Perfect Chocolate Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze

Last Updated on July 3, 2023 by David Michael

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Chocolate cake has always been a favorite of mine. Cake in general is a great thing, but if given a choice I would pick a chocolate cake over others.

I have tried just about every chocolate cake recipe I’ve come across. It wasn’t until I came by Chrysta Wilson’s bundt focused cookbook that I finally found my favorite chocolate cake recipe. This cake has everything going for it. Easy, rich, moist, and decadent. Baking it in a bundt pan meant that it didn’t even need frosting (but do try it with the dark chocolate glaze). This is an award winning chocolate bundt cake if ever there was one.

I thoroughly recommend Chrysta’s book, ‘Kiss My Bundt: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bakery’. Everything I’ve tried came out perfectly and deliciously. Don’t be fooled by the title, she gives instructions on how to bake all of her cakes in bundt pans, rounds pans, and even those smaller bundt pans.

Perfect Chocolate Cake

Adapted from ‘Kiss My Bundt: Recipes from the Award-Winning Bakery’ by Chrysta Wilson

1 3/4 cups sugar
2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup high-fat cocoa powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, room temperature
1 cup whole milk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup very hot coffee.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together sugar, flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
Combine the eggs, milk, oil and vanilla. With an electric mixer, beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
With the mixer on low speed, add dry ingredients to the wet, 1/2 cup at a time. Go slowly so that the batter doesn’t develop clumps.
When thoroughly combined (do not overmix), slowly mix in hot coffee. The batter will be thin.
Transfer batter to cake pan(s) that have been coated with a baker’s spray that includes flour (or greased and floured), filling until the pan is about 3/4 full.
Bake cake(s) until an inserted toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes for a 10-12 cup bundt pan, about 30 minutes for two 8 inch round pans.
Invert cake(s) onto a cooling rack or serving plate. If the cake resists unmolding, cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting. (If the cake still resists, cool an additional 15 minutes in the pan.) Cool completely before icing.

The cake is good as is, but is even more rich and decadent with a dark chocolate glaze. The corn syrup adds a touch of sweetness, but is also an invert sugar. That will help keep the glaze smooth and help prevent sugar crystals from forming.

Dark Chocolate Glaze

3/4 cup unsalted butter
6 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped or grated
2 tablespoons corn syrup.

Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
Remove pan from heat and mix chocolate into the butter, stirring until chocolate is completely melted.
Add corn syrup and whisk until smooth.
Let it rest for a few minutes to allow the glaze to thicken slightly before drizzling over the cake.

About High Fat Cocoa Powder

Cocoa powder must contain at least 10% cocoa butter according to the FDA. Some cocoa powders contain 20-25% cocoa butter. The more cocoa butter the powder contains the lower amount of starch that cocoa powder has.

This results in richer, more fudgier baked goods.

The high fat cocoa powders also have been dutched, or dutch processed. All this means is that some of the natural acidity has been neutralized. It also results in a darker chocolate color.

Once you start using a dutched high fat cocoa you may never turn back.

I use it in cakes, brownies, hot chocolate, really anywhere you would use regular cocoa powder but want a deeper color and richer chocolate flavor.

My recommended brands are Droste, Guittard, and Callebaut.

We take a look at Nordic Ware’s Anniversary Bundt Pan here.

For more chocolate indulgence check out our recipes for Fudgy Chocolate Brownies, Dark Chocolate Fondue, Chocolate Truffles, and Chocolate Martini.

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