Buttermilk Chocolate Donut Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze

If you are like me, and you gravitate towards a cake donut, typically of the chocolate variety, doused in a thick glaze, usually the crackly, sugary white vanilla-ish glaze, then you will probably want to start greasing up that bundt pan now. This cake delivers all the donut vibes, without any frying, and you have lots to share, and by share, I mean with yourself, again tomorrow…haha.

just swimming in glaze

Cake Ingredients:

1 1/5 cups granulated white sugar

12 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature

4 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tbs chocolate extract

2 1/2 cups AP flour

1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp baking powder

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup full fat buttermilk, well shaken, at room temperature

Glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbs water or milk, add as needed to achieve desired consistency for pouring over (I should have added more powdered sugar to thicken this a bit)

Prep:

For this cake, I used a 10 cup/10” tube pan. But you can use up to a 15 cup pan. Grease it up with butter or coconut oil, coating all of the sides and nooks really thoroughly. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Method:

Combine the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat slowly to coat the butter, then increase speed to medium high to achieve the pale, fluffy, well-mixed stage. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, about one minute of mixing after each egg. Then scrape the beater and sides of the bowl down to make sure batter is well combined. Then add chocolate extract and mix until just combined.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Sift the cocoa powder over the bowl, to remove lumps, and whisk flour mixture again.

Keeping the mixer on low speed, add 1/3 of flour mixture, mix for 30 seconds, add half of the buttermilk, mix until just combined, add and mix another 1/3 of flour mixture, add remaining buttermilk, mix until just combined and scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl well. Add the remainder of the flour mixture and mix for 30 more seconds. Remove the bowl from the mixer and finish mixing with a spatula by hand, just to make sure batter is fully combined and there are no signs of flour leftover.

Scoop batter into prepared Bundt pan, smooth the top to evenly distribute, and tap the pan on the counter a few times to release any air pockets.

Place pan into preheated oven and bake 45-52 minutes. Begin checking cake around 40 minutes. Because you can’t see browning on a chocolate cake, you can insert a cake tester in the very center and it should come out clean. The cake should also bounce back when gently poked with your finger. Let the cake cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a rack to cool completely before glazing.

When cake is room temperature, transfer to a platter. To make the glaze, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla, milk or water until it is smooth and drips off of a spoon. Spread, drip, dollop over cake as desired and slice and eat!

Glazed cakes like this are usually best in the first 1-2 days, wrapped in plastic or cake keeper at room temperature…it also freezes well! Slice into servings, wrap individually in plastic and store in freezer in a zip top bag.