It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of chocolate + avocado.
These vegan chocolate avocado brownies are my long-time favorites. This (also vegan) dark chocolate avocado mousse is absolute magic. I regularly toss some leftover avocado in these two smoothies to make them extra creamy. And now today, I’m adding another new chocolate avocado recipe to the blog archives that is may just be the most delicious, decadent, and dreamy recipe EVER.
Guys, you absolutely have to try this Chocolate Avocado Hot Fudge Cake.
It only takes about 10 minutes to prepare. It’s made with slightly healthier ingredients, including lots of fresh mashed avocado in place of oil (and can also easily be made vegan). It uses an everyday “secret” ingredient that helps bring out even more of this rich chocolate flavors. And the best part? With hot fudge cakes, you get the best of both when you pull the hot pan out of the oven — a warm and delicious chocolate cake on top, plus a ooey, gooey, divine hot fudge sauce bubbling up over the sides, waiting to be revealed on the bottom.
I can’t think of a better way to start a Monday, can you?
Chocolate Avocado Hot Fudge Cake | 1-Minute Video
Like I said, this cake really couldn’t be simpler to prepare. Just whip up the initial thick cake batter, which uses mashed (or pureed) fresh avocado as the oil, white whole wheat flour (or you can use regular all-purpose flour), cane sugar (my favorite, or you can use regular granulated sugar), cocoa powder, milk (any kind), baking powder, vanilla and salt. Press the batter into a greased pan.
Then comes the fun part! To make the hot fudge “sauce”, simply whisk together some more sugar and cocoa powder and sprinkle it evenly on top of the batter. Then pour some boiling hot water on top of the mixture to prepare the sauce! Or better yet — make that some hot coffee instead of water. Because — fun fact — coffee naturally brings out the flavor of chocolate big-time, and tastes delicious in this cake. Or if you don’t have time to prepare hot coffee, you can simply add a teaspoon of espresso powder to the batter. Or, you can nix the coffee entirely, and it’ll still taste great. Up to you.
Then carefully carry the pan to the oven (being sure not to slosh that hot coffee over the sides) and bake the cake for about 35 minutes. Then remove it from the oven and let it sit for about 15 minutes so that the hot fudge sauce can thicken a bit. Then grab a spoon and dive in…
…and voila! Both a fabulous cake and a rich hot fudge sauce will be yours to enjoy!!
Serve it up with a side of ice cream, or whipped cream, or whatever sounds good. I just recommend that you serve it up immediately while the cake and sauce are nice and warm, and enjoy every last bite.
Chocolate + Avocado FTW!
Chocolate Avocado Hot Fudge Cake
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 35 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 9 servings 1x
Description
This amazing Chocolate Avocado Hot Fudge Cake is quick and easy to prepare, and bakes in the oven so that you have a delicious chocolate cake on top with a rich hot fudge sauce on the bottom. Win-win!
Ingredients
- 1 cup cane sugar (or granulated sugar), divided
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
- 1 cup white whole wheat flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup mashed or pureed avocado
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract, homemade or store-bought
- 1 1/4 cups very hot coffee* or water
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350°F. Grease an 8 x 8-inch or 9 x 9-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Set aside.
- In a small mixing bowl, whisk together 1/2 cup cane sugar, brown sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa until evenly combined. Set aside.
- In a medium mixing bowl, stir together 1/2 cup cane sugar, flour, 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, baking powder and salt until evenly combined. Add in milk, avocado and vanilla, and stir until smooth. Spread the batter the prepared baking pan.
- Sprinkle the initial sugar-cocoa mixture evenly over batter. Pour hot coffee (or water) evenly over the top of the sugar-cocoa layer. Do not stir.
- Bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven, and let cool on a wire backing rack for 15 minutes.
- Serve immediately while the cake is warm, spooning the hot fudge mixture on the bottom of the pan over the cake.
Notes
*I like using coffee instead of water, because it helps bring out the flavor of the coffee. Another option is to stir 1 teaspoon espresso powder into the cake batter instead, and use hot water. Or you can leave out the coffee entirely, and the cake will still taste great. ;)
Adapted from Hershey’s.
I think you could use almond milk instead of regular milk to make it vegan but I am not sure.
I am absolutely trying this! Just gotta get some avocados and baking can start! :) Thanks for the inspiration!
Awesome, we hope you love it, Julia! :)
Interested in a vegan and maybe less sugar option. Any suggestions?
Hi Michelle! To make this vegan, you could use soy/almond/cashew/rice/coconut (from the carton, not the can)/hemp milk, and to use less sugar, we’d suggest maybe trying it with 1/4 cup light brown sugar and 3/4 cup cane sugar. Let us know how it goes, we hope this is helpful!
This looks phenomenal. 1st thing on my to-bake list. what are some sugar-free or low sugar alternatives here? I normally replace with stevia or maple syrup but subbing 1.5 cups of sugar with 0.75 cups of stevia will definitely leave a bitter taste…suggestions?
Thank you, Bailey — we hope you enjoy it! We haven’t experimented with a sugar-free or lower sugar version of this recipe. However, we think you could try cutting the light brown sugar back to 1/4 cup and the cane sugar back to 3/4 cup. We love the idea of using maple syrup or even agave for this, but are afraid it would be too liquidy (though if you compensated by cutting back on the coffee, it might work). You will just have to experiment with the amounts, as we haven’t tried this ourselves. We hope this is helpful — please let us know how it turns out if you try any of these things! :)
We had this type of cake as kids – it was called self-saucing pudding. I keep meaning to try chocolate-avocado recipes but never do – the avos are so cheap here at the moment I really should!
Yes, we hope you can try this soon, Kearin! :)
Hi, first of all I just want to say I LOVE your recipes! And this one looks amazing!! But I’m confused because in the post you call this recipe vegan but there is milk in the ingredients list. Can anything be substituted ??
Saw this in my inbox and had to make it tonight! It’s cooling now, but it smells heavenly. Thank you for another great recipe!
Yay! We hope you enjoyed it, Corinne!
Hi here! Step 1 for chocolate fudge cake says to grease a pan but step 3 says to spread it in an ungreased pan. Can you please clarify? Thank you!
Hi Jessica! Oops, thanks for catching that error — step 3 should have read “greased pan,” just as it did in step 1. We’ve fixed it now. We apologize for the confusion!
Pretty pretty! This looks to die for. It reminds me of chocolate cobbler (which I also love)
Thanks, Sara — we hope you can give this a try soon! :)
wow wow wow!
This looks amazing. x
Izzy
Thanks, Izzy — we hope you can give it a try sometime soon!