch-process cocoa powder over all-natural or raw cocoa powder. I’ve tried this with a few different types of cocoa powder, and Dutch-process yields the most fudgy texture. Now, I did also love using black cocoa powder (a form of Dutch-process, but ultra ultra fudgy), and I do prefer it for cakes, like my chocolate layer cake, but not here. I think because it creates such a fudgy texture, you lose some of the structure of the cake. Regular Dutch-process is great!
- Light brown sugar: Any way to add more moisture to the cake, I’m in! Light brown sugar is coated in molasses, so you’re going to not only get a bit more moisture, but also a deeper flavor profile as well.
- Flour: You can use gluten-free baking flour here if needed, but I’m just using all-purpose flour most of the time. It does work, gluten-free though!
- Dairy free yogurt: Kind of an odd one if you’ve never baked vegan before. But trust me, this is the ultimate vegan egg substitute. The dairy free yogurt acts like eggs in terms of binding and giving our cake lift, while the baking soda will neutralize any yogurt flavor so it just reads as a super fudgy self-saucing chocolate cake.
- Boiling water: This is what creates our self-saucing chocolate sauce and it is UNREAL how well it works! I go into that all in the next section, because trust me, I was nervous too before trying this out on a self-saucing pudding cake!
How is a chocolate pudding cake self-saucing?
I had questions about this too before I did some digging into how a self-saucing cake actually self-sauces.
And it’s actually unlike molten lava cakes, in which the middles remain like a fondant, almost “unbaked” texture. Self-saucing chocolate pudding cakes actually get their molten sauce from the boiling hot water and chocolate sugar mixture we add on top of the main cake batter.
I know- I was freaked out to pour boiling water onto raw batters at first too. But after trying a few different cobbler-style pudding cakes (one very special one to be in my upcoming cookbook!), it’s quite amazing how well the concept works.
So for this chocolate pudding cake, we whisk together not just sugar, but cocoa powder as well, sprinkled generously over the raw cake batter. Then hot water is added to the dish just before baking, and voila!
Overview: How to make a self-saucing chocolate pudding cake:
For the full written instructions and ingredient measurements, see the bottom of this post in the recipe card. You can also hit the “jump to recipe” button at the top of this post! Here, we’ll go over a brief overview of the steps, along with providing visuals for a better understanding of the recipe.
Watch how to make it here:
You can watch the full video of how I make it here on Instagram!
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If you make this recipe, please be sure to leave a comment and a rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ below. This helps others to find the recipes! As always, I absolutely love to see your beautiful creations on Instagram and Pinterest, so be sure to tag me there as well!
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‘Brown Butter’ Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding Cake – No eggs, Dairy free (Vegan!)
- Prep Time: 10
- Cook Time: 40
- Total Time: 50 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This brown butter self-saucing chocolate pudding cake is quite literally the most moist, ridiculously decadent and delicious chocolate cake you’ll ever make. It’s made entirely with just a bowl and a whisk and has pools of gooey chocolate sauce mixed soft chocolate sponge cake. Perfect for an easy dessert for a crowd!
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake:
- 1/3 cup (78 g) vegan butter (reduced down to 1/4 cup)
- 3/4 cup (180 g) dairy free yogurt
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
- 1/2 cup (120 mL) dairy free milk
- 1/3 cup (33 g) Dutch-process coc
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 1/4 cups (150 g) all purpose flour
- 1 cup vegan milk chocolate chips
<li>1/2 cup (110 g) light brown sugar
oa powder
Chocolate Topping:
- 1 cup (200 g) light brown sugar
- 1/4 cup (25 g) Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 1/2 cups (360 mL) boiling water
Instructions
- Prep: </strong>Preheat the oven to 350F, and grease a 7×10″ baking pan with oil. Put 2 cups of water in a teapot to boil.
- Brown the butter: </strong>Add the vegan butter to a small saucepan and heat on medium heat, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown and bubble. It will reduce down to 1/4 cup (57 g). Set aside.
- While the butter is cooling: In a small bowl, whisk together the light brown sugar and the cocoa powder from the chocolate topping section (NOT the cake batter section). Set aside.
- Make the batter: Pour the browned vegan butter into a large bowl, along with the dairy free yogurt, sugar, light brown sugar, and dairy free milk. Whisk together until well combined, then add in the baking powder, sea salt, and finally the cocoa powder. Whisk again until completely mixed, then add in the flour, and whisk JUST until combined. Pour in the chocolate chips, and switch to a silicone spatula to fold the chocolate chips evenly throughout the batter.
- Assemble: By now the water should be boiling. Pour the batter into the prepared casserole dish, and spread to the edges of the pan. Sprinkle the cocoa powder sugar mixture in an even coat on top of the batter. Then pour 1 1/2 cups (360 mL) of the boiling water on top of the cake batter evenly.
- Bake: Carefully place the casserole dish into the oven to bake for 35-40 minutes, or until the top of the cake is puffy and set. Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Serve: Scoop vegan vanilla ice cream on top, and dig in! Store any leftovers in an airtight container and in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
Gluten Free: I use King Arthur measure-for-measure for gluten-free.
Hi Britt! This looks absolutely delicious! I am trying to think of how I can bring this to Thanksgiving as a dessert. Would it be possible to bake it either the day before or morning of and then reheat it before serving? Or will we lose the self-saucing texture? Thanks!
Oh I can’t wait for you to try!! Actually so funny, just answered this question above, but yes, essentially it does lose some of the saucy, molten texture the next day- and it’s definitely best served right away within the first 2 hours of baking! However, you may actually be able to have a slight work around here by making the batter and pouring it into the casserole dish to be refrigerated overnight- then sprinkle the cocoa light brown sugar mixture over the batter and boiling water right before you want to bake and serve (honestly, baking during dinner would be fabulous since it’s great to serve fresh out of the oven!). I hope that helps! Cannot wait to hear what you think!!
Is there a way to make this a day or so ahead? It would be so helpful!
So I have tested storing for this a few times, and it’s definitely not as saucy the next day because the sauce starts to absorb into the cake (still delicious! But definitely best fresh!). Now there is a SLIGHT work around- you could make the batter and pour into the casserole dish to be refrigerated overnight. Then before baking sprinkle with the cocoa light brown sugar mixture and boiling water and bake! The only note is that the cake might rise slightly more, but it still should work out really well!
Ok. Your second idea should work. Thank you.
Yay!! Let me know how it goes!!
Can this be made with dairy ingredients if we’re not vegan? And are the ratios 1-1?
So technically that will work, but I can’t speak to results of anything I haven’t tried personally! The ratios should be 1:1 but I can’t guarantee anything!
I have all the ingredients except for the yogurt. Can it be made without it?
Hi Theresa! So because the yogurt is such a large amount (3/4 cup), you definitely will still need it. If it was only a tablespoon, like in some of my recipes, you could maybe get away with it without sacrificing too much texture, but the yogurt here really acts as the eggs rather than just a texture component! If you have applesauce that would also work here!