Old Fashioned Hot Fudge Pudding Cake {Just Like Your Mom Used to Make!}

When I was growing up, dessert was not an altogether common affair at our dinner table.  When we did have dessert, chances were that it was cantaloupe, yogurt with fruit sauce, or fruit salad.  However. However. Now and again, my mom would make an amazing and decadent hot dessert - a pudding cake.

If you've never had a pudding cake before, let me tell you this: it's one of the most wonderful desserts that will ever come out of your oven. And yes - I absolutely mean your oven - it's SO easy to make!

There's something entirely magical about this cake: you make the cake batter and put it in the pan (pretty ordinary). Then you sprinkle a dry cocoa/sugar mixture overtop (not really all that crazy). Then, just before you put this in the oven, you pour boiling water over it. Neat. Where's the magic, you say? When the cake comes back out of the oven, the cake has risen to the top of the mixture, and the water and cocoa/sugar mixture has formed a decadent hot fudge sauce under the cake! A self-saucing cake. Amazing. And Oh So Delicious!

 Now, ever since I moved out of her house many years ago, I've tried to recreate many of my favourite recipes of hers. Most of this has been done by calling or emailing her, and pleading with her to rifle through her cookbooks, holiday baking pamphlets, & recipe boxes in order to find me the recipe that I was craving. One of the recipes that she hadn't been able to find for me was the one for that pudding cake - and I was at a loss, because in spite of many hours searching the world wide web, I hadn't been able to find it. 

Oh yes, I'd found and made many pudding cakes for various dinner parties (it blows my mind how many people have never tasted a pudding cake before!) - we've made double chocolate fudge pudding cakes, apple cinnamon toffee pudding cakes, and lemon pudding cakes, but I haven't been able to find the one that my mom made: a sweet white vanilla cake with a rich, fudge sauce.

Until the mail came yesterday. BAKE FEST - 12 Inspiring Recipes for Your Holiday Entertaining arrived in my mailbox, and I actually squealed with joy when I saw the front cover! I knew this was the recipe that my mom had made - and I'm pretty sure that she had probably also gotten hers out of a holiday baking pamphlet!

I feel badly, because this recipe was sponsored by Crown Golden Corn Syrup, and I went and modified the corn syrup right out of the recipe. (Rude, right? But as much as I fully embrace decadence during the holiday season, corn syrup is one of those things that I'm truly trying to minimize in our diet.) The recipe is called "Double Chocolate Pudding Cake", but because the cake is a white cake, I feel that it's a misnomer.  I haven't been able to work the term 'white' or 'vanilla' into the title, so for now I'll just call it:

Hot Fudge Pudding Cake (The Best Pudding Cake You'll Ever Eat)
Adapted from Double Chocolate Pudding Cake as found in BakeFest 2013

Ingredients:

• Cake:
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup 10% cream
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, liquid (at room temp or warm) (I use aroma-free)
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Topping:
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 350 F & lightly grease an 8-10" baking dish
• Cake: in small bowl, stir together flour with sugar, baking powder & salt. Set aside.
• Using your stand mixer, whisk cream, oil, eggs, & vanilla until well mixed. Stir flour mixture in until just mixed. Spread batter evenly in prepared dish.
• Topping: in the small (now empty) bowl that you used for the flour mixture, mix the cocoa & brown sugar together until there are very few lumps. Sprinkle the mixture over the cake batter, covering it evenly.
• Pour boiling water over the cake, and carefully place in the oven. Bake 45 minutes or until the top is almost firm when lightly touched. Serve promptly.

Technically this dessert should serve 8; I think that it serves 6 quite nicely.  This dish would go very nicely when served with french vanilla ice cream. I, on the other hand, prefer it straight-up.  

This is a perfect dessert for a cool fall or winter night - and would be a fantastic addition to the dessert buffet at family Christmas dinners! Just make sure that you pour the boiling water over right before dinner starts and then put it in the oven to bake as you eat so that it will be ready at the right time.