Easy Instant Pot chocolate pudding cake recipe with cake mix is so moist and delicious! You just need a few ingredients to make this decadent pudding cake recipe as a pressure cooker dessert. Perfect for any occasion that can be made in a Ninja Foodi too!
Do you have a pressure cooker and love desserts?? Have you tried making an Instant Pot dessert yet?? Well I got on a kick and started creating a lot including this Instant Pot chocolate pudding cake which is absolutely delicious, the other ones you can find as well on my Instant Pot recipes roundup too! (affiliate links present)
Instant Pot Pudding Cake
Now on the list as one of our favorite easy dump cake recipes you can use any flavor of cake mix you like to make this. Of course we used chocolate because it is our favorite but vanilla or strawberry would be wonderful as well.
If you’ve ever had a pudding cake you know how moist they are! You can use your Ninja Foodi or Crockpot Express to make this too. Both of those have the high pressure function you need so use the brand you have and get started. 😉
Jump to
If you are new to pressure cooking we have a lot of easy one pot meal recipes for you here. To begin with let’s start with a few basic tips:
- Make sure to Bookmark our InstaPot recipes page. We add new ones each week!
- Then PRINT this —–> Instant Pot cooking times cheat sheet that will help you understand how long meat, vegetables and beans take to cook in your pressure cooker.
- I HIGHLY recommend you buy this non stick pot.
- You should know how to deglaze a pressure cooker after sautéing but it won’t have as many issues with this better liner.
For reference, this is the model I have (a 6 quart) and use for all recipe creations.
With the simple addition of some instant pudding mix you can amp up a traditional boxed cake mix into the best chocolate cake. Cooked in your pressure cooker it’s one of our favorite easy pudding cake recipes.
This is what I use to make most of the Instant Pot desserts I have on the blog today. If you’re ready to bake in your Instant Pot you will need a springform pan like the one you see here below. If you have never used one it is really simple and has 2 pieces to it, the round outer rim/sides, and the bottom that lock into place when the silver latch is closed like this.
Instant Pot Chocolate Pudding Cake
This is the best pan ever to use because it is easy to slide it on to a plate. Just unlatch the side and the sides just lift off. If you use a piece of parchment paper the same size as the bottom piece to make things even easier.
- This 7″ springform cake pan is the perfect size for both the 6 qt. and 8 qt. Instant Pot sizes. I have the 6 qt. pot and it fits just right.
See the two pieces I spoke about? Once the silver latch is undone it slides right off (when the cake is cooled). Then when you flip it onto a plate the bottom of the pan will be on top and you just gently pull it off and it comes out nice and smooth on the top for serving. Placed on a trivet with water on the bottom and you’re ready to bake!
Ninja Foodi Pudding Cake
If you are using this brand of multi-cooker the directions below remain the same, except for one thing. You do have two lids, the one that is not attached is meant to pressure cook, with that button to be pressed. You will still want a trivet to keep the pan out of the water below which will essentially steam it to moist bites you see below.
Now this Instant Pot chocolate pudding cake is dense, it’s meant to be. It is similar to a very moist pressure cooker brownie texture and seriously incredible. It is important to NOT overcook this one in particular because the reason it is so amazing is how dense and ooey gooey it is.
Ingredients
- Chocolate cake mix
- Instant chocolate pudding mix
- eggs
- Oil
- Milk
- Chocolate chips
How to Bake Pudding Cake in Pressure Cooker
- With a mixer on low mix together all of your ingredients (except chocolate chips).
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Spray the inside of your 7″ springform pan with non stick spray.
- Spoon half of your chocolate pudding batter inside your pan
- (this recipe makes two the size you see above)
- Cover pan with foil trying to form a dome on the top so the foil doesn’t stick to the top.
- Put 2 cups of water into your Instant pot, and a trivet in the middle.
- Create a sling out of foil and lower your springform pan on to your trivet.
- Put your lid on and close the steam valve.
- Set to high pressure for 25 minutes.
- Do a slow release (move valve just slightly so steam comes out slowly) when done and lift pan out of pot.
- Put pan on cooling rack, remove foil.
