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This Chocolate Bundt Cake recipe is rich, moist, and delicious! Our recipe tastes just like the cake you can get at the popular Nothing Bundt Cakes shop, but at a fraction of the price.
Featured with this recipe
- A Nothing Bundt Cake Chocolate Chocolate Chip Recipe
- Ingredients in Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Secret to a Moist Cake
- Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Nothing Bundt Cake Copycat Recipes
- More Chocolate Cake Recipes
- How to Make Chocolate Bundt Cake
- Chocolate Bundt Cake (Nothing Bundt Cake Copycat Recipe) Recipe
This Chocolate Bundt Cake is rich, moist, easy to bake and fun to serve! Perfect for any birthday party, anniversary gathering, backyard picnic or Sunday dinner. Take some help from the store with a boxed cake mix and add a few simple ingredients to make it taste especially homemade and delicious. Top with our luscious cream cheese frosting for a show stopping centerpiece that everyone will love.
A Nothing Bundt Cake Chocolate Chocolate Chip Recipe
There are few things I love more than a Nothing Bundt Cake. If you have one nearby, you know what I’m taking about. They are dense and moist and delicious, but they are also a little pricey. You can make this bundt cake for much less than the cost of one at the store. And I guarantee you have most of these ingredients already in your fridge and pantry.
This chocolate bundt cake recipe tastes just like the real thing – plus you can steal a taste of the cake batter and eat as much frosting as you want. I won’t tell!
Ingredients in Chocolate Bundt Cake
Save tons of money by making this copycat recipe yourself. Here’s all you need for a perfectly rich and delicious chocolate bundt cake:
- Devil’s Food cake mix – one box of your favorite brand. Make sure to use the devil’s food cake mix instead of regular chocolate cake mix.
- Chocolate pudding mix – one 3.4 ounce box INSTANT pudding mix.
- Sour cream – one cup of regular sour cream. You can also use plain greek yogurt if you like.
- Eggs – four large whole eggs
- Water – about half a cup
- Vegetable oil – half cup
- Mini chocolate chips – one and a half cups. Add more as a garnish on top of the frosting too!
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Cream cheese – two packages of 8-ounce cream cheese, softened to room temperature.
- Butter – one cube, or half a cup, also softened. Remove the butter and cream cheese from the refrigerator abut a half hour before making the icing.
- Powdered sugar – 3 to 4 cups, depending on how thick you like your frosting.
- Vanilla extract – a couple of teaspoons of pure vanilla extract add such a rich flavor to the cream cheese frosting.
Secret to a Moist Cake
I have tried my hand at several bundt cakes and this truly is the best chocolate bundt cake recipe. What separates this cake from others that I’ve tried is how moist it is. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a cake as moist as this one.
The secret is adding instant pudding mix and sour cream to the mixture. And because you start with a devils food cake mix, it’s such an easy recipe to make. No worrying about the right amount of cocoa powder, baking soda, salt or all purpose flour. All of that is taken care of in the dry ingredients of the cake mix. All you have to do is whisk in the sour cream, water and oil in a large mixing bowl and you’re all set!
Don’t forget the chocolate chips, which adds an extra level of richness and chocolate flavor to the finished product. You could use milk chocolate or semi-sweet, whatever you have on hand.
Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting
You could top this chocolate cake with a simple glaze or a layer of ganache glaze, but if you want a true copycat recipe, you must try this rich cream cheese frosting. You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to frost this cake like a pro! All you need is a Ziplock bag and some scissors. Put the frosting into the bag, cut a tiny hole in the bottom corner and get busy! Watch the video in the recipe card to see how it works.
Frequently Asked Questions
The way the pan is designed, round with a hole in the middle, the cakes come out very thick and moist. Unlike other cake pans, which allow for more expansion during the baking process, this pan keeps the batter from expanding, resulting in a moist, thick cake.
Yes! For best results, use baking spray or use a pastry brush to brush vegetable oil all over the inside of the bundt pan. That way the cake comes out in tact. Use a toothpick to check to see if it comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack until ready to frost.
