A moist, chocolate sour cream bundt cake covered in a rich chocolate ganache with a luscious cream cheese swirl hiding inside. This Chocolate Bundt Cake with a Cream Cheese Swirl is perfect for a birthday or any night of the week.
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This cake was inspired by Baker Street’s Cream Cheese Swirled Chocolate Bundt Cake. I combine the cream cheese swirl idea with one of my favorite chocolate bundt cakes from the Bi Rite Market’s Eat Good Food Cookbook a Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake.
The first step in making this cake is to make the cream cheese filling and put it in the refrigerator to chill while you’re making the rest of the cake. It’s a simple cheesecake batter.
The key to making the cheesecake batter smooth and creamy is having your cream cheese at room temperature.
⏲️ Time-Saving Trick: Put the cream cheese in a Ziploc bag and place it in warm water (not hot) for 10 minutes. Add the eggs to the warm water and let sit for another 5 minutes.
The cake batter recipe uses cocoa mixed with melted butter to give it a rich chocolate taste.
Once the cocoa is dissolved, you add it to the dry ingredients. Then mix in the eggs one at a time, along with the vanilla.
Put about ⅓ of the chocolate batter in the bundt pan first, then the cheesecake batter, and finish with the remaining chocolate cake batter.
Swirling Tip: use a cookie scoop to put dollops of the cheesecake batter on top of the chocolate batter and then swirl it in with a butter knife.
It can take quite a while for the chocolate ganache to set up before it’s the right consistency to drizzle over the cake. So make the chocolate ganache while the cake is baking.
Once the ganache has cooled and thickened, put it in a pastry bag or a Ziploc bag and snip the corner and drizzle it over the cake.
Ganache Tip: You want the ganache thin enough to drip down the cake, but thick enough so you don’t get a puddle of ganache on the cake pan. You can do a practice drip on the cake to see if the ganache is ready to use.
I recently made this cake for my husband’s birthday and decorated it with some fun colorful confetti sprinkles. However, It’s such a pretty chocolate bundt cake that it doesn’t need any extra decoration at all.
Almost everyone loves a chocolate bundt cake, I know my crowd is crazy about it. I’m sure your family will love it too.
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Chocolate Bundt Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
Cake
- 1 cup 2 sticks unsalted butter
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup water
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ¾ cups sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup sour cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream Cheese Filling
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 8-ounce package cream cheese, softened
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate Ganache
- 6 oz. semi-sweet chocolate finely chopped
- ½ cup heavy cream
Instructions
- Prepare cream cheese filling: In a small mixing bowl, beat ¼ cup sugar and cream cheese until smooth. Add one egg and 1 teaspoon vanilla, and beat at low speed until combine; set aside.
- Preheat to 350°. Butter and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan or spray with non-stick cooking spray with flour.
- In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, salt, and water. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until butter is melted and cocoa is dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and baking soda. On low speed, gradually mix in butter mixture. Add the eggs one at a time and mix until incorporated. Mix in the sour cream and vanilla until batter is smooth.
- Pour half of the batter evenly in to the prepared bundt pan. Dollop the filling around the middle of the bundt. Drag a butter knife through the cheesecake filling to swirl some chocolate batter into the cheesecake filling being careful not to let the cheesecake filling touch the side of the pan. Pour the other half of the batter on top of the cheesecake filling and if necessary, spread evenly around pan.
- Bake at 350º for 50 – 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then invert onto a rack to cool completely before adding ganache.
- Chocolate Ganache
- Place half of the chocolate in a mixing bowl. Heat heavy cream on medium high heat until it comes to a boil.
- Remove from heat and immediately pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted. Add remain chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted.
- Cool until ganache is thickened but still thin enough to drip down the sides of the cake. (I cooled mine in the fridge for over 2 hours.)
More bundt cake recipes you might like:
Lemon Zucchini Bundt Cake, Barbara Bakes
Brown Sugar Pear and Cherry Bundt Cake, Barbara Bakes
Oreo Cookies and Cream Bundt Cake, Chocolate, Chocolate and More
Apple Bundt Cake with Caramel Glaze, Crunchy Creamy Sweet
Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake, Completely Delicious
Pin It:
Kim Beaulieu
This is spectacular. I’m such a lazy cake baker. After seeing this I realize I need to up my game.
Maria
Love that swirl!
Kitchen Belleicious
love the addition of the swirl in the middle. Brings an elegance to it and not only does it look delicious and it is beautiful!
Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella
Mum that swirl is absolute perfection! It looks wonderful 😀 I like the look of the cake’s texture too! xxx
Carol at Wild Goose Tea
Oh my goodness I haven’t used my bundt cake pan for a long time. One forgets how the mere shape of it creates
a festive feeling. The cream cheese swirl filling is the bomb. Not only that I have a church pot luck in my very near
future. Everybody loves CHOCOLATE. Smiles—-
Rocky Mountain Woman
I think it looks very pretty! I’d like a piece of it right now with a cup of tea…
Cathy at Wives with Knives
The swirl of cream cheese really makes this cake special…and the beautiful chocolate glaze doesn’t hurt either. I make bundt cakes often because they keep well. Wish you could send me a slice, Barbara.
Medeja
This bundt cake looks great, especially that lovely swirl inside! Great recipe.
Lauren
The looks to. die. for.! Cream cheese swirl and then ganache to top it off? Heavenly!
Rani
Hi Barbara, your cake sounds delicious. Just a note about the recipe; you stated to add half the chocolate batter, then the cream cheese mixture. Do you add the remaining batter on top of the cream cheese?
Barbara Schieving
Hi Rani – thanks for bringing that to my attention. I’ve updated the recipe. Enjoy!
Mary
Wow, this looks just wonderful..I used to make a Fudge Ribbon cake, chocolate , with a cream cheese swirl using Nestle’s Coco Bake which i can no longer find so this is for sure my new replacement..Thank you..
Maureen | Orgasmic Chef
I think this cake looks wonderful! I haven’t made a bundt cake since I was in high school. I hate to admit that. I’m going to give this a try.
I think the last bundt cake I made was called ‘tunnel of fudge’. How old does that make me?? 🙂
My Inner Chick
GORGEOUS.
WOW. WOW. wow. xx
Rosa
Fabulous! This is a wonderful bundt cake.
Cheers,
Rosa
Melissa @ My Recent Favorite books
I love chocolate! Love the combination of flavors!! =)
Pinned to my Dessert board.
Rocquie
Your cake sounds absolutely scrumptious. My husband would love it. I usually bake about 1 cake per month. This may have to be the next one. Thank you for sharing.
–Rocquie
Madonna/aka/Ms. Lemon
Your cake looks delicious. I would have to take it somewhere or I would eat it all by myself. 🙂
Carol
Mmmmmm-how can you go wrong with chocolate and cream cheese? That looks heavenly, Barbara.
Katrina @ Warm Vanilla Sugar
This bundt cake is calling my name in a maaaaajor way! Love it!
Anna @ Crunchy Creamy Sweet
Gorgeous! Your bundt cake looks amazing – swirls and all! Pinned!