chocolate

blood orange chocolate chip bundt cake

Hi friends! Happy 2019!

It’s been just over a year since Russell opened his second hair shop, and he recently received an unexpected gift from someone who visited back in the early days.

In the first few days after opening, not many people knew the shop was there yet, so Russell found himself spending a lot time alone in the shop with the door open.

One day an older gentleman walked in the door and said he wasn’t really looking for a haircut, but just wanted someone to talk to for a little while. He explained that he was a recent widower and that he’d come up to Brooklyn from Florida to visit his son for a while. His son was at work for the day and he didn’t know anyone else in town so he was bored and lonely.

Russell was bored too, sitting by himself waiting for potential new clients, so he said yes, of course, he’d love to have someone to talk to for a while, and might as well give him a little trim while he was there too.

His new friend stayed and enjoyed Russell’s company for a few hours before heading back to his son’s apartment, and eventually back to his own home in Florida. That was that.

The second shop has since picked up, with new clients, new employees, and lots of new faces from the neighborhood, so Russell hasn’t thought much about that early visit since then.

A few weeks ago though, a young man came into the shop with a large white box. He introduced himself and said he wasn’t sure if Russell would remember it or not, but his father had come in to chat with him one day about a year ago. As a way to say thank you for his kindness on that lonely day, he had sent a box of fresh juicy oranges up from his home in Florida, and asked his son to deliver them.

Russell couldn’t believe it. The gift certainly wasn’t necessary or expected, but it sure was sweet (literally)!

Bright & juicy fresh oranges were definitely a welcome surprise in the cold grey days of February in Brooklyn, but there were so many of them that we were afraid they might spoil before we got around to eating them all. When our friends invited us over for dinner a week or two later, I decided that a fresh baked citrusy bundt cake would be a great way to thank them for dinner while also taking advantage of those beautiful oranges.

I decided to tweak my buttermilk pound cake recipe just a bit by adding orange zest to the sugar and substituting a bit of orange juice for some of the buttermilk. I wanted the orange flavor to be obvious without being too in-your-face, and I think this recipe gets the balance between subtle and overpowering just right. To add another layer of flavor I thought that chocolate chips would be a perfect compliment to the delicate citrus flavor, and it worked out perfectly.

This cake is so amazing that I’ve actually made it 3 or 4 times since. You know, in the name of “recipe testing”.
The dense, velvety texture of a pound cake lends itself perfect to bundt cakes. A lighter, airier cake might get stuck in the pan or dry out without an icing to protect it, but this recipe stays moist and tender for several days. I even think the citrus flavor seems to intensify the day after it’s baked.
The flavor is buttery and citrusy and subtly sweet, with the perfect balance of delicate orange flavor dotted with rich chocolate.

Blood oranges are ideal for this recipe because they’re so tart and intensely flavored, but initially I made it with regular naval oranges and loved it, so if you can’t find blood oranges don’t sweat it. Do be sure to track down the mini chocolate chips though. Regular chocolate chips can sink in the batter and potentially stick to the pan, but since mini chips are smaller and lighter, they stay evenly distributed throughout the batter as it cooks.

blood orange chocolate chip bundt cake

Servings: about 12
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adapted from buttermilk pound cake bundt

1 1/2 cups sugar
zest of 3 small or 2 large blood oranges (regular oranges work too)
1 cup (2 sticks) best quality unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup peanut oil (or vegetable oil)
5 large eggs
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup of blood orange juice (from zested oranges) *see notes
1/4 cup milk or buttermilk
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 cup mini chocolate chips **see notes

Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and lightly flour a 10-12 cup bundt pan. Tap out excess flour. Refrigerate pan until ready for use.

Whisk sugar and orange zest together until well combined. The sugar should take on an orange color. Set aside.
Beat butter in the bowl of a stand mixer until very light, about a minute or two. Scrape the sides of the bowl with a silicone spatula and add oil and beat until smooth and combined. Add zesty sugar and beat until fluffy and pale, about 3 minutes.
Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing just until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
Measure out 1/2 cup of orange juice and stir in milk and vanilla to combine.
Alternate additions of the flour and juice mixtures to the butter, beginning and ending with flour. Stir in the chocolate chips with the last addition of flour, and scrape the bowl after each addition. Do not over-mix.

