The Best Chocolate Bundt Cake Ever
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This rich, moist, decadent Chocolate Bundt Cake is a show stopping dessert that’s perfect for every occasion, from a backyard BBQ to a holiday dinner.
Whether you’re looking for a crowd pleasing dessert, the answer to an insatiable chocolate craving, or just a way to get your baking mojo back, I can’t recommend this chocolate cake recipe enough.
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A Chocolate Bundt Cake to Make You Feel Like A Baking Champion
The first time I made the Best Chocolate Bundt Cake was in 2012. I was a young married lady and an even younger blogger, slowly teaching myself how to cook and bake and living on the thrill of anything even halfway decent coming out of my oven.
Then this cake happened. For a fledgling baker, tackling a homemade chocolate bundt cake felt like an Olympic task. I remember how nervous I was when it was time to flip the cake out of the pan. Even years later, my palms get a little sweaty during this step.
But there was nothing to fear. The cake popped easily out of the pan and onto the plate. I did a little happy dance, then smothered the cake with the glaze and cut myself a slice.
Sweet heavens. I wanted someone to hand me a medal right then and there. This was the best chocolate cake I’d ever eaten, and by some miracle I had made it myself.
After devouring my slice, I stuck the cake on a garishly red kitchen towel, took some terribly lit photos of it, and posted it on my blog. Because that’s what you did when you were a newlywed with too much free time in 2012. (See the evidence yourself below the recipe!)
Eleven years later, this chocolate bundt cake recipe is one of our most popular and best reviewed posts of all time. My sister-in-law, who has made it several times, said her co-workers didn’t believe she actually made it herself, thinking something this good could only come from a professional bakery.
To that I say, “Pshaw!” You can absolutely make something as good as the local bakery. And once you discover that fact, there’s really no turning back.
You’ll start making Giant Bakery Style Chocolate Chunk Cookies, Sour Cream Cheesecake, and Two Layer Strawberry Cakes and feeling like a baking boss all the time.
Why This Is the Best Chocolate Bundt Cake of All Time
There are three key ingredients at play here that really make this cake special.
- The first is brewed coffee, which is like chocolate’s personal hair and makeup specialist, always behind the scenes making sure the chocolate shines.
- The second is buttermilk, which we can thank for giving this cake its tender crumb and subtle tangy flavor.
- The third is sour cream, which is featured in the glaze. While perhaps unusual for a frosting, the sour cream makes for a rich, glossy frosting that’s somewhere between spoonable and pourable.
Key Ingredients
For the chocolate cake:
- Coffee– Brewed coffee is included in both the cake batter and the glaze. You can use any brewed coffee, including instant. If you don’t like coffee and are worried about the flavor, never fear. The cake doesn’t taste like coffee, it’s just there to enhance the chocolate flavor.
- Cocoa powder– Look for unsweetened cocoa powder, not Dutch process.
- Granulated sugar
- Eggs– We use an extra egg yolk for added moisture, a trick we also use in our Homemade Brownies and Triple Chocolate Chip Cookies.
Canola oil- Vegetable oil and coconut oil (melted!) also works. - Buttermilk– Buttermilk’s tangy flavor balances the sweetness of the cake, and the acids interact with baking soda to provide height and lift. You can always use this buttermilk substitute if you need it, but I usually just buy buttermilk and freeze it or use it in one of these recipes for leftover buttermilk.
- Flour– This is one of the few recipes where I feel that sifting the flour matters. The flour is added to the batter last, and we want to make sure there aren’t any big clumps.
For the chocolate sour cream frosting:
- Unsweetened chocolate– Grab this chocolate in bar form in the baking aisle of most grocery stores. Some folks in the comments have substituted dark chocolate, though the frosting will be a bit sweeter.
- Butter– I use unsalted butter for most baking, so I can control the amount of salt.
- Powdered sugar
- Sour cream– The key to that rich, thick, creamy tang! I recommend using full fat sour cream.
- More coffee!
- Half and half– Heavy cream or half and half both work well to finish off the glaze.
How to Make Chocolate Bundt Cake
Step 1: Prep. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-12 cup capacity bundt pan with butter or use Baker’s Joy spray. Set aside.
Step 2: Boil cocoa and coffee. Place cocoa powder and coffee in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
Step 3: Make cake batter. In the bowl of a mixer, combine sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs, and yolk. Beat on low speed for about 1 minute. Add buttermilk, oil, and vanilla and beat for another minute or so.
Step 4: Add flour and coffee mixture. Add sifted flour to the sugar mixture and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for 2 minutes. Add the cooled cocoa/coffee mixture and beat on low speed for another minute.
