Chocolate Gateau
A satisfying French dessert built around plain chocolate, butter and milk — roughly 55 minutes start to finish, and rated easy to make. Below: the ingredients split into pantry staples and a quick shopping list, a built-in serving scaler, and the method in 7 steps.
You'll mainly reach for oven and saucepan. At easy difficulty across 7 steps, it's a good one for a busy evening. As written, it's meat-free.
What you'll need
Shopping list (1)
Pantry staples (you likely have these)
🔁 Unit converter
How to make it
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of an 8 in round spring form cake tin with baking parchment
- Break the chocolate into a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of gently simmering water and stir until it melts. (or melt in the microwave for 2-3 mins stirring occasionally)
- Place the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.
- Gradually beat in the eggs, adding a little flour if the mixture begins to curdle.
- Fold in the remaining flour with the cooled, melted chocolate and milk.
- Mix until smooth.
- Spread the mixture into the cake tin and bake for 50-55 mins or until firm in the centre and a skewer comes out cleanly. Cool for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely.
You'll use: Oven · Saucepan · Pan · Microwave
Watch how it's made
Hosted on YouTube — pressing play loads content from YouTube.
Ingredient substitutions
- Butter
- olive oil (¾ the amount) · coconut oil · margarine
- Milk
- any unsweetened plant milk · ½ cup evaporated milk + ½ cup water
- Eggs
- ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce (baking) · 1 tbsp ground flax + 3 tbsp water per egg
What to serve with Chocolate Gateau
- French Lentils With Garlic and Thyme Miscellaneous
- Coq au vin Chicken
- Pork Cassoulet Pork
- Tuna Nicoise Seafood
Tips & common questions
How long does Chocolate Gateau take to make?
About 55 minutes from start to finish — an estimate based on the 7 steps and 6 ingredients. Times vary with your kitchen and how much prep you do ahead.
What can I use instead of butter?
Try olive oil (¾ the amount). See the substitutions section above for more swaps.
Can I scale this recipe up or down?
Yes — use the servings control above the ingredients and every quantity rescales automatically (fractions included). Cooking times stay roughly the same; very large batches may need a little longer.
Is Chocolate Gateau vegetarian?
Its ingredients contain no meat or fish, so it's suitable for vegetarians. Check any cheeses for animal rennet if that matters to you.
Related recipes
Recipe data for Chocolate Gateau via TheMealDB (open database). ▶ Video. Original source. Consomee adds the scaler, ingredient tools, timing and structure — how we source recipes.