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Mary Berry Chocolate Drizzle Cake Recipe

Mary Berry Chocolate Drizzle Cake Recipe

Mary Berry's chocolate drizzle cake is a deeply moist chocolate loaf cake with a dark chocolate drizzle and a crunchy chocolate sugar crust — completely irresistible.
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Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Cooling & Setting Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 45 minutes
Servings: 10 Slices
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: British
Calories: 380
Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients
  

  • Chocolate Loaf Sponge:
  • 200 ml sunflower oil
  • 200 g soft dark brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs room temperature
  • 200 ml whole milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp instant espresso powder dissolved in 1 tbsp hot water — cooled
  • 200 g self-raising flour sifted
  • 50 g good quality cocoa powder sifted
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ tsp fine salt
  • Chocolate Drizzle:
  • 3 tbsp good quality cocoa powder sifted
  • 100 g golden caster or granulated sugar
  • 3 tbsp boiling water
  • Dark Chocolate Glaze:
  • 100 g good quality dark chocolate 70%, finely chopped
  • 75 ml double cream
  • 1 tbsp golden syrup
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Method
 

  1. Preheat oven to 170°C / 150°C fan / Gas 3. Grease and line a 900g loaf tin with parchment overhang.
  2. Whisk oil, dark brown sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla, and dissolved espresso until smooth — 1 minute. Sift flour, cocoa, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, and salt directly into wet ingredients — whisk until a smooth dark batter forms.
  3. Pour into tin. Bake 50–60 minutes until skewer comes out clean. Cover loosely after 35 minutes if darkening too quickly.
  4. Immediately pierce all over with skewer — 30–40 holes. Mix cocoa, sugar, and boiling water until smooth and syrupy — pour evenly over hot cake. Cool completely in tin — 1 hour.
  5. Heat cream and golden syrup to just simmering — pour over chopped chocolate. Stand 2 minutes. Stir smooth. Add vanilla. Cool 20 minutes until slightly thickened.
  6. Lift cake from tin. Place on rack over parchment. Pour glaze over top — let it run naturally down the sides. Set 20 minutes. Transfer to serving board. Slice.

Notes

Oil gives exceptional moisture — the crumb stays fresh and soft for 5 days.
Espresso deepens the chocolate dramatically — does not make it taste of coffee.
Apply drizzle while hot and in the tin — hot cake draws the liquid in and the sugar crystallises.
Cool chocolate glaze 20 minutes before pouring — too thin and it runs straight off.
Dark brown sugar gives the right molasses-rich complexity — white sugar gives a flatter result.
Freeze without glaze for up to 3 months.
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