I love simple cakes - no frosting and no filling, just cake. Compliment it with a cup of coffee and I am in paradise! With no sugary frosting to hide imperfections, simple cakes must be good, very good. Last week I decided that I really needed a slice of a simple chocolate cake, so I finally decided to try this recipe form Cook's Illustrated that I had been wanting to make for a long time.
Just by reading the ingredients list you will find that there is no way this would be a bad cake. Melted chocolate (and cocoa powder), a little espresso powder, brown sugar, sour cream...Sounds pretty good, right? So go ahead and try it too! If you want to dress it up a little, serve it with a scoop of ice-cream or whipped cream!
Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake
recipe from Cook's Illustrated
Ingredients
cake release (for the bundt pan)
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 tablespoons cocoa, unsweetend
cake
3/4 cup natural cocoa (not Dutch-processed)
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon instant expresso powder
3/4 cup boiling water
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla
5 large eggs, room temperature
confectioners' sugar, for dusting
Directions
1 - Prepare the pan: stir together melted butter and cocoa powder until a paste forms. Using a pastry brush, coat all interior surfaces of a standard 12-cup bunt cake pan. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Heat oven to 350F.
2- To make the cake: combine cocoa, chopped chocolate, and espresso powder in a medium heatproof bowl. Pour boiling water over and whisk until smooth. Cool to room temperature and then whisk in the for cream. Set it aside.
3- Whisk flour, salt, and baking soda in a second bowl to combine.
4- In a standing mixer fitted with flat beater, beat butter, sugar, and vanilla on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium and add eggs one at a time, mixing about 30 seconds after each addition and scrapping down bowl with rubber spatula. Reduce to medium-low speed (batter may appear separated); add about one third of flour mixture and half of chocolate/sour cream mixture and mix until just incorporated, about 20 seconds. Scrape bowl and repeat using half of the remaining flour mixture and all the remaining chocolate/sour cream mixture. Add remaining flour mixture and beat until just incorporated, about 10 seconds. Scrape bowl and mix on medium-low until batter in throughly combined, about 30 seconds.
5-Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with few crumbs attached, 45-50 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert cake onto parchment-lined wire rack. Cool to from temperature. Dust with confectioners' sugar, transfer to serving platter and serve.
Visualize
Grease the pan with melted butter and cocoa mixture:
Place cocoa powder, chopped chocolate and espresso powder in a bowl:
Add boiling water and disk until smooth:
Cool to room temperature and add sour cream (also at room temperature). Set it aside.
Beat sugar, butter and vanilla until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time:
Add chocolate/sour cream mixture alternatively with...
...the mix of flour, salt, and baking soda:
Nice batter:
Ready to bake:
Hard to wait for it to cool. I typically do not wait. I love eating hot cake!!
Nice and velvety!!
WOW!! That REALLY looks incredible! Can't wait to try it :-)
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