Pour batter into prepared pan, leaving at least an inch from the top of the pan. Tap the pan on the counter several times to smooth out the batter and remove any air bubbles.
Bake for about 40 to 50 minutes or so, or until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean from the center of the cake. Depending on the size and shape of your pan, or the way your oven cooks, this time may vary slightly so keep an eye on it.

Cool for 30 minutes on a wire rack before turning out of pan. Turn out onto the rack and cool completely before glazing.

Cooks notes:
*Be sure to zest your oranges before juicing them! The zest is super important for adding a ton of bright citrusy flavor so don’t skip it!
If you don’t get enough juice out of your oranges, you can make up the difference with more milk.
**Mini chocolate chips tend to not sink in the batter while the cake bakes, and should stay evenly distributed throughout the cake. If you use regular size chocolate chips, odds are they’ll all sink to the bottom and can even cause the cake to stick to the pan.

Best Simple Bundt Cake Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon orange liqueur (or vanilla extract)
2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons half & half

Mix sugar, orange liqueur, and 2 tablespoons half & half together in a small bowl. Mix until completely smooth and free of lumps. You want the glaze to be very thick so it doesn’t slide right off the cake, but it does need to be liquid enough that it pours smoothly. If necessary, thin the glaze out with more half & half, adding only about 1/2 a teaspoon at a time to avoid thinning it too much. A little goes a surprisingly long way.

Pour the glaze in a steady stream over the center of the cake. Place a pan under the rack to catch any glaze drips. Let the glaze harden for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

This cake can be stored, tightly covered at room temperature, for about 3 or 4 days.

basler brunsli | chocolate almond spice cookies

Hi there friends! It’s officially the holiday season.
When did that happen?

I feel like it was mid-summer when I went to bed last night, and I woke up in early December.
Yeesh.

So, to try to force myself into the December/holiday spirit, I decided some holiday cookies were in order.

I have a healthy cookbook collection, including some old historic cookbooks, but usually when I’m looking for recipe inspiration I tend to leave the cookbooks on the shelves to collect dust and look to the world wide web instead.

When I was trying to find a new cookie recipe for the holidays this year, I started poking around online at first, but then I remembered a book my mom gave me for Christmas a couple years ago. I’m sure that by now you know this about me already, but when it comes to holiday baked goods, I friggin love an old school German recipe, especially one with a healthy dose of spice in it. The book is titled, appropriately enough, Classic German Baking. There’s even a “Christmas Favorites” section, so this was a no brainer.

I can’t tell you how much I love this book. I could just flip through the pages and drool for hours. I did, in fact, just a few days ago!

The recipe I chose actually originates from Switzerland, but is very traditional and well loved in Germany. The main ingredients in these cookies are finely ground raw almonds and dark chocolate, with a few additions to bind the dough together and add a bit of flavor. The dough is surprisingly simple to bring together if you have a food processor, but without one, I think it’d be pretty difficult to grind the almonds & chocolate finely enough.

By the way, while raw almonds and dark chocolate aren’t exactly difficult to find, they can be pretty pricey depending on where you go. I just want to mention that Trader Joes is a really great source for affordable nuts and chocolate. Three cheers for the Pound Plus bar! You’re welcome.

Rolling the dough out and cutting out the shapes is a little more challenging than making the dough, but no more difficult than any other rolled cutout cookies.

This is a pretty sticky dough though, so my biggest piece of advice here is to be generous with the sugar you’ll use to keep the dough from sticking to your work surface. If the dough is sticking to your counter, it’ll be almost impossible to pick up your cutouts and transfer them to your baking sheet without messing up their shape. I used plenty of sugar before rolling out the dough, and once it was rolled out to the thickness I wanted, I gently lifted the dough to make sure it wasn’t sticking anywhere before I started cutting out my shapes. If it does stick in places, try to gently release it from the counter and add more sugar before you start cutting out your shapes.

