Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

January 20, 2012

A rich, dense, super-moist, sweet chocolate bundt cake drizzled with chocolate ganache. Cakes made in bundt pans seem already dressed up for a party.

This is the tale of two cakes. We celebrated my husband’s and son’s birthdays last week which was the perfect excuse to break in my new half size (6 cup) bundt pans. (I couldn’t decide if I should call them mini bundts, or if that’s confusing with the small bundlets. King Arthur Flour calls them half size bundts so I guess we’ll go with that.)

Of course, when I was looking for bundt cake recipes I turned to the Food Librarian, Queen of the bundt. I stumbled on the impressive looking Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bundt and just had to make it. The recipe made two half sized bundts and I took one to a sweet neighbor. Although bundts look pretty without a glaze, I decided to sweeten it up a bit with the Chocolate Glaze I use on the Good-For-You Chocolate Pound Cake.

However, my son had asked for chocolate cake with fudge frosting and his favorite ice cream is Cherry Chocolate Chip, so peanut butter cake would never do for his birthday cake. When Maria tweeted about the Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake on Shutterbean I knew that would be the perfect cake for him.

Of course most of the family tried a little slice of each cake. The Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake was the favorite. The Peanut Butter and Chocolate Bundt was more impressive looking, but it was less sweet. The chocolate ganache on the Sour Cream bundt tasted richer and creamier, but it didn’t set up as well and I couldn’t cover it with plastic wrap, so I was glad I had used the Shiny Chocolate Glaze on the Peanut Butter bundt I took to the neighbor.

Now that I have the half sized bundts, I plan to make bundts more often for dessert. Since I know some of you don’t like doing math, here’s the half sized recipe for the Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt cake.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Yield: 6 servings

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze

  • 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used half milk half semi-sweet chocolate)
  • 1 tablespoons agave nectar (or corn syrup)
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream*
  • 1 tablespoons sugar

Directions:

Preheat to 350º. Spray a 6-cup Bundt pan with baking spray with flour and set aside. (You can also use butter and flour, but I’ve had better luck with bundt pans well coated with baking spray with flour.)

In a small saucepan, combine the butter, cocoa powder, salt, and water and cook over medium heat, stirring, just until melted and combined. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Combined the flour, sugar, and baking soda in a mixing bowl. Add half of the melted butter/chocolate mixture and mix until blended (it will be very thick). Mix in the remaining butter mixture. Add the egg. Mix in the sour cream and vanilla until smooth.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.

Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert onto a rack. Let cool completely before making the glaze.

Make the glaze

Put the chopped chocolate and agave nectar in a medium bowl and set aside.

Combine the heavy cream and sugar in a small saucepan cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the cream is hot and the sugar is dissolved. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and whisk until melted and smooth. If it’s very runny, let it sit for a minute or so to thicken*. Drizzle over the cake.

*My glaze hadn’t set up after 30 minutes on the counter, so I put it in the fridge for 30 minutes to thicken. Next time I may use a little less cream.