A simple cocoa batter with chocolate chips spread across the base of a greased slow cooker, covered with a dry mixture of brown sugar and cocoa.
A cup and a half of very hot water is poured over the top and left alone. Two to two and a quarter hours on HIGH turns it into cake above and hot fudge sauce below.
Why This Recipe Works
- The water is never stirred. That is the mechanism: a lighter batter rises through a heavier sugar solution, so the two swap places during cooking. Stirring destroys the density difference the whole thing depends on.
- Cocoa appears twice, in two separate quarter cups. One is in the cake and one is in the sauce layer, and they are measured separately in the ingredient list for exactly that reason.
- Very hot water rather than warm. It starts dissolving the brown sugar immediately and begins the sauce before the cooker has come up to temperature.
- Two teaspoons of baking powder against one cup of flour is a generous amount. The batter has to rise through a cup and a half of liquid, which is a great deal more work than rising through air.
- HIGH rather than LOW. The cake layer needs to set relatively quickly, otherwise it stays in suspension in the sauce and never becomes a distinct layer at all.
Three Layers That Change Places
This is the trick every self-saucing pudding runs on, and it is worth understanding rather than just following. What you build from the bottom up comes out the other way round: the layer you pour last ends up underneath.
What comes out
The batter rises through the water as it cooks and sets as cake on top; the sugar, cocoa and water sink and combine into fudge sauce underneath. Two to two and a quarter hours on HIGH, and the cue is a set cake layer with sauce still loose below it.
Top, going in: very hot water
A cup and a half, poured gently over everything. It sits on top and looks alarming. It is meant to.
Middle, going in: dry sugar and cocoa
Half a cup of packed light brown sugar mixed with the second quarter cup of cocoa, sprinkled evenly over the batter. It goes on dry — this is not stirred in either.
Bottom, going in: the batter
Flour, granulated sugar, a quarter cup of cocoa, baking powder and salt with milk, melted butter, vanilla and chocolate chips. Spread evenly across the base of the greased cooker.
Ingredient Notes
- Very hot water
- A cup and a half, poured over and left. This is the most important line in the recipe and the one most often misread as an ingredient to mix in.
- Cocoa powder, two measures
- A quarter cup for the batter and a further quarter cup for the sauce layer. Unsweetened both times, and listed separately on purpose.
- Light brown sugar, packed
- Half a cup, for the sauce layer only. Packed, and sprinkled dry over the batter rather than dissolved first.
- Salted caramel sauce, divided
- Half a cup: half drizzled over the finished cake at step 8 and half served at the table at step 9.
- Semisweet chocolate chips
- Half a cup, folded into the batter. They melt into the cake layer rather than the sauce, which is where the fudginess in the crumb comes from.
How to Make It
Grease the cooker
Lightly grease a 6-quart slow cooker.
Whisk the dry ingredients
Whisk the flour, granulated sugar, 1/4 cup cocoa, baking powder and salt.
Make the batter
Stir in the milk, melted butter and vanilla just until combined, then fold in the chocolate chips.
Spread it in the cooker
Spread the batter evenly in the slow cooker.
Add the dry sauce layer
Mix the brown sugar with the remaining 1/4 cup cocoa and sprinkle it evenly over the batter.
Pour the hot water — do not stir
Pour the hot water gently over the top without stirring.
Cook on HIGH
Cover and cook on HIGH for 2 to 2 1/4 hours, until the cake layer is set while a fudgy sauce remains underneath.
First caramel
Drizzle with half the salted caramel sauce.
Serve
Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and the remaining caramel sauce.
Success Tips
- Grease the crock well; sugar syrup sticks harder than batter does.
- Mix the batter just until combined — an overworked batter rises less through the water.
- Sprinkle the brown sugar and cocoa evenly rather than in a heap.
- Pour the hot water over the back of a spoon so it lands gently.
- Do not stir at any point after step 4, and resist lifting the lid to check.
Serving Ideas
Warm, spooned rather than sliced, with vanilla ice cream and the remaining caramel. Spoon down through the cake so each serving carries both layers.
Storage and Reheating
Refrigerate
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days. The sauce thickens considerably when cold and loosens again on warming.
Freeze
Freezing is not recommended. Self-saucing puddings lose the separation between the layers entirely once frozen and thawed.
Reheat
Reheat individual portions in the microwave in short bursts until warm. The sauce comes back to a pourable consistency within a minute.
Frequently Asked Questions
It looks wrong. Should I stir the water in?
No. The unstirred water is the whole recipe — the batter rises through it and sets as cake while the sugar and cocoa sink and become sauce. Stirring gives you a thin batter and no sauce at all.
There was no sauce underneath.
It was cooked too long. The cue is a set cake layer with a loose sauce still beneath it, which arrives somewhere between two and two and a quarter hours depending on the cooker.
Can I cook it on LOW?
The cake layer needs to set fairly quickly to separate cleanly. On LOW it tends to stay suspended in the sauce and you get a very wet pudding instead of two layers.
Can I bake this in the oven?
This recipe is written for a slow cooker on HIGH. An oven version of a self-saucing pudding exists but it is a different recipe with different timing and a different dish.
