Magic Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake

This is a 100% Kendra recipe (as are many of our concoctions), written up and photographed by Amelia (we’re the two sisters behind Sisters Sans Gluten if you haven’t read our About Us section). While this recipe was thought up by Kendra one evening when a sudden craving for pudding hit and this was the glorious solution, both of us sisters LOVE pudding. You know those instant Jell-o pudding boxes in the baking aisle that range from lemon to coconut to white chocolate and all you have to do is tear open the flimsy cardboard packaging, rip the foil packet open, dump the contents (questionable at best) into a mixing bowl and stir in cold milk until it magically thickens into heaps of the fastest sugar high you’ll ever spoon feed yourself? We loved those growing up. No camping trip was complete unless we had stashed away a few boxes in the dry goods bin in the trunk to sneak out, after the camp stove was folded away and the plastic plates had been washed, for a no-bake dessert fit for coastal redwood queens.  We would each frantically stir our own bowl until the spell was done and we could sit in our kid-sized folding chairs next to the campfire, downing whole ladel-fulls of pistachio or butterscotch goop until the stars started to peak through the towering evergreens and the lanterns and flashlights came out around the campground. Who needs s’mores when you’ve got your very own 4-serving pudding bowl?

So that’s why, one evening, Kendra was hit with a craving for pudding – it’s a sibling favorite that goes back as far as we can remember. Being older and wiser, and a bit more patient than the endlessly-long 3-minute pudding stir seemed when we were kids, Kendra opted for a more adult version of our childhood guilty pleasure. This cake is the delightful result, part satisfying pudding slab, part lighter-than-air chocolate sponge. The magic comes when you put a pan full of what looks like thick hot chocolate in the oven and the below comes out – separated into perfectly-formed layers. Apparently, our mom also has a recipe for a similarly magical dessert that involves a coconut cake that, when baked, seems to create its own crust as the layers separate and settle. We’ll have to investigate (ie make) that one soon too.

Because this magical hot chocolate pudding cake is at so light, both in sweetness and in texture, it’s also one of our more dangerous desserts. The recipe is set for one 9×9 inch pan-full, but you’re welcome to double it as you see fit. If we were to replicate those Oregon Coast camping trips now, we might each have our own whole pan of this to dig into instead of those bowls of pudding, and by golly we would probably eat the entirety of both pans! You try eating just one piece and see how fast you realize what a mistake you’ve made. Now that you’ve been warned, go ahead and make this for that movie marathon you’ve been planning for weeks, or say to heck with diets for the rest of the Holiday-strewn year and start putting on your Thanksgiving rolls now – why wait! Enjoy this magical concoction, and do what tastes good!

Print Recipe

5 from 2 votes

Gluten Free Magic Hot Chocolate Pudding Cake

Silky like pudding, rich like hot chocolate

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time50 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Diet: Gluten Free

Keyword: banana cake, chocolate, pudding

Servings: 10 people

Calories: 200kcal

Author: Kendra Farber

Equipment

• 9×9 inch square pan

Ingredients

• 4 Large eggs separated
• 1 tsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp cold water
• 3/4 Cup white sugar
• 1/2 Cup melted butter
• 6 1/2 Tbsp gluten free flour 1-1 mix with xanthan gum
• 6 Tbsp good quality cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 Cups warm whole milk

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 325° Fahrenheit. Grease a 9×9 inch square pan with butter or cooking spray, set aside. Separate the egg whites and yolks into separate large bowls (be sure that NO yolk gets into the egg whites). Add the vinegar into the egg whites and, using an electric mixer, beat the whites until stiff peaks form (a few minutes at least), then set aside.
• In the egg yolk bowl, add in the sugar and water and beat, using the same mixer, until lighter in color and fluffier. Slowly add in the melted butter, beating on low speed until combined. Do the same thing with the flour and cocoa powder (add slowly as you beat slowly). Finally, add in the salt and vanilla extract and beat until smooth and combined. Then, using a spatula, slowly stir in the two cups of warm milk until fully mixed. The batter will be very liquid at this point. Then, using the same spatula, gently fold in 1/3 of the egg whites at a time until all the lumps of egg white fluff are smoothly mixed into the chocolate batter (this may take a few minutes but do not quickly stir it to get rid of the lumps, take your time). The batter should be very liquidy.
• Pour the batter into the greased pan and bake for 45-50 minutes until the center doesn’t jiggle (do not over-bake). Let the cake cool completely before serving! The fluffy egg whites will rise to the top to form a light chocolate sponge, and the rest will settle at the bottom for the chocolate pudding layer.

Tag @sisterssansgluten on Instagram if you snap a photo of your cake!

Food photography and styling by Amelia Farber