I am the happiest when I’m in the kitchen, baking stuff like this Chocolate Bundt cake.
It was a grey Saturday afternoon when I had the idea to bake this. As I entered the kitchen, my mood, that was as gloomy as the day, immediately shifted.
Though, I gotta say, this time it was a little bit challenging.
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And it wasn’t because of my baking skills, or because this is a difficult recipe. Actually, all modesty aside, my baking skills are pretty sharp thank you very much, and this is a pretty foolproof recipe.
As I turned my kitchen aid on, I heard footsteps approaching. Tiny, little people’s footsteps. It was trouble, in the form of my 20 month old son, that had entered the kitchen.
My son’s name is Luke. He is a daredevil energetic, independent little boy that always wants to help me in the kitchen. Since a very early age, I got him used to sitting with me while I’m cooking. He hands me things and helps me by pouring ingredients inside (and outside) bowls.
Somedays, he is a little more… sassy, let’s say.
And this Saturday, that was the case. He cracked an egg on the table, dumped flour on the floor and poured sugar on the counter.
It’s all good, I never lose my patience.
We just clean up and start over. I mean, he is 20 months old. I only want to give him good memories in the kitchen and show him that even when something (or 3 things) goes wrong, we can always start over and try to do a better job the next time.
And we made it. We made this delicious cake! He ended up helping a lot, by pouring pretty much anything that needed to be poured. He is a pro at that! And sometimes, he tries to stir also, but he is not so good at that skill yet.
This cake is as delicious as it is gorgeous! Make it for a dinner party or to bring to someone’s house and everyone will love you.
My tips for baking the perfect Chocolate Bundt Cake are:
- Make sure to grease the pan well because bundt cakes tend to stick to the crevices of the pan that go by un-greased.
- Bake at a lower temperature because the outsides will cook way too fast and the middle won’t be able to catch up fast enough.
- Sift the flour and cocoa powder, this way you won’t end up with a lumpy batter. Also, when the flour is sifted, it becomes finer and therefore easier to be incorporated in the batter, avoiding the risk of overmixing, which brings me to my next tip
- Don’t overmix the batter once you add the flour in. If you overmix the flour, you might end up with a dry and tough cake. The more you mix the flour in your batter or dough, the more gluten you develop, and the more gluten you develop, the stronger the structure of your baked good. With cakes, muffins, biscuits, you want that gluten development to be mild and soft because you want to achieve tender results. As opposed to when you knead bread, you want to work the dough for quite a while in order to achieve a strong gluten development. (if you read my other posts, you will see that this is something I talk about over and over)
These are just some quick tips. Above all, enjoy yourself in the kitchen and learn as you go! And if you make this cake, good luck not eating all of it! I brought it to my job so my co-workers could enjoy it, if I left it home, I would have easily eaten half of it.
Speaking of impressive chocolate cakes to sit at your dinner table, you might wanna check out this delicious Chocolate Roll Cake with a Pecan Buttercream filling I made for Thanksgiving.
Chocolate Bundt Cake with Raspberry Cheesecake Filling
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake Batter
-
1 3/4
cup
all-purpose flour -
1 3/4
cup
granulated sugar -
3/4
cup
cocoa powder -
1
teaspoon
salt -
1
teaspoon
baking soda -
1
teaspoon
baking powder -
3
eggs -
1
cup
sour cream -
1/2
cup
vegetable oil -
2
teaspoons
vanilla extract -
1/2
cup
hot brewed coffee
you may use boiling water, but the coffee enhances and makes the chocolate taste richer
Cheesecake Filling
-
8
oz.
cream cheese
at room temperature -
1/3
cup
sugar -
1
egg -
1
teaspoon
vanilla extract
Raspberry Jam
-
10
oz.
raspberries
fresh or frozen -
2-4
tablespoons
sugar -
2
teaspoons
fresh lemon juice -
1
teaspoon
cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons cold water
Chocolate Glaze
-
6
oz.
heavy cream -
3
teaspoons
corn syrup -
6
oz.
good quality semisweet chocolate
chopped
Instructions
Raspberry Jam
-
Start by making the Raspberry Jam. Mix raspberries, 2 tablespoons sugar and lemon juice in a small sauce pan. Add water and cornstarch mixture.
-
Bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Be careful because it can quickly start sticking to the bottom of the pan. Taste to make sure it’s sweet enough to your likeness, if not, add another 1 or 2 tablespoons of sugar.
-
Cook mixture for 3-4 minutes, until thickened and darkened in color. Strain through a sieve, pressing down to squeeze liquid. Let mixture chill in the fridge until completely cooled.
Cheesecake Filling
-
Beat the cream cheese with an electric beater at medium high speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add sugar and keep beating for another 2-3 minutes until mixture is fluffy. Add egg and vanilla and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Don’t forget to scrape your pan in between steps. Set aside.
For cake batter
-
Grease a bundt pan with butter at room temperature and then coat it with flour (I often use a mixture of sifted cocoa powder and flour to coat the pan) Make sure the bowl is entirely greased and floured or your cake might stick.
-
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
-
Sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl. Set aside.
-
Whisk eggs in a medium bowl until they are broken apart. Add sour cream and whisk until smooth. Add oil and vanilla and whisk until all ingredients are incorporated.
-
Pour wet ingredients into dry. Mix with a spatula until incorporated. Don’t overmix the batter but make sure it isn’t lumpy. Add hot coffee and whisk with a wire whisk until coffee is incorporated into the batter.
-
Pour half of the cake batter on the bottom of bundt pan. Spoon HALF of cheesecake mixture on top, in the middle of the cake. Make sure mixture isn’t reaching the edges of the pan. Leave about 1 inch between the edges and the cheesecake mixture, this way it will be in the center of the cake.
