The September issue of Food & Wine arrived Saturday, and flipping through the pages I found a Cookie Madness must-try recipe, another chocolate bundt cake made with red wine. It was credited to Anne Willan and very similar to one I made a few months ago – same concept, but different execution with fewer eggs, less oil, less sugar, and more wine. I was about to make it yesterday but another cake caught my attention. A chocolate bundt cake which they suggested you serve with red wine, preferably Port.
This recipe is adapted from Kate Neuman, a pastry chef at MK restaurant in Chicago. It looked interesting on paper because it was a whisk-and-bake cake (no mixer required!), called for only 1 egg, had a full tablespoon of baking soda and specified Dutch cocoa over natural. I was curious to see what kind of leavening action there’d be with Dutch cocoa and all that baking soda, so I splurged and bought a can of this cocoa, which I’d never heard of but found at the grocery store down the street.
Like the intro said, the cake was dense, but light. It reminded me of Black Magic cake, but better – less sweet and with more chocolate flavor. The ganache glaze was good too, just as simple as the cake and with a perfect consistency.
I didn’t make any major changes, but I broke the recipe into two parts by putting the glaze in a second section, threw in some vanilla and added gram weights of some key ingredients. Here’s the original recipe from Food and Wine. Adapted version is below.
- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped (56 grams)
- 3/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar (192 grams)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour, stir well and aerate before measuring
- 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup strong-brewed coffee
- 1 cup room temperature buttermilk
- 3 oz bittersweet chocolate
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 tablespoon corn syrup
- 1/2 tablespoon unsalted butter
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup (10 inch) Bundt pan with flour-added baking spray. If you are using a black Bundt pan, use 325 degrees F.
- Melt chocolate in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water (or just use the microwave). Scrape it into a mixing bowl and let cool slightly. Whisk in the oil and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the egg and vanilla.
- Mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt together in another bowl. Add half of the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture along with 1/2 cup of the coffee and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk; whisk until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, coffee and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn it out and let cool completely.
- In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a boil. In a heatproof bowl, combine the remaining 3 ounces of chopped chocolate with the corn syrup and butter. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Whisk until smooth. Let the ganache glaze cool until thick but still pourable, about 5 minutes.
- Pour the ganache over the cooled cake.Let the cake stand until the glaze is set, at least 30 minutes, before serving.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
That looks really good! Mmm, chocolate!
That looks very tasty. How’s the chocolate? They sell Rodelle brand stuff at our Walmarts so I don’t know where it stands by comparison to other brands.
Yum, that looks wonderful. I too am interested to hear what you think of the cocoa. I have been buying mine from KAF, its a dark Dutched with a higher fat content than most. It has a depth of flavor that is lacking in the grocery store cocoa powders.
That looks awesome, Anna! You can tell how moist and deep dark chocolaty it is, and that glaze! It looks so fudgy! I’m bookmarking this one on Delicious!
Looks delicious!! I’m still awaiting my copy of Food & Wine in the mail…
so chocolatey and so good ! Amazng
that glaze anna! oh my goodness.
For heaven’s sake….I don’t even like chocolate all that much but that looks amazing. Thanks for posting. I think my subscription to Food & Wine just ran out.
looks so good! are you going to make the choc ganache filled cookies from F&W too?
This sounds so melodramatic but I’ve been looking for a good chocolate bundt cake that doesn’t call for a mix for years. Thanks for posting this!! I need to figure out how to keep this on my radar for the next time I “need” a chocolate bundt cake!! I’ll definitely be trying this.
I wish I had easy access to dutch process cocoa where I live. I can get Droste’s sometimes but it’s ridiculously expensive. I should just order a bunch of it from Penzey’s or King Arthur Flour.
Louise, the Rodelle was bout $7.00. I’m really surprised Wal*Mart sell that. As for taste, it was good, but I don’t buy a lot of Dutch chocolate cocoa powder so it’s hard to compare. I usually buy natural.
Carrie, I’m going to skip the ganache sandwich cookies. I’ve baked ganache into chocolate chip cookies and it was cuite and gimmicky, but chocolate chip cookies don’t really need ganache.