Step 5: Bake. Pour into the greased pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let the cake cool at least 15 minutes before inverting onto a serving tray.
How to Make the Chocolate Frosting:
Step 1: Melt the chocolate. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add it to a double boiler or heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Melt chocolate, stirring occasionally. Alternatively, melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring after each one.
Step 2: Mix butter, chocolate, and powdered sugar. In a small bowl, whisk together the butter and chocolate. Add half the powdered sugar and whisk again. The mixture will seem very thick.
Step 3: Add sour cream and remaining sugar. Whisk in sour cream and the remaining powdered sugar. At this point, it will seem too thick and a little gloppy. You’ll be questioning every decision you’ve ever made in life, but trust me, dear friends, you’re on the right path.
Step 4: Add coffee and cream. Add coffee and cream and whisk together until smooth and glossy. This takes a bit of time. Be patient and you’ll be rewarded with a thick, glossy frosting that looks and tastes amazing.
Step 5: Frost. Once the cake has cooled, spoon the frosting over the cake, gently prodding it to run down along the sides. Serve or store for when you’re ready to eat!
Storage and Make Ahead Instructions
- This cake can be made up to 48 hours in advance. In fact, I think it gets even better the day after you make it.
- If you’re not serving the cake the day you make it, store it, covered, in the fridge. I always recommend removing it from the fridge 1-2 hours before serving so the cake and frosting can come to room temperature. The frosting will be hard when refrigerated.
FAQs
Can I freeze chocolate bundt cake?
Absolutely! Double wrap the unfrosted cake in saran wrap then foil (or a plastic freezer bag) and freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw at room temperature overnight, then frost and serve as usual.
Can I make the frosting a thinner glaze?
This frosting is meant to be pretty thick, but you can thin it out by adding additional cream until it’s a more pourable consistency.
Can I make this cake in a cupcake or sheet pan size?
Yes, we’ve made this in cupcake form several times. Bake at the same temp, and check around 17-18 minutes. It should work in other pan sizes as well. Use this handy pan size conversion chart to see what size pans you’ll need to use.
Can I use a different frosting or glaze?
Yes, the comments are FULL of people who have used all kinds of different glazes. This chocolate bundt cake is excellent with a simple chocolate ganache. You can also use salted caramel sauce or a cream cheese frosting (my favorite recipe is on this Carrot Sheet Cake).
You could also try this topping combo from one of our reviews:
“Yep. You weren’t lying. This really is the BEST chocolate cake I’ve ever had. I made it for my dad’s birthday when he requested a “chocolate on chocolate on chocolate” bundt cake. He raved it very well might be the best chocolate cake he’d ever had, and the rest of the family concurred. I decorated with a white chocolate drizzle, some gold sanding sugar, and a ring of toffee bits around the top. So good. Thank you for this recipe – I can’t wait for a reason to make it again!”
More of our Favorite Cake Recipes
If you love chocolate, but want a one bowl, sheet pan recipe, this Chocolate Crazy Cake is our go-to.
If you’re looking for a citrus version of our chocolate bundt cake, try this Lemon Bundt Cake.
If you need something for fall, try our Pear Bundt Cake or this incredible Apple Cider Bundt Cake.
In the summer months, we highly recommend this Strawberry Bundt Cake.
Have a banana lover? This Banana Caramel Cake is a must try!
The Best Chocolate Bundt Cake Ever
Ingredients
For the cake:
- 1 1/3 cups brewed coffee
- 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/3 cups buttermilk
- 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons canola oil
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 1/2 cups plus 2 Tablespoons all purpose flour (sifted)
For the glaze:
- 6 oz. unsweetened chocolate
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (melted)
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- 1/2 cup sour cream (at room temperature)
- 1/4 cup brewed coffee (cooled)
- 1/4 cup half and half or cream
Instructions
- For the cake: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-12 cup capacity bundt pan with butter or use Baker's Joy spray. Set aside.
- Place cocoa powder and coffee in a small saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- In the bowl of a mixer, combine sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs, and yolk. Beat on low speed for about 1 minute. Add buttermilk, oil, and vanilla and beat for another minute or so.
- Add flour to sugar mixture and beat on low speed for 30 seconds, then medium speed for about 2 minutes, scraping the bowl once. Add the cooled cocoa/coffee mixture and beat on low speed for another minute. Scrape the bowl to make sure everything is well mixed.
- Pour into the greased pan and bake for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let the cake cool at least 15 minutes before inverting onto serving tray.
