• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F
• Grease and flour a tube pan.
• In a small bowl  add the cocoa powder and stir in 5 Tablespoons Hot water.  The water must be hot to blend the cocoa powder easily and to bloom the chocolate, set aside.
• In a separate bowl whisk the flour and baking powder to combine,  set aside.
• In the bowl of your mixer add the butter and mix on medium speed until soft.  Gradually add the sugar and mix until light a fluffy 3 to 4 minutes. 
• Add the eggs one at a time mixing until the yellow of the yolk disappears.
• Add the vanilla extract to the 1 cup of milk. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and the milk alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  That will be 3 additions of flour mixture and 2 of the milk. Mix just until well blended.

Prepare the Darker Chocolate Batter

• Scoop 2 ½ cups of batter into a medium sized bowl. Measure out 4 tablespoons of the liquid cocoa mixture and mix into the batter until blended. Pour into the prepared bundt pan and smooth with back of a spoon.

Prepare the Lighter Chocolate Batter

• Using a different bowl, add 2 ½ cups of batter and add the remaining 1 tablespoon of the cocoa mixture. Stir until blended and pour into the bundt pan, smoothing it over the first layer of batter with the back of a spoon.

Vanilla Batter

• Add the remaining cake batter to the bundt pan & smooth with the back of a spoon for the vanilla layer
• Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour and 5 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean or with just a few crumbs attached. Allow the cake to cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes before turning out.

Chocolate Glaze

• Combine the 4 oz. semi-sweet or dark chocolate and 3 oz. heavy cream in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in the microwave in small increments (30 seconds or less), stirring occasionally in between, until the chocolate is almost completely melted.
• Then, allow to sit a minute or two and gently stir to melt any remaining pieces of chocolate. Cool the ganache to desired consistency for dripping. We like to apply the drip using a disposable piping bag with the tip snipped away.