Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake - made September 17, 2019 from Damn Delicious

As the blog says, this is damn delicious. Because it was.

Now that I live in higher altitude, I initially thought I would have to make some baking adjustments for "normal" recipes to turn out. But 9 months of baking in Reno hasn't really affected my baked goods, except possibly needing to bake them a little longer than usual.

However, I did realize I've been making mostly cookies and I'd already proven to myself (multiple times) that I don't live at a high enough altitude for my cookie recipes to be that impacted.

But I also realized I haven't really been baking cakes. It wasn't a conscious omission. It's just that when I've baked for my sister's Open Houses or for my parents' social engagements or just their own consumption, it's been more practical to make cookies for easy sharing since they're already individual portions.

So it was time to put a cake to the test. I didn't really alter this recipe in terms of ingredients or mixing method. Instead, based on my cookie baking experience at a higher altitude, I briefly increased the baking temperature.

The recipe calls for baking it at 350 degrees F. I preheated the oven to 375 degrees F and once the oven hit 350, I put the cakes in. Once the oven had fully preheated to 375, I left it at that temperature for 5 minutes then lowered it back down to 350 for the rest of the baking time.

The purpose was to get the cake structure to set quickly at the higher temperature so it wouldn't collapse as it finished baking. Not sure if that made any difference but the cakes did rise correctly and didn't collapse so I'm not going to quibble with it.

And, like I said earlier, this was damn delicious. Great chocolate flavor, perfect soft, tender crumb.

I didn't have any heavy cream when I made this (I thought I did but turns out it was the day of the expiration date and the cream had solidified - eek) so I made my own glaze with a combination of powdered sugar, cocoa and whole milk. It worked out well enough and added a nice richness to the softness of the cake crumb.

This made 3 mini bundt cakes and 2 cupcake-size cakes. I could've used a regular Bundt cake pan but I was in the mood to use my mini Bundt pans and am glad to say the cakes came out of the pans cleanly.

As always, watch the baking time and don't overbake these. Smaller cake pans require less baking time.

Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 tablespoons corn syrup

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat mini bundt pans with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and baking soda; set aside.
3. In a small saucepan, combine butter, cocoa powder, salt and 1 cup water over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until melted and combined, about 2-3 minutes. Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir, using a rubber spatula just until combined. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Beat in sour cream and vanilla until well combined.
4. Pour batter evenly into bundt pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes before inverting cakes onto a wire rack.
5. Make the glaze: combine heavy cream and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate and corn syrup. Whisk until smooth. Drizzle the glaze evenly over the top of the cakes, allowing to drip down the sides. Let glaze set before serving.