Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake

Name: Chocolate Olive Oil Bundt Cake
Prep time: 25 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 80 min
Ingredients: 1½ cups (180g) all purpose flour; ½ cup (60g) medium rye flour, finely milled; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 tsp kosher salt; ¾ cup (177mL) extra virgin olive oil; 1½ cups (300g) granulated sugar; ⅓ cup (35g) Dutch process cocoa powder; 1 cup (250mL) hot coffee (or hot water/black tea); 2 eggs large; ½ cup (120g) sour cream, full fat; 1½ tsp vanilla extract; ¼ cup + 2 Tbsp (90mL) heavy whipping cream; 4 oz (120g) dark chocolate, finely chopped (I used a 72% chocolate bar); ¼ cup (60g) sour cream, full fat; 1 Tbsp port wine (or coffee or more cream); ⅛ tsp kosher salt; ½ tsp vanilla extract

Jump to Recipe Pin Recipe

A dark, deliciously moist chocolate olive oil bundt cake drizzled with a silky, rich chocolate ganache. The cake batter is easy to make by hand, and includes olive oil, sour cream, freshly brewed coffee and nutty rye flour. It's not too sweet and packed full of chocolate flavor.

Hand pouring chocolate ganache glaze onto a chocolate olive oil bundt cake resting on a white marble platter

This cake first came about when I was testing recipes for a bundt cake with oil for an olive oil brand. I wanted to explore completely replacing the butter in a cake with olive oil.

While I'm happy to eat most any homemade cake, I find that cakes made with oil are often my favorites, at least in terms of their texture. My apple bundt cake with vanilla glaze is made with olive oil in the batter, as are these apple ginger mini cakes with salted caramel. The oil lends a certain moisture and lightness of crumb to the cake that butter does not.

Cakes made with oil also tend to stay tender longer, which is an added benefit when making a larger cake like this bundt. The stronger taste of olive oil partners well with the robust flavors of chocolate and rye.

Thanks to the olive oil, this is a moist and super easy chocolate cake recipe! It can easily be made by hand, no mixer required.

Slice of chocolate olive oil bundt cake with chocolate ganache glaze on a white plate with coffee mug and cake in background

Close up of sliced chocolate olive oil bundt cake with chocolate ganache glaze on a white marble platter

Ingredients

Dutch Process Cocoa Powder vs. Natural Cocoa Powder

This dark chocolate olive oil cake recipe specifically calls for dutch process cocoa powder. Don't have any? You can most likely substitute with natural cocoa powder here. There's enough baking soda in this recipe that it should neutralize the added acidity from natural cocoa powder and also provide the needed leavening.

However, since natural cocoa powder is lighter in color and flavor, you'll find that the cake is not as dark in color or deeply chocolate in flavor. My preference is to stick with the Dutch process variety for this recipe.

Different types of cocoa powder react to other ingredients in different ways. Natural cocoa powder is acidic. Dutch process cocoa powder has gone through a process that neutralizes the acidity. It is sometimes called Dutched or Alkalized cocoa powder.

When an acid combines with an alkaline base, it creates carbon dioxide gas. (Think back on the classic childhood science project that has you make a model volcano erupt by combining vinegar with baking soda - and orange/red food coloring, if you were extra cool.) This gas translates into bubbles in baking, which help provide leavening to your baked goods.

In order to make this dark chocolate bundt cake, this recipe calls for neutral Dutch process cocoa powder for the darker color and more intense chocolate flavor. Thus, the acid needs to come from somewhere else. In this case, it's the sour cream. Sour cream (acid) + baking soda (alkaline) = carbon dioxide gas, and baking lift!

Olive Oil

For this moist chocolate cake recipe with oil, I used a high quality extra virgin olive oil with a bold fruity flavor, as it pairs well with chocolate. You can certainly substitute a mild flavored olive oil, or even a more neutral oil such as grapeseed or canola oil.

Coffee

I used freshly brewed, hot coffee as the liquid in the bundt cake batter. If you prefer not to use coffee, hot water or a hot black tea with a smoky profile, such as lapsang souchong will work just fine as a substitute. Using a hot liquid is a great trick to help the cocoa powder "bloom". Adding hot liquid to the cocoa mixture helps to dissolve the cocoa powder and release additional flavor.

Rye Flour

Replacing part of the all purpose flour with rye flour imparts a more complex, nutty flavor to this rich chocolate bundt cake. I usually purchase medium rye flour, which has all the delicious taste of rye, without the coarse texture of a darker rye flour.

If you don't have rye flour, you can replace it with the same amount (½ cup; 60g) of all purpose flour, so that the recipe uses a total of 2 cups (240g) all purpose flour and no rye flour.

I find this guide on rye flour from King Arthur to be a helpful reference.

Dark Chocolate

The ganache glaze is made with good quality dark chocolate, the kind you'd like to eat plain out of the wrapper while standing in the pantry.

I used a 72% chocolate bar, which is on the darker end. Aim for something in the 60-72% range. Choose a bar with the cocoa percentage that you'd most enjoy eating. A good quality chocolate bar, baking chocolate, or chocolate feves would work.

