Easy Moist Chocolate Bundt Cake

This is the doctored cake mix recipe that ruined every other chocolate cake for a generation of bakers. The combination of chocolate cake mix and instant chocolate pudding mix does something almost magical. The pudding’s modified starches grab and hold moisture inside the crumb, producing a cake that stays moist for days, never goes dry, and tastes substantially richer than the box mix alone.

Sour cream adds tang and additional moisture, while the entire 12-ounce bag of chocolate chips folded into the batter melts into gooey pockets throughout the finished cake. No frosting required; a simple dusting of powdered sugar through a fine sieve once the cake is fully cool is plenty.

The Bundt pan is the right shape because the cake is dense and rich; sliced thin, it serves more people than you’d expect.

Pro Tips

• Grease the Bundt pan thoroughly, getting into every crease, and dust with cocoa powder (not flour) so the white residue doesn’t show on the dark cake.
• Don’t overmix once everything is combined; gluten development from a doctored mix can make the cake tough.
• Cool 10 minutes in the pan before inverting; any longer and the cake sticks, any shorter and it falls apart.
• Wait until completely cool to dust with powdered sugar; sugar dusted on warm cake melts and disappears.

Variations

• Swap chocolate chips for chopped peanut butter cups or chopped Andes mints for flavor variations.
• Replace water with brewed strong coffee for a deeper, mocha-leaning flavor.
• Drizzle with chocolate ganache instead of powdered sugar for a more dramatic presentation.