Wow – what a beautiful cake. Great excuse to dust off my bundt pan.
That looks great, I’m a chocolate bundt cake fiend – how does it compare to the Cooks Illustrated bundt with sour cream? I know you’ve done that one in the past.
Karen, I’d have to taste them side by side to say which one is better. It’s been a while since I’ve had the CI cake which I remember as being excellent and one of the best ever. But this one is definitely easier, probably less expensive to make and very, very tasty. It’s more like the old black magic cake, but moister, maybe a little richer (definitely with the ganache) and ages well. This is really a good cake and maybe even better on day 2.
This is one of the few Bundt cakes I’ve seen that would be worthy of a special occasion–I can totally see it with candles and maybe a swirl or two of vanilla or pink icing.
Intrigued by the mention of the cc ganache cookies, I Googled them and would have to agree, even by sight and the recipe with Anna–they looked way OTT (over the top).
Beautiful! To say the least.
I made this cake this afternoon. But, I used dark chocolate with a hint od espresso. Just used strong coffee, not espresso, because I didn’t want to overpower the cake.
I just recieved my F&W issue in the mail yesterday and also noticed this chocolate wine cake, thinking it sounded interesting and different. This chocolate cake you chose to make, however, sure sounds better. With buttermilk in it, too…how can you miss?!! BYW, that Rodelle brand makes a great vanilla extract, too!
This looks like a great cake for when I need to take a cake but don’t feel like knocking myself out.
Oh, my. That looks simply divine. I think I know what I’m making for the next family gathering.
Hershey’s makes a Dutch Processed cocoa. Available in every supermarket I know of.
Yes, but it’s VERY dark. Hershey’s dark Dutch is in a class of its own (in my opinion).
Hi Anna, i tried this cake yesterday and it had an awesome flavor and texture..i think a lil extra sugar wouldn’t hurt..maybe 1/6 cup more…but maybe that’s just me..or maybe i feel that way because i omitted the glaze. Thanks for the recipe
I made this cake for Valentine’s Day. It’s GREAT. The texture is really nice and I like that it isn’t overly sweet. My ganache would have benefited from another minute or two of cooling. Live and learn. This is definitely the best chocolate bundt cake I’ve made so far. Thanks Anna!
Made this cake this week. I don’t know if it was the Dutch Choc, or that I personally did not think it was sweet enough. Maybe it was the bittersweet choc, just did not care for it. I was too alkaline or bitter, don’t know what words to use to describe it. I am glad I tried it because I had bought some Dutch Choc some time ago with no recipe to try it. Now, I need to try something else with it to determine if it is that choc that I don’t care for or what. Have you got any recommendations for cookies, etc using Dutch Choc?
Hi! I love your blog
I thought that dutch processed cocoa had to be used with baking Powder …. i’m surprised to see that they’ve specified dutch processed cocoa with baking Soda in this recipe… Any thoughts?
Looking forward to trying this recipe!
Hi Alison,
When I first made this, I wondered the same thing. Maybe the alkalinity of the batter helps make the cake tighter crumbed?
I made this cake for my writers group, and it turned out really well. Very dark and moist. I like that it’s not too sweet, which means the chocolate flavor stands out. The recipe specifies a 12-cup Bundt pan, but my 10-cup pan was large enough because the cake didn’t rise that much. It took longer than 45 minutes to bake in my oven so definitely test with a toothpick.
I have made this recipe for the past several years and everyone begs me to make it again. I did modify it a little by using EXTRA dove candy bars (large) and Hershey syrup to add to the topping as sauce.
Hi Anna,
Is there another glaze that I could use for this cake? No corn syrup. Could you use honey or molasses? Or can you recommend another kind of glaze or topping?
Thanks!
Carrie
This cake is BEAUTIFUL. But, it is not nearly sweet enough! For the ganache I even changed it to 1/2 CUP of corn syrup, instead of 1/2 Tbs. Next time I will definitely use semisweet chocolate, instead of bittersweet and maybe even some extra sugar. But it was very moist.