Hot Chocolate Fudge Pudding

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• 150g plain flour
• 150ml milk
• 160g caster sugar
• 60g unsalted butter, melted
• 40g cocoa powder (unsweetened)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200ml double cream
• 150g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
• 50g golden syrup

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180°C fan (200°C conventional). Grease a 20cm square baking dish and set it on a tray — the sauce bubbles up the sides as it bakes and you don't want it on the oven floor.
2. Whisk the flour, cocoa, caster sugar, baking powder and a good pinch of fine salt in a large bowl until evenly combined and lump-free, with no streaks of cocoa visible. The salt is non-negotiable here — it's what stops the cocoa tasting flat and lifts every note of the chocolate.
3. Beat the eggs with the milk and vanilla in a jug, then stir into the dry mix along with the melted butter. You want a thick but pourable batter that falls slowly from the spoon in a ribbon — over-mix and the sponge tightens, so stop the moment it's smooth.
4. Scrape the batter into the prepared dish and smooth the top. Taste a smear from the spoon — it should taste sweet but with a savoury edge from the salt; if it tastes one-note, work in another small pinch. Scatter the roughly chopped dark chocolate evenly across the surface so every spoonful gets a pocket of melted chocolate.
5. Warm the cream and golden syrup in a small pan over a low heat for 2–3 minutes, stirring, until just steaming and beginning to simmer at the edges — don't let it boil or the cream splits and the sauce goes greasy rather than glossy. Pour it evenly over the batter and chocolate. It will look alarming and soupy; that's exactly right. The liquid sinks as it bakes to form the glossy sauce underneath.
6. Bake for 28–32 minutes, until the sponge has risen and is set on top but still gives a little spring when pressed in the centre, and the sauce is bubbling thickly at the edges. A skewer pushed into the sponge should come away with a few moist crumbs — clean means you've gone too far and lost the molten layer.
7. Rest for 5 minutes so the sauce thickens to a glossy fudge — straight from the oven it's too thin, and any longer and it sets.
8. Spoon straight from the dish into warm bowls, digging deep so each portion gets a ribbon of molten sauce pooling under the sponge, and land a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream (or a slow pour of cold cream) on top so it starts melting into the heat the moment it hits.