Dark Fudge Bundt Cake

So I soaked in a few compliments for this chocolate cake last week. Remember I posted about taking a cake to a funeral? We had so many nice ladies bring so much food in for the family dinner after the funeral that we had lots of extra food.

Here is the recipe. I took it from one of the best all time baking books I have ever owned, seen or baked from: a Passion for Baking by Marcy Goldman

Dark Fudge Bundt Cake
This moist, tall cake is perfect when you want a deep, dark chocolate cake that is free of fuss and doesn't require icing or glaze, just a dusting of confectioners' sugar. This is a pass-this-recipe-down-and -around -keeper.
page 235

Cake:

1 3/4 cups white sugar
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoons salt
1 3/4 cups warm coffee or flat cola

Finishing touches:
3/4 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Generously grease a 12-cup Bundt pan or 9- or 10-inch fluted tube pan with shortening and dust it with flour. Place pan on a parchment lined baking sheet.

In a mixer bowl, by hand or in a food processor, combine white sugar, brown sugar, and butter. Add eggs and vanilla; beat 1 minute until smooth. Add flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir briefly and then drizzle in coffee, or cola, stirring at the same time to make a smooth batter.

Spoon batter into prepared pan. Bake, 60 to 72 minutes or until top springs back when pressed with fingertips. (Bundt cakes often take longer to bake than tube-pan cakes do.)

To finish cake, sprinkle chocolate chips on top of cake as soon as it comes out of oven and allow to sit on cake to melt. Use a butter knife to swirl melted chocolate in a decorative fashion. As cake comes to room temperature, give it a gentle shake to loosen it from bottom of pan--but do not remove it from pan. Place cake in fridge to firm up chocolate. Once chocolate is well set, place a plate on top of pan and invert cake onto plate. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

Dutch Apple Cake

Okay, I have been haunted since October, when I first saw it in a catalog. I can't stop seeing the picture in my head of this pan (click on the pan for purchasing info). I have been practically obsessed by it ever since I saw it but I balked at the price. Help me dear friends....

I am a pot and pan addict!

Do I look like I NEED anymore cake on my person!Does my teenie weenie kitchen look like It needs another pan!

I believe this blog is turning slightly pornographic though. Food porn that is. Yes, I am also a food porn addict, not just a pot and pan addict. Will you just look at this sexy, delicious, blatantly opaque, and obscenely pretty cake I made today?
Here is the process in brief. I love this apple peeler thing I got from Pampered Chef about 20 years ago.
The apples need to be thin in order to cook in the time allotted.

• Grease and flour every single crevice of your pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.

• Toss together the following and set aside:

3 apples - peeled, cored and cut into thin wedges
5 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of salt
juice of one lemon

• Then sift together:

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder

• In a large bowl mix:

2 cups sugar
4 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup applesauce
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup fresh orange juice

• Mix the flour and the wet ingredients together in a large bowl until just combined. A few lumps are okay.

• Layer the batter and apple mixture in the prepared pan, beginning and ending with the batter.
• Bake for 70 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.
• Wait 5 minutes, then invert pan and cool.
  

Caramel Cake, Daring Bakers Style

Caramel Cake with Caramelized Brown Butter Frosting
Cynthia's Daring Baker Challenge number 6

Shuna Fish Lydon adapted this recipe from a Flo Braker recipe. You can link to the Shuna Fish Lydon recipe from HERE. Shuna is a noted chef from the Bay Area who is also a Daring Baker, and we are thrilled and honored to have her expertise with this month's challenge.

Helping with co-host duties are Delores , Alex and Jenny who were key contributors while Shuna was moving to London during this challenge, Natalie also helped with the gluten free versions.

We also had the option of making Golden Vanilla Bean Caramels from Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich, Artisan Press, Copyright 2007, ISBN: 978-1579652111

There.... the housekeeping business is out of the way, now I can get down to the nitty gritty of this recipe. I give this cake 2 forks up..Even though only one fork is in the photo.

Why?
Two Big Reasons....
I did NOT need to go to the store for exotic ingredients,
and It was REALLY good.We made an awesome caramel syrup with 2 cups of sugar and 1/2 cup water. Then we stopped the caramelization process when the sugar became a dark amber color, by adding 1 cup of water to the dangerously hot caramel, (We were cautioned to wear long sleeves and keep ice water handy as first aid. I however had an incredible Home Ec. teacher in high school who was a master confectioner, and we did a candy making unit, so I knew this already. Thanks, Mrs. Lemmon;-) The mixture was beaten and reduced to a syrup, shown in the forefront of the picture below.

Take your time and make a nice batter as shown below. We used the caramel syrup to flavor the cake. The instructions were very clear on how to add the ingredients, dry,wet,dry,wet,dry. Kids, there is logical, chemical, scientific reason for this method...if you care about that...link to the recipe.

Shuna's recipe was a really tender crumbed cake that relied on the bakers knowledge of fat, liquid, dry ingredients, and how to make this cake rise. Because I live in high altitude, I added 1/4 cup extra flour, and a pinch of extra baking powder. I did not have a problem with a fallen cake as you can clearly see. Because of the caramel, it baked into a glorious color.

The frosting was a simple buttercream using browned butter, and more of the caramel syrup. I found it very flavorful, but a bit too sweet for my taste. But that's just me, as I vastly prefer savory flavors. My family loved it. Yes, I will make this again.

My local grocer Smith's is stocking these jeweled plastic plates for 1 dollar each! In gold and green too. I will be running back for more of those now that I can see they photograph like a dream.