This was seriously the best chocolate cake EVER. The recipe is a little complicated, but watching the video while making it was VERY helpful! I couldn't find golden syrup so I used honey instead and then had to add extra powder sugar to thicken it up enough to frost the cake.. BUT it turned out so moist and delicious I couldn't stop eating it. I topped it with some fresh berries and mint to offset the chocolate, the pudding is a WONDERFUL additive instead of frosting layers! Would 100% make again.

Ok I made this cake and every thing turned out great, super moist cake wonderfully smooth pudding and the taste is awesome for both. NOW the frosting, I followed the directions and ingredients to the letter and my frosting looked so good and smooth and fluffy and all the above BUT the bittersweet chocolate flavor was just way to bitter! I like bittersweet on certain things I make but the bitter in this is just to hard to handle. I think next time it will be 8 oz semi-sweet and 4 bittersweet. Anyone else think this is just way to bitter?

This cake is excellent and well worth making, however the instructions for making the pudding have errors and should be corrected. It starts with the step to put the cocoa powder and cornstarch in the pot first, which means you will likely have these dry ingredients packed in the corners of the pot unless your whisk has a pointed tip, like Ricks. Many whisks aren't shaped this way and you need to use another utensil such as a rubber spatula to scrape away these ingredients so they don't remain in the corners. Putting the cream and milk in first followed by the rest of the ingredients solves this problem. But aside from this minor point, the real problem with the pudding are in the 2 sentences, "Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking occasionally, then reduce heat to low. Continue to cook, whisking, until thick and smooth, 1–2 minutes." If you try to boil the mix, then cook it even longer, it becomes far too thick and the fat in the cream will separate from the rest of the ingredients, creating a very heavy texture from what may be curdling of the cream with a very dark to black color remaining, just like the individual from Houston commented. There is also no chance that you can strain this mix. My first batch started to go in this direction so I set it aside and made a 2nd batch after going through the comments further. The person from Long Island who described using 35% cream and heated everything to 180 F said it correctly. If you're using whole milk and heavy whipping cream (which is 35% cream), the mix just begins to thicken at 170 F and is done at 180 F, or at most 185 F. Trying to follow the written isntructions to heat it an additional 30+ degrees to boiling is where the problems happen. The video of Rick making the pudding shows that he never actually brings the pudding to a boil because it thickens well before this point, and the 1-2 min. he describes of additional heating is while it's going through the last 10-20 degrees of temperature rise to reach 180 F. The timing of these final steps will vary depending on the level of heat you're using. To end up with the desired result, the heat should be turned off at 180 F while you continue to whisk so it stays smooth and than add the chocolate and vanilla. Also, if you whisk continuously while it's heating up to 180 F, the pudding will be nice and smooth with no clumps and there's no need to strain it. Due to the pudding instruction problems, I give it 3 stars. Corrected, it's easily worth 5 stars and is probably the best chocolate cake I've ever had. I hope this helps others. I will certainly be making this cake again and will also try altering the order of steps to speed the process, similar to how the person from Long Island described. And while my first batch of pudding wasn't used for the cake, it didn't separate too badly and even though it was very thick, with a bit of whisking after it sat in the fridge, it tasted good!

Good cake and fun project; got compliments for its decadence, particularly the frosting. As far as changes: replaced hot water with hot coffee, and didn't have milk chocolate so threw in a handful of semi-sweet chocolate chips in the pudding. Like another reviewer below, the pudding was weird for me. I was stirring the entire time but still got very thick and unable to strain. Texture was still mostly fine but went ahead for an overnight chill, where it solidified with a layer of milkfat. Warmed it up to be spreadable and no one noticed in the cake. Was worried the ganache was too oily/fatty while cooling but it set up fine. Overall, I think this is a fun cake in the project realm, and definitely manageable if you split it up. However, for making a chocolate cake for the sake of it, I would not pick this one. I prefer Tasty's ultimate chocolate cake for a deep, dark chocolate taste and Sally's Baking Addiction for a lighter, milk chocolate taste. However, might save the cake and frosting recipes from this one to experiment with other combinations.

