Filling for chocolate fudge cake to be served warm?

[wem]

I make a chocolate fudge cake with chocolate swiss meringue buttercream filling. I'd like to be able to serve it warm as a desert, but the buttercream would melt to a puddle if heated, as would normal buttercream I guess. What would be best to use?

The hummingbird bakery book uses a 'chocolate custard' as a filling for one of their cakes which sounds like it could work? Custard, heated, that fits doesn't it? It's not a proper custard, with eggs and the like, just has cornflour along with other ingredients. It mentions chilling the cake to set it, so I suppose it will melt a bit when heated, but maybe the custard would hold together a bit better than a buttercream.

I don't think you can serve a warm cake with a filling as it would probably just sink in. I would make your chocolate fudge cake (drool!) and serve it with a warm salted caramel sauce to pour over.... maybe put a bowl of creme fraiche on the table to cut the richness and for added calories

Ooh, that sounds lovely. Unfortunately, it's more complicated than I put in my OP - was trying to keep it simple! It's actually for a local business, I make them the chocolate fudge cake regularly and they've ordered one for some evening sittings (they're usually just a coffee and cake place), and they mentioned in passing that they're planning to serve it warm. It wasn't til I got home that I thought maybe the normal one I do won't work warm.

So I still need to hand over a completed cake for them to slice and heat as they need. Hmmm.

Ok, a bit more complicated but can you give them a cake to heat and a jug of sauce to heat and pour over? I just think a filling will melt into the cake when it's heated. I can't think of any cakes or puddings with fillings that you can heat....

Nutella?

Hmmm, I wonder what happens to Nutella when you heat it?

I've had a look at the hummingbird bakery website and it suggests using leftover chocolate custard heated up as a sauce for icecream. So I guess even if it melts a bit it will still hold together as a sauce, whereas the buttercream would lose all of the air and become melted butter more or less.

So yes, no cake with filling is going to still look like the same after heating, but it would be like serving it with sauce maybe?

Well, just in case anyone comes looking with a similar question - I made the chocolate custard, and it looks awesome. I made it on the thicker side, and even in the saucepan on the hob it was pretty thick and gooey so should be fine as a filling/sauce. I only hope it's still workable once it cools down!

I tend to use a chocolate ganache in the middle of fudge cakes that need heating.

To keep the cost down when making ganache for coffee shop clients I use asda value dark chock at 30p a bar and it works fantastically.

Oh thanks blueberry, I hadn't seen your reply til now. I'd like to try a ganache sometime soon. I can definitely recommend the 'chocolate custard' as a filling though, was lovely and fudgy, even when heated :)

Have you thought about doing the cake separately, chilling the filling, then warm the cakes first then put on the frozen/chilled filling then placing the top on? It's what I usually do if I making a cake for supper, I leave it separate until the last minute.

This is a chocolate fudge icing that sets firm to a glossy finish and melts to a fudge sauce. It is amazing!

3oz icing sugar
1oz cocoa
1.5oz butter
2 tbsp water
2oz caster sug

sift icing sug and cocoa into a bowl. put butter, caster sug and water into a pan and melt then bring to boil. beat into the dry ingredients until glossy. You can loosen with a little water / milk as needed.

ps don't worry if goes grainy - add a splash of hot liquid and beat the bejeezus out of it

oh sorry, just saw you did the custard! ignore me

Here's a chocolate sauce from 'Faites vos patisseries comme Lenotre' by Gaston Lenotre. It makes a thinish chocolate sauce, but when it sets you can spoon it out of a bowl. Don't worry about it looking like sick at one point - it works

100ml milk
1 tbsp creme fraiche
25g castor sugar
15g butter
100g plain chocolate (at least 50% cocoa solids)

Melt the chocolate.

Bring the milk to the boil and remove from the heat and stir in the creme fraiche ? it may curdle slightly but will be ok.

Add the melted chocolate, sugar and butter. Bring to the boil for ?several seconds?. It will bubble rather like thickish custard, or fudge.

Another rather nice icing that can be poured over - bit like a fondant, or whisked and then trowelled/piped is this one from Larousse Gastronomique

150g plain choc
65g butter

Melt chocolate with the butter in a bain-mairie. Then you can either pour over a cake or put in a mixer and whisk with a balloon whisk until it lightens in colour - sort of dark milk chocolate-coloured. Then 'plaster' it on to the cake. It dries out slightly on standing, so becomes rather like a frosting.