Chocolate Bundt Cake is so rich and moist thanks to sour cream in the batter. A gorgeous and delicious chocolate cake!
Did everyone have a good holiday weekend? It was nice to have a day off work but I must say, my weekend was not so great. TheBetterHalf and I were supposed to go visit my family in St. Louis. After an hour delay and 2 hours sitting on the plane at LaGuardia, AA canceled our flight! They were unable to re-book us, so we had to cancel our whole trip. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper.
So I made a cake to cheer myself up! Who wouldn’t smile at a nice, rich chocolate bundt cake! Just smelling this in the oven made my weekend start to look up immediately.
Bundt cakes are a new addition to my baking repertoire. When you live in a small apartment, there is just no room for superfluous kitchen accessories. And so I survived for years as a bundt pan-less woman. And then I decided that now that I have a blog, a bundt pan is no longer superfluous! So I got myself a present, and then made this beauty.
And I knew that a chocolate bundt cake was next on the list!
This recipe comes from America’s Test Kitchen (my absolute favorite source for recipes) and they call it Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake. I decided to change the name….bakers know that things like sour cream and mayo make cakes super rich and moist, but to normal people it just sounds kind of….gross. I’m actually not a sour cream fan – I would NEVER eat it plain, and I almost always sub in yogurt when a recipe calls for it.
However. I just knew that yogurt would not do the trick in this chocolate bundt cake. I was trying to cheer myself up after all, so only the richest, moistest, most decadent cake would do! And the sour cream really came through in this cake. It is so rich and moist!
When this cake came out of the pan in one (beautiful) piece, I honestly did a little happy dance. Nothing is worse than a cake sticking in the pan!!! This recipe calls for greasing the pan with a paste made of melted butter and cocoa powder, and it worked wonders.
Chocolate Bundt Cake is so rich and moist thanks to sour cream in the batter. A gorgeous and delicious chocolate cake!
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter, melted
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 3/4 cup natural cocoa powder (2 1/4 oz)
- 6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
- 3/4 cup boiling water
- 1 cup sour cream, at room temp
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (8 3/4 oz)
- 1 teaspoon table salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp (12 tablespoons)
- 2 cups packed light brown sugar (14 oz)
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- 5 large eggs, at room temp
- confectioners' sugar for dusting
Instructions
- To a medium heatproof bowl, add the cocoa powder, chocolate, and espresso powder. Pour boiling water over and whisk the mixture until smooth. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Meanwhile, prepare the pan. In a small bowl, stir together melted butter and cocoa powder. Use a pastry brush to coat the inside of a 12-cup Bundt pan with the butter/cocoa paste. If the mixture is too thick, place in the microwave for 10 seconds to re-soften
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
- Once the chocolate mixture has cooled, whisk in the sour cream
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed for about 3 minutes, until pale and fluffy.
- Reduce speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds after each addition. Stop the mixer occasionally to scrape down the bowl with a rubber spatula.
- At this point, your batter may look separated - this is ok.
- Reduce speed to medium-low and add 1/3 of the flour mixture and 1/2 of the chocolate mixture. Mix for 20 seconds, until just incorporated. Repeat with second third of flour and the rest of the chocolate. Add the rest of the flour and mix until just incorporated. Turn off mixer and mix batter by hand to ensure everything is fully incorporated.
- Carefully pour batter into prepared bundt pan - try not to pour onto the sides of the pan.
- Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, until a wooden skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto a parchment-lined wire rack. Cool to room temperature, about 3 hours. Lightly dust with confectioners' sugar, transfer to a platter, and serve.
Notes
Recipe from America's Test Kitchen
Chocolate lover? Me too!! Try some of these!
Brownie Pudding – one of the best things I have ever made!
Oreo Inspired Chewy Chocolate White Chocolate Chip Cookies – so rich and chocolatey
Oh you poor thing! That is the worst that your flight got cancelled, especially before a fun trip to visit family over the long weekend! I bet all the waiting around on the plane made it even more annoying. What happens when they cancel your flight and they can’t rebook you? Do they refund your ticket, and then give you a bonus voucher or something for the inconvenience? I’ve had the best luck with flights. I’ve never had a flight be delayed. They usually come in early!
