Chocolate cake with cocoa glaze

One look at the list of cakes I’ve posted so far and you will see that chocolate cakes are not very popular around here (and we’re talking almost 5 years of blogging, people); lemon (surprise!), apple and banana are the usual suspects. But the photo of this cake on Rose's book made me really curious about it: the shiny, dark glaze looked so beautiful. Almost supernatural. I had to make it myself.

The cake is ridiculously tender and oh, so delicious – not to mention that I felt like drinking the entire pan of glaze before pouring it on the cake; a recipe worth baking again, and again – that coming from a lemon freak like me should make you guys curious, too. :)

Chocolate cake with cocoa glaze
slightly adapted from Rose's Heavenly Cakes

Cake:
1 cup sour cream*
¾ cup (67g) unsweetened (alkalized) cocoa powder
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup (67) almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1 2/3 cups (233g) all purpose flour
1 ¼ cup (250g) demerara sugar
1 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
1 cup (226g/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

Cocoa syrup:
¼ cup (22g) unsweetened (alkalized) cocoa powder
1/3 cup (67g) superfine sugar
1/3 cup (80ml) boiling water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Generously butter a 10-cup capacity Bundt pan.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the sour cream, cocoa, eggs and vanilla – mixture will be lumpy. Set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix the almond flour, all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt on low speed for about 30 seconds. Add the butter and the cocoa mixture and mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Raise the speed to medium and beat for 1 ½ minutes. Scrape the side of the bowl then beat for another 30 seconds. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
Make the cocoa syrup shortly before the cake is finished baking: in a small saucepan, whisk together the cocoa and sugar. Add a small amount of the boiling water, whisking until all of the mixture is moistened. Add the remaining water, whisk, and then bring the mixture to a boil over low heat, stirring often. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla. Cool for 5 minutes before using it in the cake.
As soon as the cake comes out of the oven, poke it all over with a wooden skewer then pour 1/3 of the cocoa syrup over the cake. Let the cake cool in the pan over a wire rack for 10-15 minutes. Carefully invert the cake onto a plate and brush it with the remaining cocoa syrup. Cool completely before slicing and serving.

*homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I left mine overnight at room temperature and was pretty thick, beautiful)

Serves 12-14