-
Spoon raspberry jam on top of cheesecake filling. Spoon the other half of the cheesecake mixture over jam. Pour rest of chocolate cake batter over fillings.
-
Bake in pre-heated oven for 30-50 minutes. Please check at the 20 minute mark to see if the cake needs to be rotated. Then check again at 30 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the cake and if it comes out clean, means the cake is done baking. If not, keep baking the cake and check every 5-10 minutes. If the top and edges are browning too fast and the center isn’t cooked yet, you can cover it with a piece of aluminum foil to prevent the outside to burn.
-
Once cake is done baking, remove it from the oven. Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes and then flip it on a wire rack and let it cool completely.
-
At this point, I like to chill my cake so when I pour the glaze, it will get hard as it touches the cold cake.
-
While the cake chills, you can make the glaze.
-
Mix heavy cream and corn syrup in a small sauce pan. Bring it to a boil over medium heat, stirring. When it reaches a boil, remove from the heat and add chopped chocolate to the pan and stir until completely smooth. You may have to stir for a while until every little particle of chocolate has melted, but please make sure you melt every single bit, or you won’t have a smooth glaze.
-
Let glaze cool to room temperature before you pour it over the cake.
-
Remove chilled cake from fridge, pour glaze over. Slice, enjoy!
This cake looks heavenly…thanks for sharing the recipe ❤️❤️
Thank you so much my dear friend!!
That chocolate bundt looks so rich and heavenly..Love the creamy cheesecake filing! Your son is going to make for a great baker with all that early training he is getting 🙂
Hi ya! I had mentioned on Instagram that the cross-section pic of this was your money shot to add to the dripping chocolate! Camila, I wanted to pay my deepest respect and regards to the positive reinforcement in the kitchen with Luke. That is a priceless gift and I wish all parents would apply that to general life lessons!! I never had that growing up. Many warm hugs to you… 🙂
I’m already enjoying your beautiful photos on IG, but I came to this blog to read your story. You always make me laugh with your captions and comments. You’re a wonderful storyteller!
Thank you so much, HeeJee! I’m very happy we met!! 🙂
Wish you add a subscription button for people who aren’t on wordpress.com 😙❤️
Yes! I will do that today!! Thank you!!! 🙂
This is such a gorgous cake! It would be the perfect addition to any Mother’s day spread!
Thank you, Demeter!
What a fab idea!! Just love the surprise bonus cheesecake in the middle, this would be a really lovely dinner party dessert. Pinning for later!
Thank you so much!
I’m not usually big on desserts, but chocolate raspberry is a flavour combination that I can’t resist! This cake looks amazing, and I will definitely be trying this out at our next family special occasion.
Thank you, Courtney!
My goodness this cake is so rich and moist. Must be super tasty too. Yummy 😋
This looks Heavenly! I love chocolate and have had a serious craving for it! And Raspberry Cheesecake is simply to die for! I love the idea of combining them like this!
This cake looks delicious and I absolutely love the flavours in it. I would gladly enjoy a slice of this with my cup of coffee. The tips are great too and very useful.
The cake looks amazing, and I love that you are including your son in the process. Too many parents don’t include their kids in the kitchen and they never learn to properly cook.
haha right. My mom always included me and I always include my son also. He is in the kitchen with me all day long, because I spend all day long in the kitchen! Thank you!
This is one impressive looking cake. I love all the components, chocolate and raspberries just go together for an amazing taste.
It looks great, you have lovely images that just make your cake irresistible. On my list to make it for my family during the weekend.
Such a cute story and this cake sounds TO DIE FOR!! Pinning it to make asap! Thanks for sharing!
LOL!!! I know exactly what you are dealing with…my 2 Y.O is the same. she wants to crack the eggs and sift the flour…big happy mess (not so happy mom…)the cake looks amazing, love the surprise in the middle
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe. I made it and was a hit!! Fabulously balanced flavors. I used a food Store bought raspberry preserves. One problem I had was, when I transferred the cake from the pan to the rack to cool, the cake collapsed a bit ( I masked it with plenty of ganache and fruits) due to the melted preserve. I ended up placing the cake with Bundt pan in the fridge to cool. Regardless, it was so delicious! Wish I could share the pic here.
Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe. I made it and was a hit!! Fabulously balanced flavors. I used a food Store bought raspberry preserves. One problem I had was, when I transferred the cake from the pan to the rack to cool, the cake collapsed a bit ( I masked it with plenty of ganache and fruits) due to the melted preserve. I ended up placing the cake with Bundt pan in the fridge to cool. Regardless, it was so delicious! Wish I could share the pic here.
Awe that sounds wonderful!! thank you so much for sharing this with me!!! I am so happy it all worked out and you made the very best out of it!!! Amazing!!! Have a wonderful day!!
Made this fabulous cake and each section, jam, cream cheese and cake batter was smooth cream and, yes, very tasty. Followed directions and baked as per instructions being very careful on layering the cream cheese, raspberry and cream cheese to not touch the edges. It baked beautifully, looked perfect and came out of the pan without a flaw! Was impressed it turned out SUPER as did the glaze, which I doubled to have extra and is so yummy. The cake was moist and delicious. HOWEVER, the cake filling (raspberry jam cream cheese filling) was hollow!! Looked like someone tunneled through the middle of the cake!! The flavour was there despite the giant hollow in the middle. So, my question is, what could have caused this?
Appreciate feedback. Thank you.
I think that happens because of the jam, which gets absorbed into the cake. I will make this recipe soon and figure out what could have happened to your cake. Thank you
Do you think it will work to just put half of the cream cheese batter down fresh sugared raspberries and then the rest of the cream cheese on top? I thought maybe this would prevent the preserves/jam from being absorbed into the cake, so the tunnel wouldn’t form!
that’s a fabulous idea!