Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake

I have fallen in love with a bundt cake. Dark and rich chocolate cake spiced with ginger, molasses, and sweetened with dark brown sugar. Blanketed in sweet and tangy cream cheese frosting.

Christmas on a plate. 

What may look like your run-of-the-mill chocolate bundt cake, one bite of today’s cake will surely take you for a surprise. Deep in the chocolate crumbs you will taste a medley of warming winter spices, pungent and dark molasses, and a bold ginger taste ready to scare off your gingerbread man. And ordinary chocolate bundt cake?  Ha! This is none of the sort.

Gingerbread houses may have met their match last week in the form of Christmas Tree Cupcakes, but with just six days left until ol’ Saint Nick monopolizes the nation’s cookie supply, it’s time for gingerbread to have its moment in the dessert spotlight. Traditional holiday flavors take on a new shape in this kicked up Chocolate Gingerbread Bundt Cake drizzled with vanilla glaze.

We’re all about tradition at my family’s Christmas table, which means age-old favorites like 24-Hour Salad and Veggie Bars—two recipes that have been in my family for more than 50 years—will make their standard appearances. But this year the dessert table is getting a welcome makeover with a pop of color provided by Homemade Holiday Lollipops and a punch of flavor from this deeply rich cake. In the words of Sir (Stand) Mix(er)-a-Lot, I like big bundts, and I cannot lie.

Originally intending to make a pumpkin chocolate bundt cake of sorts last weekend, I found myself eager to try something a little new. While I love pumpkin dearly, I am beginning to embrace the flavors of the upcoming holidays. There are no flavors I associate more with holidays than gingerbread or molasses, so into my chocolate bundt cake went… Christmas.

Into the cake batter goes cocoa powder, whole milk (or heavy cream), molasses, eggs, and brown sugar. I used oil as my fat in the recipe because I’ve learned that oil produces a much softer, moist slice of cake as opposed to butter. While I love butter in my cookie recipes, when I’m not looking for an item to spread and to remain moist over time – I find oil does the trick. Especially a cake with so much flavor from the ginger, molasses, and spices – you will not miss the butter in this recipe at all.  Box cake mixes (which have the texture I was looking for) are baked using oil, not butter.

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour, spooned in
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tbsp. ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• ½ tsp. nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 2/3 cup butter, room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 cup Crosby’s Fancy Molasses
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 cups sour cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9 or 10-in. bundt or tube pan and dust with flour.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and cloves.
3. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in molasses and vanilla.
4. Add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture in three additions, alternating with the sour cream (beginning and ending with the dry mixture).
5. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake 50 minutes to an hour, until a tester comes out clean when inserted into centre of cake and when the cake starts to pull away from the sides of the pan.
6. Cool cake in pan for 10-20 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack. When ready to serve, sprinkle over icing sugar.

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