Sometimes you just get a craving that will not quit. I had one for chocolate cake hit me last week and nothing I did would banish the thought from my head. So I finally gave in and picked out a recipe I hadn't tried before.

I like a good sour cream chocolate cake. And I appreciated that this one didn't need any sort of glaze or icing. They suggest serving it with lightly sweetened raspberries and tangy whipped cream, but those are both completely optional and the cake is still lovely on its own or with just a light dusting of icing sugar.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Slightly adapted from The Perfect Cake by America's Test Kitchen

Ingredients

• 65g cocoa powder¹
• 170g dark chocolate, chopped
• 1 tsp. instant espresso or coffee powder
• 3/4 c. boiling water
• 240g all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 c. sour cream
• 12 Tbsp. (~170g) unsalted butter, softened
• 400g brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 5 large eggs

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease and flour² a Bundt pan.
2. Combine cocoa, chocolate, and coffee powder in a heat-proof bowl.
3. Pour the boiling water into the bowl, cover, and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Stir until chocolate is melted and mixture is homogeneous. Set aside.
5. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and salt and sift in the baking soda. Mix well and set aside.
6. Add the sour cream to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine.
7. Cream the butter with the sugar until light (~3 minutes).
8. Mix in the vanilla.
9. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.
10. Add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients and stir to combine.
11. Add ~1/2 of the sour cream mixture and, once combined, follow with 1/2 the remaining dry ingredients.
12. Finish up by mixing in the last of the sour cream mixture followed by the last of the dry ingredients.
13. Scoop the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
14. Bake at 180°C (350°F) until done (40-50 minutes).
15. Allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack to finish cooling.
16. Serve as-is or topped with a dusting of icing sugar, fresh or macerated fruit of your choice, and/or whipped cream. (Or tangy whipped cream, if you prefer.

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¹ The original recipe calls for using natural cocoa powder. I got mixed up and used Dutched/alkalized cocoa instead. I was very happy with the results, so I'm going to go ahead and say that either is fine. I think there's probably enough acid in the sour cream that the pH of the cocoa powder doesn't really matter that much for this one. ^Back
2 If you're worried about flour showing on the surface of the finished cake, brush the pan with a paste of melted butter and cocoa instead. About 1 Tbsp. of each should do the trick. ^Back