Use a toothpick to check to see if it comes out clean. If it is, you’ll know the cake is done. Once it’s done, remove from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for at least 10 minutes, but preferably closer to 20 minutes. Cool on a wire rack until you’re ready to frost.
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Nothing Bundt Cake Copycat Recipes
More Chocolate Cake Recipes
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How to Make Chocolate Bundt Cake
Chocolate Bundt Cake (Nothing Bundt Cake Copycat Recipe)
Video
Equipment
- Bundt Cake Pan
- Electric Mixer
- Mixing Bowls
Ingredients
Chocolate Cake
- 1 (13.25-ounce) box devil's Food cake mix
- 1 (3.4-ounce) package instant chocolate pudding mix
- 1 cup sour cream
- 4 large eggs
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup oil
- 1 ½ cups mini chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Frosting
- 16 ounces cream cheese, softened
- ½ cup butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3-4 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a standard Bundt cake pan. Set aside. Mix together cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, water, and oil. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 45-50 minutes.
- Remove from oven. Let cool for 20 minutes.
- Remove the cake from the Bundt pan by placing a plate upside down over the Bundt pan. While holding the plate firmly on top, flip both over so the cake comes out onto the plate. Cover the cake with plastic wrap and place it in the fridge overnight before frosting.
- In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese and butter until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the powdered sugar. Start with 2 cups, then keep adding more until it is nice and thick.
- Spoon the frosting into a resealable zip-top gallon bag. Clip one bottom corner of the bag.
- Squeeze frosting out of the bag onto the cake in strips, as pictured.
Notes
- Place frosting in a Ziplock bag.
- Cut a tiny hole in the bottom corner of the bag.
- Frost cake in strips over the entire bundt cake.
I have used this recipe and the lemon one several times to make mini bunt cakes for various occasions. They are always a hit. I was making the lemon ones today though and forgot to adjust the baking time :/ they are pretty brown but not burnt. I hope they still taste ok! 🙂 Thanks for the recipe, it’s definitely a keeper! 🙂
Just tasted what I think was the French Vanilla at one of the stores and it was so light and delicious. Do you have the recipe for it and also we loved the Raspberry chocolate one, do you know how to get the raspberry swirl that is inside??
Hi Dianne- we have several bundt cake recipes including the raspberry swirl. If you do a search for “bundt” on our site it will bring up a bunch of them 🙂 Hope this helps!
I rarely leave comments, but I HAD TO leave one for this recipe. I hadn’t eaten a bundt cake from Nothing Bundt in forever (they are somewhat pricey-and a little too sweet IMO); my husband picked up a few small ones (3 bundtlettes = $14!) so I hunted for a copycat recipe. I saw yours, read the great reviews and decided to try it. Can I just tell you-it was probably one of the best chocolate cakes-ever! My husband and 11 year old son absolutely loved it! They loved it so much that I made this cake TWICE in 2 weeks! My son even said I should make them and sell them. 😀 Thank you so much! P.S. the only modification I made was I used 1/2 cup of cooled off coffee instead of 1/2 cup water. And decided to use HERSHEY’S Chocolate Pudding instead of generic (I figured why not spend the extra $1.00!) I can’t wait to make the White Choclate Raspberry (that’s my fave from Nothing Bundt). Thanks again!
Hi Kelley- Thank you so much for taking the time to come back and comment! I am so happy to hear you and your family enjoyed this recipe. I love the idea of using cooled coffee instead of water. I bet that just made the flavor even MORE rich. Delicious!!! Thanks again for the nice comment! 😀
Do you need to do anything different if baking in Utah since it is at higher altitudes?
Thanks.
Julie
You should be fine 🙂 This recipe was actually created when I lived in Utah so you should be good 😉 Hope this helps!
I also love this recipe! I substitute a mixture of peanut butter chips with the chocolate chips! So yummy!
So glad you liked it! Great idea using PB chips! YUM!