- When cooled release latch on side of your pan and lift sides off.
- Put a plate on the top of your cake and flip over carefully, serve.
Another important part of baking this dessert is the cooling time. It will continue to solidify and cook just a bit inside the springform pan when it is put on a cooling rack so it is important to let it cool completely before you take it off and serve it.
How to serve
Topped with a scoop of ice cream and a few sprinkles and you could even serve it as a small dessert for a few people. Now this recipe makes 2 small cakes using this pan, so if you just want one you can cut it in half, or make a layered cake!!
The Instant Pot cake setting is a pre-programmed function on some models specifically designed for baking. This setting automatically adjusts the cooking time and pressure to low to provide the ideal environment for steaming cakes for a moist, tender texture. Make sure this coincides with the recipe you are following, otherwise you should set yourself to high or low and cook time necessary.
The texture is totally different. Baking in a pressure cooker results in a very dense almost flourless cake like texture. You are essentially steaming your baked goods or cakes with hot water instead of a dry heat of the oven. It will become more like brownies than a fluffy cake texture.
Instant Pot Chocolate Pudding Cake
Equipment
- 1 trivet
- 1 pressure cooker
Ingredients
- 1 box chocolate cake mix, 15-16 oz
- 1 box instant chocolate pudding mix, 3.9 oz
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 c vegetable oil
- 1.5 c milk, or almond milk for dairy free
- 1/2 c chocolate chips, semi sweet are great
Instructions
- With a mixer on low mix together all of your ingredients (except chocolate chips) well.
- Fold in chocolate chips.
- Spray the inside of your 7″ springform pan with non stick spray.
- Spoon half of your chocolate pudding batter inside your pan (this recipe makes two the size you see above) and cover with foil trying to form a dome on the top so the foil doesn’t stick to the top of your cake when is rises.
- Put 2 cups of water into your Instant pot, and a trivet in the middle.
- Create a sling out of foil and lower your springform pan inside on to your trivet.
- Put your lid on and close the steam valve.
- Set to manual, pressure, high, for 25 minutes.
- Do a slow release (move valve just slightly so steam comes out slowly) when done and lift pan out of pot.
- Put pan on cooling rack and remove foil.
- When cooled release latch on side of your springform pan carefully and lift sides (round part of pan) off cake.
- Put a plate on the top of your cake and flip over.
- Carefully lift bottom of pan off cake and serve…with ice cream on top!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I tried to make this today and it was only half cooked when I opened the lid. I followed the directions. What did I do wrong?
Hard to say as I am not there. Cooling in pan is necessary to firm up.
I tried this with a silicone pan and it came out not even half done, very puddingy. Should I adjust the cooking time for that type of pan? Thank you!
I just got an Instant Pot from an after Thanksgiving sale. So far, I really like it, but it’s been hard finding everyday simple recipes. I have been in your site for about 1/2 hour now and finding the recipes more to my liking… simple and easy to make with your explicit instructions. I love all the tips!! Thank you so much for that.
I have a question regarding the pudding cake. When I purchased some extra accessories for my IP, I opted to get the cheesecake pan (7″ Fat Daddy brand from Amazon) instead of the springform pan. Will the recipe work with that pan instead of the springform pan?
Also, my husband is diabetic, can I use a sugar free cake mix as well as well as sugar free pudding?
Thanks for your answers and thank you soooooooooo much for your website.
God Bless You
I’m so glad I’ve been able to help!! Yes sugar free should work fine. I would think the pan you got should work fine but I don’t have that one so I can’t say for sure but it is definitely worth a try! Lemme know how it turns out.
Thank you so much for responding back to me. I really appreciate your website and all the great recipes. Have tried several of them already and they have been a HIT! God bless you for your willingness to share.
So glad I can help!!
What do you do with the other half of the batter? Am I missing something? Also, could you do this with other flavours of cake mix and pudding?
You say to add half the batter into the pan, am I to assume this would then make two cakes?
I’m with Evelyn. Do you mean natural release?
Move the valve just slightly so the steam comes out slowly.
What is a slow release?
I specified in the instructions…what I mean by this is I move the steam valve just slightly so the steam comes out slowly.