Air fryer chocolate fudge cakes recipe
Soft, spongy and decadently fudgy, these easy chocolate cakes prove once and for all that air fryers are as brilliant for baking as they are for crisping up your favourite savoury foods.
Whether you're after a family-friendly treat to whip up at the weekend, are in need of a bevy of delights for a bake sale, or simply fancy something sweet to pair with your afternoon cup of tea, you can't go far wrong with this speedy recipe, which yields 12 moreish morsels in well under an hour.
The brains behind the bakes is social media cooking sensation Poppy O'Toole, who has featured the recipe in her new book Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook. Poppy says that the chocolatey bites are inspired by the famous chapter in Roald Dahl’s Matilda when Bruce Bogtrotter is forced to devour an enormous chocolate cake – which she admits that she saw as less of a punishment, and more of a dream come true.
Things to note:
The type of cupcake tin required depends on the size of your air fryer; if a 6-cup muffin tin fits, use this and bake in two batches. Alternatively, you can make a rough-and-ready cupcake mould out of foil to support the paper cases.
For US ingredients and measurements, use the drop-down menu and select ‘Cups’.
Ingredients
- 200 g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 200 g unsalted butter
- 185 g plain flour, sifted
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 200 g light brown soft sugar
- 60 g cocoa powder, sifted
- 1 pinch salt
- 3 eggs
- 100 ml buttermilk (shop bought is best)
- 55 ml espresso
- 50 g 70% dark chocolate, broken into pieces
- 50 g milk chocolate, broken into pieces
- 1 tbsp golden syrup
- 1 pinch sea salt flakes
- 100 ml double cream
Details
- Cuisine: British
- Recipe Type: Air fryer
- Difficulty: Easy
- Preparation Time: 15 mins
- Cooking Time: 20 mins
- Serves: 12
Step-by-step
- Heat the air fryer to 160°C/325°F. Line a cupcake or muffin tray with cupcake cases.
- Melt the dark chocolate and butter together in a large heatproof bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water, or in a microwave. Stir briefly to combine, then remove from the heat.
- Meanwhile, add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), sugar, cocoa powder and salt to a large bowl and whisk together.
- Whisk the eggs, buttermilk and coffee into the melted chocolate until evenly combined, then fold in the dry ingredients.
- Spoon the mixture equally into the cupcake cases and bake for 18-20 minutes (on or off the baking tray, depending on the size of your air fryer basket), or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cupcakes comes out clean. Remove from the air fryer and allow to cool for a few minutes in the tray, before placing on a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
- To make the ganache, add the chocolate, golden syrup and sea salt flakes to a heatproof bowl. Warm the cream in a small saucepan until steaming, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate mixture and whisk to combine. Allow to cool for 10 minutes or so, so that it’s spreadable but not runny.
- Spoon the ganache on top of the cakes and allow to set before serving.
Recipe adapted from Poppy Cooks: The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook by Poppy O’Toole (Bloomsbury, £20 Hardback). Photography © Haarala Hamilton.
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