When I first saw this recipe months ago, it sounded so good and was something I really wanted to make. I waited patiently for winter (just about) to come so I that I'd have an excuse to make this rustic warm chocolate pudding cake. It even inspired me to buy this baking dish months ago - but then again, I'm always discovering something new that I'd like to have for the kitchen. So I'm sneaking in this recipe in between all the usual Christmas cookies and treats this December.
This is really more pudding than cake. As you can see, it's not the prettiest of desserts but I think that's also the appeal. It starts with a brownie like batter on the bottom and a hefty sprinkling of cocoa and sugar over that. Then, a good cup of hot coffee (or you could use boiling water) gets poured over the top. In the oven, the cake bakes and much of the liquid gets absorbed but just enough so that the edges are set but the center is jiggly and a little pool of liquid chocolate sauce is created at the bottom.
I guess what appealed to me so much was this idea of quickly whipping up a warm cake that you can take straight to the table from the oven and scoop up to share with your family on a cold night. It has casual and hearty written all over it and sometimes you just want that. I preferred the gooey center while my husband favored the more spongy corners (he tells me it's just like bread pudding but believe it or not, I don't think I've ever eaten bread pudding so I can't attest to it).
Vanilla ice cream is a must alongside this pudding cake. I think this recipe has a lot of appeal to it but when I tasted it, I missed that rich, kind of extreme, chocolate flavor (this recipe only uses cocoa powder) that you get from a molten chocolate cake - a very similar concoction to this. So I was a little disappointed in this pudding cake since I was comparing the two and you know I'm far more inclined to favor the more chocolaty dessert. But finally making this pudding cake satisfied a curiosity of mine and for that alone, I'm very happy.