We have often paid up to $40 for the unnamed Bundt cake chain cakes. But after making my first bunt cake with this recipe We have not gone back. It’s my easy go to recipe for dessert and I often get requests for them. Easy to make your own flavors and add twists and turns. Do you have and try it please do. John Tannehill
I cannot wait to try this recipe for a tailgate. I really want to use more than one color batter (ie make it team colors if possible). My original thought was to use a white mix and color…but I think the best option is red velvet then perhaps color the frosting or use team color sprinkles…..thanks for the recipe.
I love that idea! Who’s your team? Such a fun idea to make it for a tailgating party– the fans will love it!
Do you use salted or unsalted butter?
We typically use salted, but you can use either! Hope this helps!
Does it need to go in the fridge for a night before frosting? If so why? Thanks! Can’t wait to try it!
After it cools down a but, it just makes the cake more moist. Just make sure it’s wrapped up so the moisture stays IN the cake 🙂 Hope this helps!
have a suggestion this is a downsized recipe of the actual frosting (I’ve worked at one of these the stores for three years)
1 stick butter
8 oz cream cheese
2 tsp vanilla
1 lb powdered sugar
Partially melt butter and mix that by itself first. Add cream cheese and mix until fairly smooth. Add powdered sugar and vanilla, mix an low first, then on high.
One last thing if you want the frosting to look just the the actual thing, start from the outside of the cake, about a half inch from the bottom.
Thanks so much for the suggestion! And thanks for the frosting tip (going from the outside to the inside). It’s always nice to get suggestions form past employees. We love it!
… and what is in real recipe? Can you share?
We love the Nothing Bundt Cakes but only get them when we are on vacation. I was excited to try this recipe. It was a hit! I’m going to try a Red Velvet cake next. Thank you.
So glad you liked it! We are huge fans here too. Let us know how you like the red velvet!
Can i make this with mini bundt cake pans
Yes, you can. Just check them after 8-10 minutes or so and keep checking until done. Hope this helps!
Does the cake need to be kept in the fridge? Assuming there would be any leftovers…..
I like to wrap it tight and leave it in the fridge because I like it chilled but that’s just me. It can be wrapped or kept in an airtight container overnight though 🙂
I made these today as cupcakes since i didnt Have a bundt Pan. I baked Them at 350 for 28 minutes and they’re perfect! Thanks!
Thanks for sharing your method making them as cupcakes! This will be a huge help to many readers. Glad to hear they still turn out great!
This bundt cake is delish! My oven is a lil off, so I adjusted my baking time to 35 mins and my temp setting to 325 F. Thank you for the recipe
Thanks for sharing what you did to adjust for your oven. And glad it still turned out great!
The recipe calls for 3/4 cup powdered sugar but the directions say start with 2 cups. I’m so confused!
Sorry this was unclear in the recipe. You will want 3-4 cups (3 to 4 cups) Hope this helps!
Need some advice on baking this.
Does anyone else have an issue with how long to bake it? It seems like parts are still raw but then the sides get too done. When I do the knife test after 50 minutes there are areas that are raw but I can’t tell if that’s just the pudding needing to set. Should I just pull it out at the 50 minute mark?
This cake is so amazing I want it to be perfect!
Thanks!
You could bake it a little longer, but not too long! It will set up some even after you pull it our of the oven. If it is still really gooey in the middle it could make for a delicious lava cake! 😉
Has anyone not refrigerated it over night ?
I left it in the fridge for about 3 hours then iced it. It was fine and the family LOVED it.
I’ve something very similar to your recipe, except I didn’t use mini chips. Get complements every time– and I don’t even frost it! Sometimes I sprinkle a little powdered sugar for looks. So good.
I’m going to try some of your other versions like the lemon and white chocolate raspberry. Yumm!
If I wanted to make this a red velvet cake would I just exchange the deviles food for red velvet cake mix? Thank you!!
Yes, that will work great. You can still use a chocolate pudding mix, but the color will be a slightly darker red. You can also use a vanilla pudding mix. Thank you for asking!