Desserts

Mocha Bundt Cake with Coffee Drizzle

This ultra-moist mocha Bundt cake is sure to become a new holiday favorite.

By Yankee Magazine|Nov 17 2023|

Photo Credit: Adam Detour with styling by Catrine Kelty

This cake uses the old-fashioned technique of adding hot liquid (a mixture of butter, cocoa, and coffee) to the dry ingredients, which gives it an incredibly moist crumb and rich chocolate flavor. The method was popularized in the 1950s with Texas Sheet Cake, and now that we’ve discovered it, we’re hooked.

Note: To make very easy chocolate curls, take a chunky bar of semisweet chocolate and rub the palm of your hand briskly against the flat side to warm it up just a bit. Use a sharp vegetable peeler to peel off that top layer of warmed chocolate. It will naturally curl as you pull the peeler down the bar. Repeat this process until you have as many curls as you’d like.

Yield:

8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

Nonstick baking spray, such as Bakery’s Joy brand
2½ cups (300 grams) all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon table salt
2 sticks (16 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
1½ cups fresh hot coffee
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup buttermilk
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350°F and set a rack to the middle position. Spray the Bundt pan with baking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine the 2 sticks butter, coffee, and cocoa powder. Whisk constantly until the mixture is smooth and bubbling at the edges, then remove from heat.

Pour the still-hot cocoa mixture into the dry ingredients and use a spatula to fold it in until just combined. Add the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla and stir until smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and bake until the cake is pulling away from the sides and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 45 to 55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for several minutes. Holding a cooling rack over the top of the pan, turn the cake over onto the rack, and lift the pan off the cake. Set the rack over a rimmed baking sheet to cool completely.

For the coffee drizzle:

Ingredients

2–3 tablespoons strong coffee or espresso, cooled
1 cup powdered sugar
Pinch salt
Chocolate curls, for garnish

Instructions

When the cake is cool, make the coffee drizzle: In a medium bowl, pour 2 tablespoons coffee over the powdered sugar and salt, then stir until smooth. The drizzle should be loose enough to pour but thick enough to cling (you can test it by drizzling a bit over the top of the cake). If the mixture is too thick, add more coffee, one teaspoon at a time; if it’s too thin, add more sugar. Pour the drizzle over the cake so that it drips down the sides and any excess collects on the baking sheet. Let the frosting set for 5 minutes, then decorate with chocolate curls. Let the frosting completely set before serving.