Chocolate Root Beer Bundt Cake
This Chocolate Root Beer Bundt Cake has been all over the internet. I have seen it on more than one blog. But after someone proclaimed it a recipe worth buying a cookbook for, my interest was piqued. Prior to reading that comment, it had sounded intriguing, but not intriguing enough to make it to the top of my must-bake list.
So I headed to Trader Joe’s to get some root beer. If I was going to make a cake with root beer in it, it was going to be some good root beer. I came home with a four-pack and then got distracted. A couple days later when I recommitted to making the cake, all the root beers were gone. Silly Hubby – he thought I got those for him. Once I got more root beer, I hid enough for the recipe in the back of the fridge.
A couple days later, I finally got around to making this cake. Although, I think the name is misleading. I didn’t get a root beer taste at all from this cake. Even when I sat and thought about root beer while eating it. I was trying so hard to make it taste like root beer, but I just couldn’t taste it.
I asked a few people at work about what the cake tasted like and I got a variety of answers including comments about chocolate, super moist, really awesome, but nothing about root beer. I do agree with my coworkers, this is a moist chocolatey bundt cake. And just look at that thick layer of frosting. How could anything be sub-par with that much frosting on top?
Has anyone else out there made this cake? Did you think you could taste the root beer?
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Three Years Ago: Pumpkin Pasta and Pumpkin and Chocolate Caramel Corn
Four Years Ago: Ginger Pumpkin Cupcakes and Halloween M&M Treats
Five Years Ago: Shark Cupcakes and Lemon Berry Muffins
Chocolate Root Beer Bundt Cake
This moist chocolate bundt cake has a serious layer of chocolatey frosting
Yield: 12-15 servings
Ingredients:
For the Cake
2 cups root beer (not diet)
1 cup dark cocoa powder
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cubed
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups flour
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt
2 large eggs, room temperature, lightly beaten
For the Frosting
2 ounces (about 1/3 cup) dark chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup root beer
2/3 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Directions:
For the Cake
In a small saucepan, melt together the root beer, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth. Add in the sugars and whisk until they are completely dissolved, then remove the pan from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, in a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt.
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and generously spray the inside of a 10-inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray, or butter it, dust with flour, and tap out any excess flour.
Once the chocolate/root beer mixture has cooled, whisk in the beaten eggs.
Gently pour the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture, and fold everything together until well combined. The batter will be slightly lumpy, but don’t overbeat it.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 35-40 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, until a small sharp knife or long toothpick/skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely, then gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn it out onto a large plate.
For the Frosting
Beat the butter and melted chocolate together with a stand or hand mixer, then, on slow speed, beat in the salt, root beer, and powdered sugar, until shiny and smooth.
Use a spatula to spread the fudge frosting over the crown of the bundt cake in a thick layer, then place the cake in the fridge for 10 minutes or so to allow the frosting to set before serving.
You can place the cake in an airtight container overnight if you want to make the cake the day before.
Recipe from Baked, as seen on Crepes of Wrath
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
loving the baileys idea! mmmmm
I use the same recipe (I think, I’ve had it for years; a standby. I think it was called “Chocolate Fudge Frosting”)
Best thing EVER to do? add a bit of mint extract – it’s very easily my most popular cake filling.. and my favourite icing to eat by the spoonful lol.
I haven’t found the perfect chocolate frosting yet, so I’ll definitely have to try this one!
i definitely, definitely have to try this soon. i can’t get enough of chocolate!
It’s funny about the no milk thing…I was making a new martini recipe that was super strong, so I thought cream would help it become drinkable – but I had no cream, but I did have Vanilla Caramel Coffeemate…it was great!
Ironically, I almost never have milk and always have Bailey’s. Go figure.
Sometimes you really do need a seriously dark chocolatey frosting. This looks absolutely ideal.
you really got into the food styling there — cute pic with the cupcake in the sprinkles.
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This sounds nice – I’ll have to try it one day! Jen, have you tried King Arthur Flour’s Supersimple Chocolate Frosting recipe? It is my favourite recipe (so far) for chocolate frosting – I’d definitely recommend it!
(Sheesh! deleted to fix a typo! Wish there was an edit function :))
Pegster – I have not tried the KA recipe. It looks similar to this chocolate frosting recipe which is delicious!
The think I love about this frosting is the stiffness and the fudgeness.
I like this frosting for when I want something quick. Otherwise, I like to use frosting that involves melted, good chocolate for those special occasions. YUM! I would gobble up your cupcakes in a second.
Great call on the Bailey’s – my mom would love that icing. I am going to try this next time I make cupcakes.