Solid cake: moist and chocolatey. Baked this at high altitude (6000 ft) with no changes except adding a tsp. of espresso powder for flavor. The crumb wasn't as tender as I would've preferred, but it is sturdy. I'll be keeping the magic frosting recipe-- good chocolate flavor with a tang! But the pudding recipe went haywire on me... not sure what happened. I used semisweet chocolate and my pudding got very clumpy...almost like I had thrown in a pack of gelatin in there. It became the texture of mashed silken tofu and a layer of oil separated out from the pudding (gross). I could not strain it either; regardless it has a delicious brownie batter taste and despite the weird texture issues, no one noticed when eating the cake.

my pudding turned out so much darker than the recipe. i did use light brown sugar instead, but that was the only change. i tried adding extra milk but it didn't really work. does anyone have any thoughts?

This was a fun baking project and the resulting cake is really wonderful. Give yourself a good 4 hours from start to finish when planning to make this cake, or consider making the 3 components on different days (I did it all in one afternoon). The frosting is DELICIOUS. The cake is moist and tasty. The pudding is good, but as a personal preference, I'll probably change it next time I bake this cake. Also, this cake freezes and defrosts really well (if you have the willpower to freeze individual slices and not just eat it all within a couple of days, hehe). Great cake!

This cake recipe is amazing! I am a beginner/intermediate baker and this took me a full day to make when I count in all the waiting time. It was so worth the wait though because this is a truly delicious cake. It came out super moist, the pudding was to die for, the frosting was tangy which balanced out all the chocolate. Even though I had to make a few changes due to lack of ingredients this still came out great. I only had cake flour so I used that instead of AP, I used 1 tablespoon of maple syrup for the frosting since I didn't have golden syrup (I'm not sure if this actually did anything). I was also slightly short on heavy cream and only used 10oz of dark chocolate. The one thing that didn't really go to plan was the frosting, it didn't magically turn into frosting like the recipe said. I did put it in the fridge for a bit and it was starting to thicken up but I got impatient and decided to whip the frosting for a couple minutes and it worked. Despite all of this, the cake was phenomenal and I would absolutely make this again.

my first layer cake and absolutely amazing!!! the only issue was that social distancing meant that I ate SO much of it! amazing recipe, best chocolate cake my family and I have every tasted :)

This cake was amazing! I didn't have dutch processed cocoa so I did regular cocoa powder and added and EXTRA 1.5 teaspoons of baking soda to offset the acidic properties of the regular cocoa powder. I also didn't have any golden syrup so I made my own; a little time consuming but not difficult at all. This cake was a journey but it was SO WORTH IT.

This was the first layer cake I ever made and I have to say I am very proud of myself. Definitely was a process making all the different components but it made for a great baking project which I absolutely dove right into! The cake was beyond decadent- the rich chocolate pudding in the center was so creamy and delicious. Just the chocolate cake itself was delightful! Looks impressive and definitely got lots of compliments- will for sure be making this again!

Takes some time but it’s worth it. It tastes ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS!! Good work Rick <3

Definitely one of the best recipes I've made. Takes some time to make all of the constituent parts, but comes together easily. I made two batches of the cake recipe and had a 3-layer tall cake (did not divide the cakes in half) which used up all of the frosting and pudding with a nice ratio. If you make the normal single batch, I imagine you'll have lots of leftovers (not a bad thing?) One note: the cakes baked very quickly for me (less than 15 minutes) so watch them carefully if your oven tends to run hotter.

I made this cake for New Year’s Eve and it was amazingly delicious. It took roughly four hours from start to finish to make but the recipe is easy to follow and straight forward. My cakes were ready in 22 minutes and I used my cake rack to shred the cake for the sides. Yummy and very impressive.

