Published January 1, 2004.
Tired of great-looking chocolate Bundt cakes that are bland and boring? So were we. Our ideal cake would be moist, rich with chocolate flavor, and attractive.
Despite their tantalizing looks, most chocolate Bundt cakes have at best a muted chocolate presence. Initial taste tests revealed cakes that were moist but pale, and devoid of any chocolate flavor. Others looked appealingly dark and mysterious but managed to capture only flat, bitter nuances of chocolate. An overly sweet, walnut-studded "tunnel of fudge" cake with a gummy, underbaked center was hardly worth the calories. A cake similar to a pound cake had great texture--dense and moist owing to the addition of sour cream--but the only thing that told tasters it was chocolate was its brown color.
A Bundt cake is the pinnacle of cake-baking simplicity. With its decorative shape, this cakes doesn't require frosting or fussy finishing techniques. We wanted a cake that would deliver that moment of pure chocolate ecstasy when the first bite stops time. A chocolate Bundt cake that tastes every bit as good as it looks, with a fine crumb, moist texture, and rich chocolate flavor.
Promote chocolate flavor by using both bittersweet chocolate and natural cocoa and dissolving them in boiling water, which "blooms" their flavor. Use sour cream and brown sugar instead of white to add moisture and flavor. Finally, further enhance the flavor with a small amount of espresso powder and vanilla extract, both of which complement the floral nuances of the chocolate.
list of recipes
