Old Fashioned Chocolate Cobbler – Easy Hot Fudge Cake

See how to make old fashioned chocolate cobbler. This easy cake recipe makes the perfect chocolate dessert. It’s a simple hot fudge cake recipe!

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cobbler is a rich and decadent chocolate cake recipe that makes its own sauce when baking. Some people call it hot fudge cake for the chocolate sauce that forms under the chocolate cake.

Old Fashioned Chocolate Cobbler

Chocolate Cobbler, now that’s a cobbler I can get behind.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I really like fruit cobblers such as Apple Cobbler, Blackberry Cobber, Blueberry Cobbler, and Peach Cobbler, but an Old Fashioned Chocolate Cobbler truly has my heart.

That’s because I love chocolate above all things, not only dessert but any food in general. Chocolate is my jam.

And, this old fashioned chocolate cobbler takes the cake.

Easy Hot Fudge Cake

Chocolate Cobbler, also known as hot fudge cake, is a ooey, gooey dessert that will melt your heart.

The top of the dessert has a cake like texture, but underneath the cake hot fudge sauce is created during the baking process, hence the name hot fudge cake.

This hot fudge cake is easy to make; you actually mix up the entire batter in the 8 x 8 inch baking dish instead of dirtying another bowl.

Chocolate Cake With Its Own Sauce

This recipe for chocolate cake with its own sauce is actually from West Virginia.

I found the recipe in a West Virginia Cook Book that I found while on vacation. In the book, it referred to it simply as an Easy Chocolate Cake, but I soon realized it’s what some people call a chocolate cobbler.

Instead of a gooey fruit mixture at the bottom, this has a rich hot fudge sauce that forms during baking, while the cobbler topping resembles a moist chocolate cake.

Ingredient List for Chocolate Cobbler

Flour

White Sugar

Salt

Baking Powder

Cocoa Powder

Vegetable Oil

Milk

Brown Sugar

Mini Chocolate Chips

Hot Water

Vanilla Extract

How to Make a Hot Fudge Cake

Step By Step Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In an 8 x 8 inch baking dish, add and mix together flour, white sugar, salt, baking powder and cocoa powder.
3. Combine milk and vegetable oil, and stir into dry mixture until a wet batter forms. The the batter sit in the baking dish for 2 minutes.
4. Sprinkle the top with brown sugar and mini chocolate chips.
5. Combine hot water and vanilla extract, and slowly pour evenly over the brown sugar mixture. DO NOT MIX. Let the water sit on top of the cake batter for another 2 minutes to settle.
6. Bake for 32 to 35 minutes or until the top appears dry.
7. Serve warm or room temperature; do not serve immediately.  The hot fudge sauce needs time to thicken as it cools down. It tastes great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Storage Instructions

Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.

For the full ingredient amounts and recipe steps for easy hot fudge cake, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post. 

Recipe FAQs

• The entire cake is mixed up in the baking dish; there’s no need to dirty a bowl.
• When you pour the hot water and vanilla extract mixture over the cake, do not mix it together.  Gently and slowly pour it over the batter.  This helps form the hot fudge sauce later on.
• Be sure to let the cake sit for 2 minutes as the instructions say both times!
• Substitute regular chocolate chips, mini chips, milk chocolate chips, etc. for the mini chocolate chips, if desired.
• Do not serve this cake right out of the oven.  It needs time to cool enough so the hot fudge sauce thickens at the bottom of the pan.
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Rich and Decadent Chocolate Desserts

 Famous Chocolate Wafer Icebox Cake 

Loaded German Chocolate Brownies 

Deluxe Chocolate Marshmallow Bars 

Coconut Chocolate Chip Dream Bars