Catey! I cannot get over how perfect this cake looks! Like out of a magazine! America’s Test Kitchen really does have the best recipes, especially for baking.
Natalie I am so jealous of your flight luck! I have had SOOO many bad experiences. They refunded our tickets, but they did NOTHING else for us, because they claim it was because of weather. We are currently trying to argue with them though so we shall see! You can’t ruin someone’s weekend and then do NOTHING for them, right?!
And you are so sweet! I’m going to give some credit to the bundt pan though – it just makes cakes look so pretty!
What a bummer, Cate! But at least you had this gorgeous bundt to cheer you up. I don’t make budnt cakes nearly as much as I should (but I always think of that bundt pan scene from My Big Fat Greek Wedding :). Looks amazing!
Thanks, Amy! I need to re-watch that movie. I don’t remember the bundt pan scene but it sounds pretty amazing!!
i loooove baking with sour cream! this cake looks delicious. i’m so sorry about your flight and cancelled plans. that stinks! hope you get to go see your family soon 🙂
Thank you so much, Sarah! I might need to use sour cream more often – I love yogurt, but the texture of this cake from the sour cream was perfect!
I’m so sorry to hear your flights got canceled. The weather was a mess that weekend (and still is, we had a tornado warning yesterday). Hopefully this cake made you happy for a little bit. The rich chocolate ness is calling to me. So beautiful!!
Thanks, Zainab! The weather really was crazy. But Cake and Chocolate always know how to cheer me up 😉
So sorry to hear you couldn’t see your family. However, the cake you made is awesome. Definitely one I’d like to make myself. I’m glad it helped to cheer you up.
Thank you so much, Julie! All of you sweet readers also help to cheer me up!!
Ugh what a frustrating weekend it sounds like you had! I can think of NO better consolation, though, than a moist and rich piece of cake. I think that your bundt pan was a great investment!!
Thanks, Nora!! I’m glad you agree with me on my bundt pan decision!
it looks delicious!
Sorry to hear about your flight being cancelled, I can’t blame you for being a little bummed out! On the flip side you made a seriously delicious looking cake! I love how moist sour cream can make baked goods, this one looks fantastic.
Aaw, I’m so sorry to hear about your cancelled flight – that must have been so frustrating especially since you didn’t get to see your family 🙁
Hopefully this cake cheered you up a bit. It looks absolutely perfect and the sour cream was a great call 🙂 Mmm so rich and chocolatey – pinning 🙂
So sorry about your 4th of July plans, Cate! I just hate having to deal with canceled flights and airport drama, haha. I also tend to bake things to cheer myself and other people up, so I can totally relate to that! This cake looks super moist, such a great treat to enjoy after all that stress! 🙂
Ugh; it’s a big enough pain to pack and plan and get to the airport, but then to gave your whole trip cancelled! No fun. I would have come home and made something chocolate, too. Your Bundt cake looks specacular…I may have even made this recipe before. If not, I’m definitely trying it!
Gaaaaah what a disappointing and frustrating experience, Cate! I’m so sorry your trip was cancelled. Seriously, my head would’ve exploded (I do NOT deal well in situations like this). Have you re-booked your trip for the near future? I hope so! And I hope this cake made you feel better – it looks gorgeous! So rich and moist and decadent. Sour cream chocolate cakes are my favourite to bake and eat. And yay for bundt pans! You’re gonna love using it for all kinds of delicious flavour combinations.
I had a friend who was supposed to fly to Charleston last weekend and their trip was canceled as well! BOO.
But at least you got a chocolate cake? This is quite the consolation prize!
I am also a massive chocolate lover.. you’ve now made me hungry! Definitely will be making this choc bundt cake. Thanks for sharing another great recipe!
This is a gorgeous looking cake! It looks so moist, rich and decadent – just like a chocolate bundt cake should be! Yum!
I LOOOVE how chocolatey and beautiful this bundt cake is!
Cate, this cake looks AMAZING! So rich, moist, and chocolatey…I’m in love with it! Definitely trying this one out. Pinned!
oh my goodness!! sorry to hear about the cancelled flight and trip! that sucks!! well, at least you had this cake! this would cheer me up too!! It’s perfection!! and I love bundt cakes! so beautiful!