- For the frosting: Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add it to a double boiler or heat proof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Melt chocolate, stirring occasionally.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the butter and chocolate. Add half the powdered sugar and whisk again. The mixture will seem very thick.
- Whisk in sour cream and the remaining powdered sugar. Don't worry! It will come together! And it will be magical.
- Add coffee and cream and whisk together until smooth and glossy. This is a thick, spreadable frosting. If you'd like a more pourable glaze, simply add additional cream or half and half until you reach your desired consistency.
- Once the cake has cooled, spoon the frosting over the cake, gently prodding it to run down the sides. You might have extra frosting! Save it for individuals to add to their servings or use it as a fruit dip!
Video
Notes
- This cake keeps really well, and is even better on the second and third day!
- If you’re not serving the cake on the same day, store it, covered, in the fridge. It will keep for 5-7 days. Remove it from the fridge 1-2 hours before serving to allow it to come to room temp.
- The unfrosted cake can be frozen, double wrapped in saran wrap, for up to two months. Thaw at room temperature overnight before frosting and serving.
Equipment
Nutrition
If it can survive my fumbling 2012 baking skills and pictures like this to become one of my most made and best reviewed recipes, it’s certainly worth a try.
If you’d like to see what other people are saying about this cake, you can check out the comments or read the reviews on this pin on Pinterest!
I made this today, and it is great! I live at 7300’ elevation, so I did adjust for altitude. Still delicious! Thank you for sharing.
I’m so glad to hear it worked at high altitude too! Thanks for sharing!
This turned out absolutely AHMAZING!
First time making a Bundt cake, it truly came out so perfect.
Icing was a little liquidy but tasted good!! I dressed it with some chopped pecans as well.
the cake looks good but the one thing i would is replace the coffee with water cuz i don’t drink it and don’t like it in the cake. I had tried it and it was yucky to me so i don’t put it in anymore. I could tell the difference .
What volume of bundt pan (in cups) is this recipe for? The text mentions 10 inch bundt pan; the product link to Amazon goes to a 9-inch (perhaps taller?) pan. Either way, how many cups should the bundt pan hold? I have a non-standard size pan, and I’m trying to see if I’ll need to increase the recipe.
I use a bundt pan with 12 cup capacity. Hope that helps!
We have made this cake many times. Thank you for the delicious recipe!
I make this cake quite often. Its my go to when I can’t figure out what I want. We love it. Everyone I have shared it with loves it and tells me how moist it is. The frosting is delicious too. I would like to make a buttermilk bundt cake that isn’t chocolate. Do you have a recipe?
I’m so glad you love the chocolate bundt cake! I don’t have another plain buttermilk bundt cake, but I do have a couple other bundt cake recipes I love, including this Peach Bundt Cake https://neighborfoodblog.com/vanilla-peach-bundt-cake-with-bourbon/ and this Caramel Banana Bundt Cake- https://neighborfoodblog.com/caramel-banana-bundt-cake/ (the second one does use buttermilk).
love this recipe but i have a question, I want to add chocolate chips in batter will they wink or what can I do ?
They should be fine! You can toss them with a little flour first just to make sure.
Hi Courtney,
I made this cake twice already , it’s super moist and very tasty , I used regular coca powder and added a little extra dark , it gave more decadent flavor.
Frosting was delicious also.
Thank you so much for your recipe.
Do you good recipe for strawberry cake ?
Ania
Hi Ania! I’m so glad you enjoyed the chocolate bundt cake. This is my favorite strawberry cake recipe: https://neighborfoodblog.com/easy-strawberry-cake-with-cream-cheese-frosting/
Hello Courtney! I would love to know if I can bake this cake recipe as regular sized cupcakes? I would love to use this recipe. The cake was astounding!!! I’m planning out a baby shower for this July 2021 and would love to make some cupcakes for the guests!
Hi Danielle! So glad you enjoyed the cake. It should work well for cupcakes as well, and you don’t need to change anything about the batter. Bake at the same temperature for around 18 minutes. I always recommend baking a test cupcake first. Fill the liner halfway full and bake, checking at the 16 minute mark and then every 1-2 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. If the test cupcake rose just to the top of the liner, great! If not, fill the remaining ones a bit fuller. Hope this helps!
Hi this is my first time making this cake. Does the dough is watery ? or it should be thick ?
The batter should be thick, but pourable. You can see the consistency best in the video.
