Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipe

This chocolate bundt cake recipe is made with buttermilk, making it a delicious and moist cake. Perfect as is, but made even better with a dark chocolate ganache. A bit of espresso powder really brings out the chocolate flavor, making this cake the perfect chocolate bundt.

I love adding buttermilk to bundt cakes. It gives them a nice tanginess and flavor, like this blueberry bundt cake that I make every spring.

Chocolate Bundt Cake Recipe with Buttermilk

Bundt pans can be a little tricky with all of their curves and crevices.

The most important step in making a bundt cake that doesn’t stick to the pan is the same with any other cake – butter and flour the pan carefully.

This takes more time than a round cake, but if you are careful to get in all of the edges, your cake will be the reward.

No matter how many times I bake a cake, I hold my breath as I turn the cake over and wait for it to release. 

A slight panic usually starts to set in right before it finally slides out of the pan.  Because, with a bundt cake, you can’t really disguise it with frosting.

Although, no one really cares if it isn’t perfect. Everyone is just happy to eat cake.

This chocolate bundt cake is not overly sweet, which is what I really like about the cake. It has great cocoa flavor without the cloying sweetness of some chocolate desserts.

How to make a chocolate bundt cake

For this cake, I used the a 10 cup bundt pan. This chocolate bundt cake recipe makes 3 cupcakes, plus a cake, if you use the same pan I used.

I call this “cook’s treat”. It’s nice to get 3 little cupcakes that I can save (hoard) for myself if I’m giving the cake away.

If you use a standard bundt cake pan, the recipe will work perfectly for that size.

• Whisk all of your dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
• Combine buttermilk and sour cream
• Beat butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy
• Add eggs one at a time
• Alternate adding flour and buttermilk mixture
• Bake in a buttered and floured pan

After you have removed your cake from the oven, let it cool in the pan for about 5 minutes.

You’ll see it start to pull away from the sides a bit as it cools. Now, you can unmold the cake. Carely flip over onto a cooling rack.

This is how I do it: place the cooling rack on top of the cake pan, then hold onto both pieces (with oven mitts or a towel), flip them over together, holding the rack against the cake pan as you turn it over.

Set it down and carefully lift the bundt pan straight up. The cake should slide right out.

Be patient and take your time, this is a lesson I had to learn (repeatedly) the hard way.

And that’s all there is to it. Bundt cakes are the kind of cakes that I make for people I love. They aren’t fancy, they are “homey”. The kind of cake you’d serve to friends, neighbors and family.

The kind of cake we all need right now.

More cake recipes we love

• Gluten-free clementine cake
• Cranberry upside down cake
• Blueberry crumb cake
• Dark chocolate cake with red wine ganache
• Classic gingerbread cake
• Clementine upside down cake

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Used in this recipe

• 10 cup heritage bundt pan
• KitchenAid stand mixer – this is the one I own and love
• Cupcake pan
• Espresso powder – very fine powder, great for baking

Thanks for stopping by! Have a delicious day 🙂

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Recipe originally published on 9/16/15

Most recently updated on 4/14/20