This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, read my disclosure policy.
This Chocolate Bundt Cake is a rich chocolate butter cake that starts with a cake mix. It’s full of butter and has a gooey chocolate butter sauce poured all over the top. This is the perfect easy cake recipe!
This is the easiest moist chocolate bundt cake recipe you’ll ever make! It’s an easy Chocolate Butter Cake that starts with a cake mix and glazed with a rich chocolate topping while it’s hot!
Table of Contents
The Ultimate Chocolate Bundt Cake
I think Bundt cakes are my favorite ones to make: they’re easy to throw together and they finish off so pretty without a thick frosting! This is one better: a Chocolate BUTTER Cake – like Kentucky butter cake but with chocolate.
I’ve made a Lemon Butter Cake and a Key Lime Butter Cake and they were both huge hits so I decided to make a CHOCOLATE Butter Cake too. This easy cake is rich and thick and topped with a buttery chocolate glaze that soaks into the warm cake. If you love chocolate this is the cake for you!!
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Traditionally, Kentucky Butter Cake is a rich buttery pound cake that’s soaked with a sugary buttery syrup when it comes out of the oven.
- This chocolate bundt from cake mix is probably the easiest thing EVER and it’s totally no fail.
- It’s a moist and rich easy chocolate bundt cake – it’s so good it doesn’t even need frosting on top!
Ingredients in Butter Cake
- Chocolate Cake Mix: While I love making chocolate cake from scratch, I also love using cake mix. It makes my life easier, especially when I’m making a Bundt cake. Bundt and pound cake recipes are different from your traditional chocolate cake so when you’re in a pinch and need a cake, starting this with a cake mix is the way to go.
- Chocolate Pudding Mix: Use instant pudding mix. This keeps the cake extra moist.
- Butter: This goes into the cake and into the glaze on top. It’s easiest to melt butter if it starts at room temperature.
- Milk: You can use any kind of milk or nondairy milk for this recipe.
- Extracts: Always buy pure vanilla extract, and you can use some butter extract in the cake for extra flavor.
- Unsweetened Cocoa Powder: This is used in the glaze. You can use regular or dutch process cocoa powder.
- Granulated Sugar: Sweetens the chocolate glaze.
How to make Chocolate Bundt Cake with cake mix
- Whisk together cake mix and pudding mix in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs, melted butter, milk, and butter extract. Whisk until mostly smooth or use a hand mixer to mix it together.
- Pour batter into a greased bundt pan. I like to grease it with the nonstick baking spray (the kind with flour in it). Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean from the center of the cake.
- Even though the cake is still hot, we’re going to remove it from the pan. Invert the cake onto a rack set over a cookie sheet.
- While the cake is still hot, make the chocolate glaze: melt unsalted butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cocoa powder, and water. Stir and bring to a boil, cooking until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce is no longer grainy, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
- Using a long skewer, poke several small holes all over the cake. Carefully pour hot chocolate butter sauce over the cake, allowing any extra syrup to drip onto the cookie sheet under the rack.
Variations
- Add some semi-sweet chocolate chips to the batter for an even richer cake.
- Make a simple chocolate ganache using baking chocolate and heavy cream to drizzle on top the syrup for even more chocolate flavor.
- Add a tablespoon of instant espresso or instant coffee to the batter to make it even richer in chocolate flavor.
Expert Tips for Bundt Cakes
- By starting with melted butter you don’t need a mixer! Just whisk the cake batter together.
- Be sure to grease and flour your Bundt pan (or use the cooking spray with flour) or it won’t want to release.
- I always substitute milk for water in my cake mix recipes. You can use regular milk or non-dairy milk if you prefer.
- Butter extract amps up the flavor of the cake but it’s optional!
- The glaze is HEAVEN! Pour it over the cake while it’s hot or it’ll thicken too much. If it gets grainy or thick, just reheat it.
FAQs
Bundt cake is made in a special bundt pan. There are two types of bundt cakes: ones that are more like regular cake and ones that are pound cakes which are much denser. This recipe is more like regular cake texture but you don’t need to bother with layers and frosting.
This cake mix recipe uses a bundt pan – and it’s so easy to make!
For this chocolate bundt cake recipe, we’re applying the glaze while the cake is hot. If you want to do a ganache or frosting, wait until it cools.
A toothpick or long skewer will come out clean from the center of the cake.
Make sure you grease the pan really well. Either use nonstick baking spray with flour or use shortening or butter and flour. Be sure to grease in every crevice and in the center too. Then once the cake is done, while still hot, you can use a butter knife to help loosen it from the sides and it should pop out just fine.
Chocolate Butter Cake
Ingredients
For the Cake:
- 1 box chocolate cake mix about 15-16 ounces
- 1 box instant chocolate pudding mix about 3.4 ounces
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted Challenge Butter melted
- 1 cup (237ml) milk
- 1 teaspoon butter extract optional
For the topping:
- ¼ cup (57g) unsalted Challenge Butter
- ¾ cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon (5g) unsweetened cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons (29ml) water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray (I like using the kind with flour in it).
- Whisk together cake mix and pudding mix in a large bowl. Add eggs, melted butter, milk, and extract if using. Whisk until mostly smooth.
- Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out mostly clean from the center of the cake.
- As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, make the sauce: melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the sugar, cocoa, and water. Stir and bring to a boil, cooking until the sugar is dissolved and the sauce is no longer grainy, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.
- Even though the cake is still hot, we’re going to remove it from the pan. Invert the cake onto a rack set over a cookie sheet.
- Using a long skewer, poke several small holes all over the cake. Carefully pour hot chocolate butter sauce over the cake, allowing any extra to drip onto the cookie sheet under the rack. (If you want, you can scoop this extra sauce up off the pan and drizzle it over the cake again.)
- Let the cake cool then transfer to a serving plate. Store loosely covered for up to 3 days.
Recipe Video
Recipe Notes
Recipe Nutrition
Have you tried this recipe?
Click the stars below to rate it!
When you’re making a cake or any recipe, really, you need to use good quality ingredients, especially if you’re starting with a cake mix. Using a good quality butter will ensure that your butter cake tastes authentic and rich!
As you know, Challenge Butter is my favorite butter. I’ve been using it my whole life (it’s the only brand my parents buy!) Challenge is a cooperative of California family-owned dairies that was founded nearly 100 years ago. Having grown up in California I love that it’s local to me, but since it’s the 2nd largest butter brand in the country you can also find it nationally.
Challenge Butter is made the old-fashioned way, from the freshest milk and cream from happy cows. Challenge is the only dairy product company that controls the whole process when it comes to making its butter, from milking the cows to transporting the milk, to making the butter. I love that they have a hand in all the steps of making their butter. Plus, with no hormones, additives or fillers, it’s healthier and better tasting butter.
I also had difficulty with the glaze. I boiled it 2-3 minutes, but it is grainy as if the sugar didn’t dissolve. Not enough time, or too much cooking?