Sugar is used to prevent sticking rather than flour because, oddly enough for an old world European recipe, these cookies are actually gluten free! Woot woot.

Once you’ve finished cutting out your shapes you can totally recombine the dough and re-roll it, but it will get sweeter every time since you are using sugar to keep it from sticking. I noticed that by the time I’d recombined and rerolled a third or fourth time, the cookies started to spread a little more in the oven from the extra sugar.

When it comes to the cookie cutters you’ll use, the author says that they’re traditionally cut into heart shapes, but if you want to do something else you should try to avoid any shapes with a lot of fine detail because the dough is too coarse and sticky to hold a detailed shape. The dough doesn’t really spread very much in the oven, but it’s just too hard to get this coarse sticky dough out of a cookie cutter with a lot of fine detail without messing it up. Even the snowflake cutter I used was a little fussy and I did find that some of the detail got slightly muddled.

No matter what shape you decide on, these cookies are crazy delicious. They almost taste like a nutty, subtly spiced brownie. It has the perfect balance of deep chocolate, warm spice, and chewy ground almonds. Heaven.

Since this recipe was so unfamiliar to me with the lack of flour and the addition of ground chocolate rather than melted chocolate or cocoa powder, I was really worried that the chocolate would just melt and turn into a mess in the oven, but my cookies kept their shape really well, so never fear y’all!

They’re soft and tender and delightfully chocolatey. Russell said they taste like a candy bar.
Better yet, they keep for up to a month, so they can be made well in advance and stored, making your holiday season a little less stressful. Just don’t store them with other, crisper cookies, or the crisp cookies will absorb their moisture and get soft.

Happy baking, and happy holidays!

Basler Brunsli

Servings: makes about 30 cookies
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adapted, just barely, from Classic German Baking by Luisa Weiss

1 2/3 cups raw almonds
9 oz dark or bittersweet chocolate (60% to 72% cocoa)
1 1/2 cups confectioners (powdered) sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
3 egg whites, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons dark rum (or Kirsch if you have it)
Granulated sugar, for rolling

Add the almonds to the bowl of a food processor and grind until they’re very very fine, but be sure not to go too far and let them turn into almond butter. If they start to bind together, stop!
Transfer them to a separate bowl and break the chocolate up into the food processor. Pulse until finely ground, but don’t let it melt. If it’s warm in your kitchen you may want to refrigerate your chocolate first.
Add the almonds back in with the chocolate, along with the salt, spices, egg whites, and rum or Kirsch.
Pulse until the mixture comes together in a stiff, sticky dough. Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 12 to 24 hours.

Preheat your oven to 300F (150C), and line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

Sprinkle your clean work surface with a generous layer of granulated sugar to prevent the dough from sticking. Place the dough on the sugared surface and cover with a sheet of plastic wrap or parchment paper to prevent the dough from sticking to the rolling pin. Roll the dough out 1/3″ to 1/4″ thick, and check to see if the dough is stuck to the surface (*see note). Cut out shapes with a cookie cutter (**see note) and transfer the cutouts to the prepared baking sheets leaving 1/2″ space between them. Bake, one sheet at a time, for 18 minutes. The cookies should look dry to the touch, but soft. Repeat with remaining baking sheet. Cool cookies completely before trying to remove them from the parchment, or they’ll fall apart.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container or cookie tin, for up to a month.

Cooks notes:
*If the dough sticks to the work surface in a few spots, I found that it was easier to gently lift the dough and add more sugar underneath before cutting, rather than trying to lift stuck-on cutouts. Otherwise the cookies will lose their shape when you try to pick them up. If all of the dough is entirely stuck to your work surface, you might want to ball it back up and start over with more sugar on the surface next time.

**This dough is coarse & sticky, so avoid shapes with too much detail. Hearts are the traditional shape for these, but any simple shape will work.

s’mores layer cake

You guys. I did it again.

I baked my own birthday cake.