I would never think to sub bailey’s for milk. Brilliant. I love my chocolate desserts to be super chocolaty – this looks great!
LOVE the super pink sprinkles too. So pretty 😀
Oh, I forgot to mention that I’m hosting a giveaway. I wonder if it would come handy in this baking project…
These look great!! I love your photos!! I’ve been searching for a good chocolate-y frosting and I think I might try this!!
Would you mind checking out my blog? 😀 http://ajscookingsecrets.blogspot.com/
I could have definitely used this recipe for my sourdough chocolate cake this week
http://gamereviewwiki.com/bikinibirthday/2010/06/21/day-158-binge-weekend/
i just made this frosting today to go inside some cupcakes using your cone method. and i topped with vanilla buttercream, at my hubby’s request.
let me just say this was so delicious i had to take my whitening strips out early so i could lick my fingers, and then the bowl. then my 15 month old attacked me to lick the spatula. we were all sugar high and happy before dinner.
my hubby said “every day i am happier i married you because of things like this”
Thanks for sharing this recipe!!!
Kris – I love hearing comments like that! Thanks for trusting my recipes enough to try on your hubby!
Mmm this looks fantastic, though the ingredients look similar to another delicious recipe I’ve used before that is pretty soft. I’m guessing it’s the butter temperature. Should it be room temperature here? Thanks!
You definitely want your butter at room temperature so it creams nicely.
I have the Bailey’s..lol but I’m out of cocoa powder. Have you ever tried subbing it with melted chocolate? And if so how much do you use?
Best frosting ever. Perfect taste, texture and color. It was divine. I will never use another chocolate frosting recipe ever again. Thank you very, very much! It is truly a gift. 🙂
Jen,
I am a person who has been cooking from the age of 5 ….lol now i have certin likes loves and disliks lol however i found a revepie i wanted to make and it called for a fudge type frosting…. knowing i didnt have one i liked for this so i started looking friday night and didnt come across your recepie until saturday morning so i got out my ingreadience.. but i didnt have Balies or white milk i had some Cream de Mint and Choc. Milk so i straied a tad from ur recepie …. i used 1/2 stick of butter, and to get 1/3 cup of liquid i used aprox 1/4 cup of Cream de Mint and the rest Choc. Milk. Plus the res of ur ingreadience …..omg this is the best dark choc fudge frosting ive ever had!!!! And i used the best dk. Cocoa i know of !!!!!! Thankyou thankyou THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a baker and for the life of me I can’t find a thick chocolate fudge frosting. Is this frosting thick? I don’t want anything too creamy, like ganache when you let it sit. Help please!
beantownbaker — February 4th, 2013 @ 9:45 pm
This frosting is definitely thick. You can see in the pictures that it held up nicely to piping. It’s not as creamy as a ganache.
Thank you for responding! 🙂 I see that some people use melted chocolate instead of cocoa powder. Doesn’t it really matter?
beantownbaker — February 5th, 2013 @ 10:13 am
For this recipe, I always use cocoa powder.
If I make these the day before do I have to refrigerate them(since the recipe calls for milk)or can I leave them on the counter covered?
beantownbaker — October 30th, 2013 @ 8:21 pm
You can leave them on the counter. The milk in the frosting stabilizes so it won’t go bad. I’d put them in a covered container though.
Hi. Is the butter you use salted or unsalted?
beantownbaker — December 26th, 2013 @ 11:01 am
I always use unsalted butter unless specified as salted butter.
This is absolutely THE BEST chocolate frosting recipe I have EVER tried. I used it to frost some homemade vanilla mint cupcakes and topped them with an Andes mint for my daughters sweet 16 party. I had complete strangers tell me I need to open up a bakery and sell nothing but those cupcakes! Thank you so much for posting this. It is truly amazing.
beantownbaker — January 2nd, 2014 @ 1:32 pm
SO glad you enjoy this recipe! Nothing beats a great chocolate frosting.
I can’t wait to try this! I LOVE the flavor of the hersey’s dark choc frosting recipe but its so thin that i can’t use it for cupcakes, only for a cake. I even tried refrigeration overnight to see if that would thicken it up and it didn’t. so i can not wait try to this one for my cupcakes!
beantownbaker — April 27th, 2014 @ 2:53 pm
I agree. The Hershey’s one is just too thin for cupcakes.
I made a variation on this recipe for my daughter’s birthday cake yesterday and it was fabulous!
I’m still trying to figure out how 6T butter is enough though–I ended up putting in two whole sticks of butter and adding in the milk after the first addition (I added it slowly) of powdered sugar/cocoa combo–it was so thick and dry that my mixer was making new, horrible noises and I was sure it was going to die! LOL