This took me less than three hours to put together and it was spectacular. Started by making the frosting so it could set up while I made the cakes and pudding. Then baked the cakes, which only took 25 minutes. Then the pudding using 35% cream and cooking everything to 180 over medium heat while stirring constantly. Poured out onto a sheet pan and the pudding was set in about half hour. Very thick and stable. I did have about one cup of frosting leftover even after generously frosting the cake.

So this cake took me 3 days to make but it was SO worth it. I absolutely love chocolate & everyone who tried it at the Thanksgiving table loved it. I don't bake often but the BA recipes are so easy to follow that the cake came out perfectly.

This is the ultimate chocolate lover's cake! Deep, rich chocolate flavor. The pudding filling and the frosting are really special and delicious.

We made this cake for fun one day and it was delicious. I've gotten really into cooking recently and this was a good way to wrap up a day of cooking. It certainly does take a long time with the icing, almost 2 hours, but it sure enough solidified and tasted great.

I made the chocolate cake portion of this and used store bought Hershey's buttercream icing. It came together beautifully. I was afraid to eat such perfection. Then I had a slice, the most intense chocolate flavor I've ever tasted. Definitely going to make the whole cake when I have more time. I used my rack as a box grater and it made such a beautiful topping.

Tried this recipe yesterday and it turn out to be the most delicious chocolate cake i ever tasted. even though my ganache turnout to be darker and thinner (im living in hot climate country) than in the video, after chilling it overnight, it looks ok. cake was cracked at the middle i think from the mixing of hot water at later part (hot water not included in the recipe, i nearly miss it).

Made this for Father's Day, my Dad is a fan of devil's food cake and a WWII history buff, and it was a serious hit! Little time consuming, but straightforward recipe that is absolutely decadent. For anyone that lives at high altitude, cakes turned out just fine and I'm 2200 ft (645m) above sea level, so no need to adjust the cooking temp or time at all. I will say that I made the individual components the day before and for some reason the frosting just would not soften up the next day. I had to add almost 1/4 cup of cream and a LOT of elbow grease to get it spreadable again. Maybe my fridge was too cold?

This was EXCELLENT! Both with the pudding and the frosting, it really does feel like they aren't going to work, but they WILL. Each component tastes excellent, and even though it's relatively time consuming, overall, it is easy. Absolutely delicious, intense, chocolatey. Would make it again. This will be my go-to chocolate cake recipe.

Made this cake for brunch tomorrow (it’s always for a brunch!) and may have taken a preview bite of leftover pudding, frosting, and crumbs. Yowza! It is everything I want in a classic of bygone years. To make the steps easier, I pre-measured all the ingredients into container “groups” based on timing of the recipe so everything was ready to dump when needed. Converted perfectly to gluten-free and dairy-free with: (Cake) Bob’s Red Mill All Purpose GF Flour, Tofutti Sour Cream, coconut oil spray, (Pudding) Taste of Thai full fat coconut milk (heavy cream), unsweet/plain soymilk (whole milk), Guittard extra dark chocolate baking chips+3 tbsp sweetened condensed soymilk (milk chocolate), (Frosting) 1/2 c sweetened condensed soymilk+1/2 c plain/unsweet soymilk (I didn’t want too much coconut flavor), Tofutti sour cream, Miyoko butter. I also followed Claire’s advice and piped frosting around the edge of each cake layer (Sorry, Rick! Had to play it safe.) using the cooling rack as a grater was genius! TL;DR - Cake good. Pre-measuring is key.

would changing out the 3/4 cup of hot water for 3/4 cup of hot coffee (fresh brewed) when mixing the cakes have a positive effect on the taste of the cake or a negative effect? Thinking about trying it but haven't made the recipe yet and don't wanna screwup my first time.

Has anyone baked this at high altitude? Wondering if I will need to make any adjustments? Thanks!

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