I read the recipe through, measured all ingredients exactly and, with the computer on the counter in front of me, prepared the batter. I have a 12 cup bundt pan (11″ in diameter). After about 20 minutes I smelled something burning and, in the time it took me to get from one room to the other, the oven was smoking because so much of the batter had poured out over the side that it had reached the heating element! What a mess. Of course I had to shut off the oven, unplug it, remove the pan and start cleaning (and cleaning and cleaning). Cakes don’t like it when you interrupt their baking time for a 30 minute break so I can’t comment on the flavor. What in the world did I do wrong?? I have an oven thermometer so the temp was correct.
Oh wow! I’m so sorry you had an overflow. I’ve never had that happen before and am honestly a little flummoxed. Was your bundt pan a pretty standard pattern?
What healthier oil can i substitute in place of the canola oil? TY
Coconut oil would work well!
I made this sans glaze and it’s the best cake ever. I would like to try it with the glaze but it’s perfect without anything or just powdered sugar. Made it once with 2 eggs and then again with 2 eggs and the additional egg yolk but didn’t notice much. Took abt 50-55 minutes in my oven. It’s really that good and you don’t taste the coffee but can tell it brings out the best pets of the chocolate. It’s the only chocolate cake I will ever make. I used one part Wincrest black cocoa and 2 parts Hershey’s dark.
Thank you so much for letting me know! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
Oh my goodness. I’m not a huge chocolate cake fan because it seems it’s hard to get intense chocolate flavor into cakes. However, I wanted to make a chocolate cake for a friend and I am SO glad I found this one. It was perfect. And I realized it really really reminds me of the chocolate cake from Portillo’s in Chicago. So so good. Thank you! Also please note, I never leave reviews but I had to tell you how good this was.
Made this for Christmas and it was absolutely delicious. I tried adding a few chocolate chips to it but they all sunk to the bottom of my bundt pan and then stuck to it. Fortunately didn’t hurt the cake which still managed to come out of the pan okay and my kids LOVED scraping up the chocolate that stuck to the pan. Really delicious cake! Definitely hanging on to this recipe. Thanks!
So glad you enjoyed the chocolate bundt cake and that the kids got an extra treat to enjoy–happy accident! 🙂
Hi
I’m thinking about making this cake for Christmas day. I have two questions;
When i bake the cake I thought about putting half the mix in the tin, then adding a layer of black cherry jam, then remaining half and baking. Would this work?
Second question, can it be prepared a week or so in advance without the frosting and put in the freezer?
Thanks!
I’m so sorry I didn’t see this sooner! The cake should work fine with a thin layer of jam in the middle and it also freezes beautifully! Thaw it at room temperature overnight. Hope that helps!
I would like to add shredded zucchini in the recipe. Do you think I would have to add more flour?
You might. Zucchini is a very wet vegetable. If you do add it, try shredding and putting it in a strainer for 20 minutes then using a paper towel to soak up excess moisture.
I love love love reading your message about this awesome chocolate / coffee cake. I have made this cake so many times and as someone mentioned it is off the chart. I do not know where I got the recipe from but I’ve had it for years and years. It is absolutely the best chocolate cake anyone could buy anywhere. I will be making one soon even if I have to eat it all by myself. No problem whatsoever hahaha I made it often for just my husband and myself and it only lasted a couple of days. Thank God we didn’t have diabetes. Thank you for Reviving this recipe that I have lost and have been sick that I could not locate it lately.
Hi Vivian,
Thanks so much for sharing! I’m so glad you found the recipe again. I hope you can enjoy it many more times!
Hi, I would like to make a lemon cake with the same density as the chocolate cake. Instead Of brewed coffee can I replace it with lemonade and for the cocoa powder can I replace it with lemon pudding mix not prepared. Or perhaps you might have another method for a very dense lemon cake. Thank you
Wanted you to know that this cake was off the charts!!!!! Definitely by far the most denced cake ever and delicious!! The only thing was the frosting.Hubby, and friends said they tasted too much cocoa powder but it didn’t call for cocoa powder. Do you think that it could have been the unsweetened baking bar along with the brewed coffee?? If so , can I use semisweet chocolate and instead of the coffee can I use hot chocolate?? We are also cream cheese lovers is there someway that I can incorporate the cream cheese into this frosting? And still have this beautiful shine ?
Hi! I’m so glad you liked the chocolate bundt! As far as the frosting goes, it is definitely a very rich and dark chocolate frosting. If you want to take some of the bitter edge off, you can absolutely substitute semi sweet chocolate and use chocolate milk for the liquid. I’m not sure about the cream cheese. You could try substituting the sour cream for cream cheese, or making a chocolate cream cheese frosting like this one: https://sugarspunrun.com/chocolate-cream-cheese-frosting/, though it won’t have the same shine. Good luck and I hope the adjustments get you your dream cake!