Nothing Bundt Cakes Chocolate Chocolate Chip (Their #1 Bestseller, Made at Home)

Nothing Bundt Cakes Chocolate Chocolate Chip is the chain's signature and most popular flavor: an ultra-moist, densely fudgy chocolate bundt cake loaded with semi-sweet chocolate chips throughout the batter, finished with vanilla cream cheese frosting piped in NBC's distinctive thick rope drapes across the crown. Three things distinguish it from a standard chocolate cake. First, instant chocolate pudding mix added directly to the batter (not made into pudding) adds starch and emulsifiers that produce a crumb far denser and moister than a plain box-mix cake. Second, full-fat sour cream replaces the water or milk a standard box mix calls for — the fat content enriches the batter and the acidity deepens the chocolate flavor. Third, a full cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips folds into the batter: as the cake bakes, the chips melt partially into the crumb creating fudgy pockets, while chips near the pan surface caramelize slightly into the ridges. The result is a cake that eats more like a fudgy brownie than a standard layer cake.

Yes — the chain's signature texture is achieved by doctoring a commercial cake mix rather than baking from scratch. The base is devil's food cake mix (Betty Crocker Super Moist Devil's Food is the closest match) combined with instant chocolate pudding mix, eggs, sour cream, oil, and water. Using a box mix is not a shortcut: the ratio of sour cream to oil, the type of pudding, and the folding technique for the chocolate chips are all specific. From-scratch recipes that attempt to replicate NBC's texture by making a conventional devil's food cake from cocoa and butter produce a lighter, more tender crumb — distinctly different from the dense, fudgy NBC result. The box mix is the right foundation, not the lazy option.

Semi-sweet chocolate chips are the right choice — they have enough sugar to stay cohesive while baking and enough chocolate intensity to register in a chocolate cake without tipping into bitterness. Nestle Toll House semi-sweet is the standard benchmark. You can substitute dark chocolate chips (60 to 70% cacao) for a more intensely bitter result — this works especially well if you reduce the semi-sweet chips to 3/4 cup and add 1/4 cup dark chips for complexity. Mini chocolate chips distribute more evenly through the batter, so every slice gets chips, but they melt into the crumb more completely during baking and produce less of the fudgy-pocket effect. Milk chocolate chips produce a sweeter, less complex cake. Do not use chocolate chunks: they are too heavy for the batter and will sink to the bottom of the Bundt pan (which becomes the top when the cake is inverted).

Two steps prevent sinking. First, toss the chocolate chips in 1 tablespoon of the dry cake mix before folding them in — the light coating of flour helps them suspend in the batter rather than cutting through it immediately. Second, fold the chips in by hand with a rubber spatula rather than using the mixer — overmixing warms the batter slightly, which makes it thinner and lets chips sink faster. The Bundt pan also helps: batter poured into a ridged Bundt pan fills up-and-around the center tube, distributing the batter in a thinner column than a loaf pan, which keeps chips more evenly suspended. Don't let the batter sit in the bowl for more than a few minutes after mixing — get it into the pan and into the oven quickly.

Thorough pan preparation and precise timing. Before pouring in the batter, coat every surface of the Bundt pan — every ridge, the center tube, the flat bottom between ridges — with Baker's Joy spray (a flour-and-oil aerosol that outperforms plain cooking spray in ridged pans) or with softened butter applied by pastry brush followed by a thorough dusting of all-purpose flour, tapping out the excess. After baking, set the pan on a wire rack and do not touch it for exactly 10 minutes — set a timer. The cake needs to firm up inside the pan but will stick if left longer as it cools and contracts. At 10 minutes, place a wire rack on top of the pan, grip both firmly, and invert in one smooth, confident motion. If the cake does not release immediately, gently rock the pan side to side — do not pry the edges with a knife, which will gouge the cake. The chocolate chips near the outer wall caramelize slightly during baking, making the release more precise than a plain chocolate cake; the flour coating is what prevents them from welding to the pan.

NBC's Chocolate Chocolate Chip uses plain vanilla cream cheese frosting — not chocolate buttercream, not ganache. The pale cream-colored frosting rope drapes against the dark chocolate cake is the chain's visual signature for this flavor, and the contrast is intentional: the tangy, lightly sweet cream cheese frosting offsets the intense chocolate of the cake. The recipe is straightforward: beat 8 oz full-fat block cream cheese and 1/2 cup unsalted butter together until completely smooth and fluffy, then beat in 3 to 4 cups of sifted powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, and a pinch of fine salt. The frosting must be stiff enough to hold a thick rope shape when piped and should not slump or spread. If it is too soft, refrigerate for 15 minutes before piping. If it is too stiff to pipe smoothly, add whole milk 1 tablespoon at a time. Never use whipped cream cheese (in a tub) — the higher water content makes the frosting too thin to pipe in the NBC rope style.

You need a large piping bag fitted with a Wilton 1A tip (a large round tip with a 1/2-inch opening) or a gallon zip-top bag with a 1/2-inch hole cut from one corner. Fill the bag about two-thirds full; overfilling makes control difficult. Start at the top of the cake at the crown of one ridge. Apply firm, even pressure and pipe a thick rope of frosting that begins at the top edge and sweeps 2 to 3 inches down the outer side of the cake, following the ridge. Move to the adjacent ridge and repeat. Cover the full crown with these overlapping rope drapes, letting each drape hang down the outer sides 2 to 3 inches. The bottom half to two-thirds of the cake remains completely unfrosted — this is the NBC signature presentation. For the fullest visual impact, refrigerate the frosted cake for 20 minutes to let the drapes set before serving.

At Nothing Bundt Cakes, an 8-inch Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bundt (serves 8 to 10) runs $32 to $38 at most US locations, with some urban markets pricing as high as $42. The 10-inch Big Bundt (serves 18 to 20) is $48 to $58. Individual bundtlets are $4 to $5 each. The at-home version uses roughly $11 in ingredients for a full 12-serving cake — about $0.90 per serving versus $3.50 to $4 per serving at the bakery. The bakery version is freshly made that day; the at-home version is actually moister on day 2 after the pudding mix fully hydrates the crumb overnight.

Yes, with a 6-cavity mini Bundt pan. Grease and flour each mold thoroughly — the chocolate chips near the mold wall need adequate flouring to release cleanly. Fill each mold about two-thirds full. Reduce baking time to 18 to 24 minutes at 350°F; start checking at 16 minutes. Mini bundtlets bake significantly faster than a full cake and the chocolate chips near the surface char quickly if overbaked. Cool in the pan 8 minutes (not the full 10), then invert. Pipe a smaller version of the cream cheese rope drape on each bundtlet using the same Wilton 1A tip. At NBC, bundtlets are $4 to $5 each; a batch of six at home costs roughly $1.80 per bundtlet.

Unfrosted, the cake keeps 3 to 4 days at room temperature wrapped tightly in plastic — the pudding and sour cream keep it moist longer than a standard cake, and it is actually better on day 2 as the flavors deepen. Frosted, the cake must be refrigerated because of the cream cheese frosting, and keeps 4 to 5 days covered. Bring refrigerated cake to room temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before serving — cold chocolate cake is noticeably denser and the chocolate flavor is more muted when chilled. The unfrosted, cooled cake freezes well: wrap tightly in plastic wrap then foil and freeze up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and frost at room temperature the day you serve it. Do not freeze a frosted cake — cream cheese frosting separates and weeps after thawing.