Chocolate Blood Orange Bundt Cake

I have been promising this recipe for a while now, and its finally ready to share! If you follow me on Instagram, you know about my drama with the bundt cake pan recently. The first test I did on this Chocolate Blood Orange Bundt Cake was a massive fail due to it sticking to the pan. I. was. HEARTBROKEN!! I had sprayed it with pam ( but not “baking” pam)

So I did another test….I used the butter and flour method on the pan so hopefully it wouldn’t stick again….well it did. So I finally bought some Bakers Joy spray (after so many of my friends recommended it), and lo and behold, IT WORKED!

That “badunk” sound of a bundt cake coming out of the pan is the most beautiful sound to my ears now. I was almost scarred and was never going to touch another bundt pan, but luckily I found the trick!

So now onto this lovely recipe….

What you’ll need:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 tsp espresso
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cardamom
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 eggs + 2 yolks at room temperature
• 1 1/4cup room temp buttermilk
• 1/2 cup juice of blood orange (took me about 3 to 4 blood oranges to get this amount, depends on the size of the orange)
• Zest of 1 blood orange
• 1/2 cup chocolate syrup (yes, like the kind you put in your chocolate milk)

For the Icing:

• 8 oz (1 block) room temperate cream cheese
• 1/4 cup-1/3 cup blood orange juice
• zest of 1 blood orange
• 2-3 cups powdered sugar
• 3-4 tbsp milk

How To Make Chocolate Blood Orange Bundt Cake:

Now I’m not super fancy with my instructions, I’m going to tell ya’ll how to make this cake, exactly the way I made it.

1. Preheat oven to 350°F
2. Add flour, cocoa powder, espresso powder, baking powder, salt and cardamom to a large mixing bowl and whisk together. Set that aside
3. Next in a medium bowl, add together your sugar and oil and with a hand mixer, mix together until combined.
4. Beat in your eggs
5. add in the buttermilk, blood orange juice, zest and chocolate syrup and mix well until combined.
6. then add your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold together until you can’t see anymore of the dry ingredients.
7. Next…and probably THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP!!!! Take your *baking* spray (like Bakers Joy, or Pam Baking spray, something with flour in it) and spray every crack and crevice of that bundt pan! You want to make sure that sucker is coated good so we don’t end up having to eat the cake out the pan with a spoon (I had to do this the first time)
8. Then, pour your batter into the ((very well coated with baking spray)) bundt pan and spread evenly.
9. Bake for 45-50 minutes
10. Test doneness at 45 minutes by the toothpick test. I always say a few crumbs or a little bit of batter coming out on the toothpick is okay! The cake will continue to bake with residual heat in the pan while it cools. (you don’t want a dry cake) But usually I leave mine until the full 50 minutes and its perfect
11. Put the cake still in the pan, on a cooling rack for 10 minutes.
12. then flip cake out onto the cooling rack after 10 minutes and allow to cool for another hour.
13. after the hour, move cake to a plate or cake stand and pour your glaze over and serve!

Making the Blood Orange Glaze:

The blood orange glaze adds the perfect sweet, tanginess to this cake. I personally love cream cheese icings so I chose to use cream cheese, over butter, for this glaze and its perfect. It really adds a new level of richness to the flavor of the cake.

1. make sure you are using room temperature/softened cream cheese. Add it to a small mixing bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer until smooth.
2. add in your powdered sugar and mix until smooth; start with 2 cups, taste to test and if desired add more. For me personally, I don’t like my glaze overly sweet so 2 cups is great for me, however, add another cup if you so desire. I’m not here to judge.
3. Then add in your zest, blood orange juice and milk (starting with 3 tbsp) and mix together. If the glaze isn’t thin enough to pour, then add another tablespoon of milk until its thinned out a little but not so much the cake will just absorb it. (see photos)

How to store your bundt cake:

• The best way to store is in a cake stand with a cover. But I know not everyone has one.
• You can also cover with foil and leave it on the counter at room temperature for up to 2 days. (any longer than that and it’ll probably be crumbly and dry)

Baking Tips:

if you are impatient like me or forgetful (guilty of both) about the room temperature ingredients, here are a few tips to get the ingredients to “room temp” without having to wait.

• For the cream cheese, submerge the block (still wrapped) in a pan or cup of hot water for about 5 minutes.
• For the eggs, same thing (courtesy of a friend of mine for this tip!) submerge the eggs in warm water for 5 minutes.
• For the buttermilk, I usually pop mine in the microwave and use the “defrost” setting for about 30 seconds so that way it doesn’t over warm it and curdle.