Chocolate Spice Bundt Cake
Submitted by donaldl
Chocolate spice bundt cake folds ground cardamom into a sour cream chocolate batter, then drips with warm ganache glaze. Aromatic showstopper bundt cake for special occasions.
YIELD
16 servingsPREP
1 hrsCOOK
1 hrsREADY
2 hrsChocolate spice bundt cake takes a classic chocolate sour cream bundt and adds an unexpected hit of ground cardamom. The warm floral spice cuts through the richness in a way that cinnamon never quite manages, and you don’t taste it as cardamom so much as a perfumed lift that makes the chocolate seem more chocolatey. The trick comes from the Middle East, where cardamom and dark cocoa are practically married.
Sour cream is the second secret. The fat keeps the bundt cake crumb tender for days where butter alone would dry out, while the acid reacts with the baking soda for lift.
Butter the bundt pan, but do not flour it. Flour leaves white streaks on a chocolate cake. A thorough greasing alone releases the cake cleanly if you use enough.
Pro Tips
- Cool just 5 minutes in the pan before flipping. Longer and the cake sticks to the bundt.
- Pour ganache while it’s barely warm. Hot ganache runs right off the cake without coverage.
- Toast and grind whole cardamom pods if you can. Jarred ground cardamom loses oomph fast.
- Make ahead: ganache-coated cake keeps moist 4 days at room temperature
- Slice with a hot knife wiped clean between cuts for clean edges through the ganache
Variations
- Sub orange zest for some of the cardamom for chocolate-orange flavor
- Add ½ cup chopped toasted hazelnuts to the batter for crunch
- Drizzle espresso into the ganache for a mocha glaze finish
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat oven to 325 and butter (do not flour) 10 inch bundt pan.
Cream butter and sugar well and beat in eggs thoroughly.
Add melted chocolate and mix well.
Sift together dry ingredients in separate bowl and alternately add flour mixture and sour cream to the chocolate mixture, beating well after each addition until batter is very smooth.
Pour batter into prepared pan, distributing evening with rubber spatula.
Bake at 325 for 45 to 50 minutes or until cake pulls away from sides of pan and a toothpick comes out clean from the center.
Cool in pan on rack for 5 minutes, then turn over and release onto rack to finish cooling.
Ganache Glaze:
Heat cream in heavy saucepan until just below a boil.
Add chocolate and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it is totally melted and completely merged with the cream.
Cool until very warm but not hot, and pour over cooled cake generously, letting it drip attractively down the sides.
If you cover the cake completely with glaze, it will stay moist longer.
This glaze thickens as it get cold. If you want it to set quickly, refrigerate for 30 minutes.
This glaze can also be used to sandwich cookies or as a cake filling.
Keeps well at room temperature. Cut edge should be covered w/wrap.
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