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This Chocolate Donut Cake recipe is a giant version of your favorite chocolate glazed donuts – soft and rich with big chocolate flavor! The cake is baked to perfection and topped with a dreamy, glossy glaze. It’s the ultimate treat for chocolate lovers!
If you love donut cakes, make my buttermilk donut cake and powdered sugar donuts!
Ok so let me give you the run down on this beauty! I made a buttermilk donut cake and now we’re onto the chocolate version!
Imagine merging your favorite chocolate donut and the best chocolate cake ever. The result is tender chocolate donut cake! It’s super chocolatey, soft, and has that slightly dense, bakery-style crumb that is literally a chocolate lovers dream.
It’s like giant chocolate donuts but in cake form. And if that doesn’t sound freaking delicious, idk what does!
You can slice it thick like a pound cake or eat it straight out of your hand like an oversized donut—no judgment here. Basically, it’s the kind of cake that disappears fast, so maybe make two.
Table of Contents
Key Ingredients
(Full list of ingredients can be found in the recipe card)
- Dutch-process cocoa powder gives chocolate donut cake a deep, smooth chocolate flavor and a darker, more intense color. Make my chocolate ricotta cake next if you have leftovers!
- For best results, use Cake Flour – this create that melt in your mouth bite due to its fine texture. All purpose flour works in a pinch, but cake flour is ideal.
- The tiniest addition of nutmeg and cardamom are what give this cake it’s donut-like flavor.
- Hot Coffee deepens the chocolate flavor by blooming the cocoa powder. If you don’t have any, you can either you hot water and espresso powder OR just normal boiling water. Make my chocolate cake with chocolate mousse or my chocolate zucchini cake next if you love coffee in chocolate cake together!
- Sour cream make this a beautifuly and rich moist cake, giving every bite that tender, velvety crumb. Its slight acidity also helps activate baking soda for a better rise and softer texture. If you have a bunch of sour cream, make my old fashioned sour cream donuts next!
How to make Chocolate Donut Cake
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush a 10-cup bundt pan with melted butter, ensuring that the inside of entire pan is coated. Dust with cocoa powder, ensuring the entire pan is covered. Tap off any excess powder and place the pan into the refrigerator.
Step 2: In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients – melted butter, vegetable oil, white sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk together for about 1-2 minutes, until smooth. Add in the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract and whisk until combined.
Step 3: Add the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa powder, nutmeg, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt and mix into the batter until a smooth batter forms, be careful not to overmix, mix until just combined. Pour hot coffee on top of the batter and allow it to sit for about 20 seconds, then whisk until a loose batter forms, about 10-15 seconds.
Step 4: Pour cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Step 5: While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate glaze. whisk together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract. Add a pinch of salt and whisk together. Pour on top of the cake.
Expert Baking Tips
- Use a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients! This prevents too much flour or too much liquid being added to the batter which can affect the texture and flavor of the cake.
- Be careful not to overmix your batter. After adding the flour mixture, mix until it’s just combined and stop! This will ensure you get a beautiful soft crumb just like the delicious chocolate cake donuts we all love!
- Use room temperature ingredients – this allows the batter to mix together more easily, creating a smooth, even texture that traps air properly during mixing. This leads to better structure, improved rise while baking.
- Grease the bundt pan liberally. Use a baking spray with flour or a homemade mix of butter + cocoa powder (listed in the recipe card). Get into every nook and cranny—especially if your pan is a pretty/fun shape.
- Before baking in the oven, tap the bundt pan against the counter a few times. This helps release any air bubbles, giving you a smoother, more even crumb
Recipe FAQs
Cover the cake in plastic wrap or store in an airtight container. It can sit at room temperature for up to 5 days.
A chocolate donut cake mimics the flavor and texture of a old fashioned chocolate donut. It has a fudgier crumb and lightly spiced as opposed to a chocolate cake that’s more fluffy.
Normally I’d say yes, but not for this recipe. The batter is pretty thin so any mix-ins will sink to the bottom of the pan and likely burn while baking. I don’t recommend it.
Absolutely, you can bake this recipe in a tube pan or a 9×9 baking pan. Just note, the baking times will be different than what’s listed in this recipe.
You can, but the cake won’t rise very well. Dutch-processed cocoas have different acidity levels, which can affect the cake’s rise and flavor.
More Chocolate Cake Recipes
Desserts
Chocolate Mud Cake
Desserts
Triple Chocolate Cake
Desserts
White Chocolate Pound Cake
Desserts
Matilda’s Chocolate Cake
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If you make this recipe, please leave a star rating on the recipe card and comment below! You can also tag @BritneyBreaksBread on Instagram and hashtag #britneybreaksbread so I can celebrate your beautiful creations!
Chocolate Donut Cake
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup Salted Butter, (melted)
- 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil
- 1 1/2 cups Sugar
- 3/4 cup Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Sour Cream, (room temperature)
- 1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
- 3 large Eggs, (room temperature)
- 2 cups Cake Flour
- 3/4 cup Dutch Process Cocoa Powder
- 1/2 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp Cardamom , (optional)
- 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
- 1 tsp Kosher Salt
- 1 cup Coffee, (hot)
Chocolate Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups Confectioner's Sugar
- 4 tbsp Cocoa Powder
- 2 tbsp Whole Milk
- 2 tbsp Salted Butter, (melted)
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Brush a 10-cup bundt pan with melted butter, ensuring that the inside of entire pan is coated. Dust with cocoa powder, ensuring the entire pan is covered. Tap off any excess powder and place the pan into the refrigerator.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients – melted butter, vegetable oil, white sugar, and brown sugar. Whisk together for about 1-2 minutes, until smooth. Add in the sour cream, eggs, and vanilla extract and whisk until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients – flour, cocoa powder, nutmeg, cardamom, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt and mix into the batter until a smooth batter forms, be careful not to overmix, mix until just combined. Pour hot coffee on top of the batter and allow it to sit for about 20 seconds, then whisk until a loose batter forms, about 10-15 seconds.
- Pour cake batter into the prepared bundt pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely.
- While the cake is cooling, make the chocolate glaze. whisk together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, melted butter, milk, and vanilla extract. Add the tiniest a pinch of salt and whisk together. Pour on top of the cake.
Notes
- Use a kitchen scale to measure the ingredients! This prevents too much flour or too much liquid being added to the batter which can affect the texture and flavor of the cake.
- Be careful not to overmix your batter. After adding the flour mixture, mix until it’s just combined and stop! This will ensure you get a beautiful soft crumb just like the delicious chocolate cake donuts we all love!
- Use room temperature ingredients – this allows the batter to mix together more easily, creating a smooth, even texture that traps air properly during mixing. This leads to better structure, improved rise while baking.
- Grease the bundt pan liberally. Use a baking spray with flour or a homemade mix of butter + cocoa powder (listed in the recipe card). Get into every nook and cranny—especially if your pan is a pretty/fun shape.
- Before baking in the oven, tap the bundt pan against the counter a few times. This helps release any air bubbles, giving you a smoother, more even crumb
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Incredibly moist and chocolatey cake. It was pretty easy to make too. Next time, I’m going to make a frosting to go with it. The glaze was good but I wanted a buttercream on top but that’s just me. I really enjoyed this recipe.