If possible, avoid using chocolate chips. They often contain fillers intended to prevent them from melting and losing shape.

A chocolate cake drizzled with a chocolate ganache on a marble platter and marble countertop

How to glaze the chocolate bundt cake

Top tip: when adding the ganache glaze, ensure that the cake is fully cooled. If the cake is still warm, the glaze will melt and run off the sides of the cake. You don't want that to happen!

Since this is a fairly thick glaze, it needs to be applied while the ganache is warm. It will set as it cools.

I like to test the consistency of my glaze by pouring a test drip down the side of an inverted mug. This helps give me a sense of its thickness. Does the drip run down quickly and puddle at the bottom immediately? Is it too thick to drip down the side at all? I can adjust the warmth of the glaze (and thus, the consistency) as appropriate to help make sure the ganache glaze will look great the first time I apply it.

Another tip: once you start pouring, try to glaze the whole cake in one go. If you stop and start, it's likely that the second application will not "sink" smoothly into the first and will end up looking like a raised second layer of glaze on top of the first. It only matters if you're concerned about the final look. The taste will be glorious no matter what.

If you are making this cake a day in advance, wait until the day you serve it to add the glaze. Drizzle it on a few hours before presenting/serving to give it time to set.

If you glaze it more than a day in advance, the cake will begin to absorb moisture from the glaze, and the glaze will start to crack. If this does happen, all is not lost - it will still taste wonderful.

Slice of chocolate olive oil bundt cake on a white plate and marble counter with whole cake on platter in the background

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I prepare a bundt cake pan?

Bundt pans are notorious for giving people all kinds of baking grief. A cake that sticks to the pan or comes out in pieces ranks high on the scale of baking disaster.

There are all kinds of tips on how to keep a bundt cake from sticking to the pan, from using certain baking sprays to purchasing specific brands of bundt pans. I've had excellent luck thus far using the following method on a variety of pans, both new and vintage.

The biggest secret I've found is to simply be very meticulous about the preparation process. You'll be glad you put in the time when your bundt cake comes out in one piece!

Grease the bundt pan. Use a pastry brush to coat the interior of the pan thoroughly with a thin layer of softened butter. The butter should be soft enough to spread easily with the brush, but should not be melted.

Use a natural bristled pastry brush to apply the butter. The fine bristles are much better at evenly applying the butter than the silicone variety. I've tried them both!

Carefully double-check to make sure you've coated every curve and crevice in the pan with butter, including the center tube / chimney of the bundt pan.

Coat the interior of the pan with cocoa powder. Since this is a chocolate cake batter, cocoa powder will better match the color and flavor. Use a sifter to help distribute the cocoa powder more easily around the bundt interior.

Hold the bundt pan at an angle while carefully turning and tapping it. This helps the cocoa fall into all the crevices of the pan. You may need to do several full turns to ensure all areas are completely coated.

I like to do this portion of prep with the bundt pan over the sink. I can easily rinse away any extra cocoa powder that spills outside of the pan, which makes kitchen clean-up faster. You can also do this over a piece of parchment paper if you'd like to save the excess.

Once all buttered areas are coated with cocoa, turn the pan upside down and give it one good whack over the sink to remove any extra cocoa powder.

How do I remove the cake from the bundt pan?

Give the bundt cake 10-15 minutes to cool in the pan before flipping it over. This helps give the cake a chance to become more firm.

Before you unmold the cake, use your fingers to gently pull the edges of the cake just slightly away from the pan to loosen it.

Wearing an oven mitt, hold the pan in your hand and center a cooling rack on top.

Holding them both together, carefully flip the two so that the bundt pan is now upside down on top of the cooling rack.

Set the rack onto the countertop. Use two hands to gently lift the bundt pan off the cake.

Can I convert this recipe into mini chocolate bundt cakes?

Yes! I haven't tried it myself, but one of my readers adjusted it by making a half recipe and using a pan that has 12 mini bundt cavities (approximately 5 cup total capacity).

They filled each mini bundt ¾ full and baked at 375 degrees for 22-25 minutes. Please leave a comment if you try this so that we have more input for others who would like to try something similar!

Mini bundt pans do differ in shape and size, so I recommend you watch the cakes carefully and test as the bake nears the end of its time.

Slices of chocolate bundt cake on white plates with coffee, whipped cream and napkin resting nearby

Equipment

Bundt pan: this bundt cake is made in a Nordic Ware original bundt pan. Nordic Ware makes excellent pans that bake and release well.

Pastry brush: A natural bristle pastry brush is the best tool for greasing the bundt pan with butter before baking. The fine natural bristles do a much better job than their silicone counterparts.

Five white plate each with a slice of chocolate bundt cake resting on a marble surface

Try these chocolate recipes next!

Love this recipe? Please leave a comment and star rating. ★★★★★ Your feedback, suggestions, and adaptations are very helpful to other bakers!

📖 Recipe

More Cake Recipes

More Chocolate Recipes

Comments

5 from 3 votes (1 rating without comment)