Chocolate Bundt Cake
Does one really need a reason to make cake? Well, Easter is upon us and I love a chocolate cake. I especially love the look of bundt cakes. There are so many options and they make for such beautiful presentation. I used the Nordic Ware Jubilee Bundt Pan , but there are so many others to choose from. This recipe is amazing with the chocolate icing but I opted to simply dust with powdered sugar and top it with a lovely, floral crown. This is a moist but dense cake, almost like a pound cake and perfect for Easter or you know, just because!
Bundt cakes originally were created as an elevated way of presenting a traditional cake. If you want to geek out on it's history, here's a link to the bundt cake's origins.
Ingredients
Makes 1 Cake
- 1 cup brewed coffee*
- 16 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 cup)*
- 3/4 cup Pernigotti Cocoa or Dutch process cocoa (I used Pernigotti)
- 2 cups sugar
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup sour cream or regular or Greek yogurt (full-fat preferred)
Optional Icing
- 2/3 cup chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, or chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup heavy or whipping cream
Directions
- Pre-heat oven to 350F degrees.
- For cake, place the coffee, butter and cocoa in a medium sauce pan, heating and stirring until butter melts.
- When butter has melted, remove from heat and whisk until smooth. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- While chocolate cools, put the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and flour in to a large mixing bowl, whisking to combine.
- Pour the cooled chocolate in with the dry ingredients, mixing until fully combined.
- In a separate, small bowl, combine vanilla extract, eggs and sour cream, whisking until combined and smooth.
- Add to chocolate batter, mixing until fully combine. (I used a whisk and gave the ole wrist a workout!)
- Thoroughly grease a non-stick bundt pan (I used baking spray), and pour batter into pan.
- Bake 50-55 minutes until a long skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes before turning pan over onto a cooling rack. After 5 more minutes, remove the pan from the cake.
- Dust with powdered sugar - OR - if you opt to do icing, let cake completely cool, first.
Icing
- Combine chocolate and cream in a saucepan over medium heat until cream starts to bubble around the edges.
- Remove from heat and stir until chocolate completely melts and mixture is smooth.
- Once cake has cooled, spoon icing over cake, letting it drip down the sides.
*Water may be used instead of coffee
*Make sure and cut sticks of butter in to individual tablespoons so it melts faster
All photos ©2017 Jonathan Stiers | Recipe from King Arthur Flour