I know that some people gasp in horror or baulk at the very idea of such a thing. On one’s birthday, one is supposed to just sit back and enjoy the day without having to lift a finger.
But, you know what, one thing that I enjoy even more than eating cakes, is baking cakes! Especially if doing so means that I get to share them with people I love.
And guess what else. I could never find a cake in a bakery that would be as good as a cake that I could bake myself, and even if I found one, I couldn’t afford it!
So, tradition be damned, I bake my own birthday cakes.
And I like it!

As my birthday was approaching, the weather finally started to warm up here in New York after what felt like an endless grey & chilly spring. To celebrate both the arrival of warm weather and my advanced age, we decided to invite a bunch of friends and have a big festive bbq in our suddenly green backyard.

I plotted and planned out my menu, scouring the internet for recipes for sides, salads, mains, and options for vegetarians. Russell even asked his family from San Diego to ship us a box of avocados from their own avocado tree, so that we could offer our guests a big ol’ bowl of the freshest guacamole in Brooklyn.
Of course, I knew that I wanted my birthday cake to be the pièce de résistance. It’s been so long since I’ve done a big festive layer cake that I also wanted to come up with something that I hadn’t really ever done before.

Nothing says Summer quite like s’mores.
Amirite?

Especially for a bbq or a backyard party, there’s clearly nothing better to round out an evening. I still love them to this day (duh), but it’s almost impossible not to think of childhood when eating them. Even though these days I’m usually making them over the leftover embers from my charcoal grill, they instantly transport me to campfires in the woods of upstate New York, with multiple marshmallows skewered on gnarled sticks found on the ground or ripped from a low-hanging branch.

Of course, like any good fat kid, when I was young I was super impatient to heat up those marshmallows as quickly as possible so I could get those s’mores into my face on the double. I learned pretty early on though, that the chalky texture and acrid flavor of that burnt sugar shell isn’t actually all that pleasant, even when sandwiched between melty chocolate and crisp graham crackers.

So, at a younger age than most kids (or adults for that matter), I figured out that slow and steady wins the race when it comes to building s’mores. A slow roast, with a steady rotation far from the flames, produces a vastly superior marshmallow with a soft, gooey center and a delicate toasty caramelized crust. The last time I went camping with my sister and her kids, my nephews actually poked fun at me for how long I take to toast my marshmallows. What can I say, I’m a perfectionist. Or neurotic. Potato, Potahto.

I suppose that slow and steady toasting is sort of a metaphor for building this cake. I’m not going to sugar coat things (lol) and tell you that this is an “easy” or “quick” recipe for novice bakers. It takes time and effort and has multiple steps and components. It’s basically four recipes in one, with 3 layers of cake, a flavored icing, a multi-step filling, a ganache drizzle, decorations on top, and long set of assembly instructions.

If you’re patient and determined though, and have a fair understanding of layer cake construction, all the effort definitely pays off in the end. I promise you that this cake is seriously incredible.

Unfortunately my birthday bbq never actually happened. Just as my excitement about the party was reaching it’s peak, the weather forecast started showing rain in the future. I tried not to panic and just kept telling myself that the weather changes so quickly in New York that by the weekend the forecast could be completely different.

I went ahead with planning and recipe testing my cake, but once I was sure that the recipe was solid and all the elements really worked together, I was also sure that it was time to start cancelling on our guests. A few nights before the big day I was home alone and actually started to pout and feel sorry for myself. I’d put all this work in for nothing and I had no clue what I’d end up doing on my birthday. After a few minutes though, I snapped out of it and decided that bbq or no bbq, I was going to have a good time.

I already had an amazing cake recipe, and after all that work to perfect it, I needed to show it off. I invited a small group of close friends to brunch not far from our place, and told everyone that afterward we’d be heading back to our apartment for cake and Cards Against Humanity. And guacamole!

Multiple people took one bite and their faces lit up and told me that it actually tasted like real s’mores, almost as if they weren’t expecting something that looks so pretty to also actually taste great too. They clearly underestimated me!
Russell even told me, repeatedly, that it’s one of the best desserts I’ve ever made, and kept going back into the bowl to steal stray spoonfuls of the marshmallow filling while I was stacking the layers. Actually my mom did the same exact thing when I was trying out the filling recipe for the first time!

The layers of cake are moist, tender, and richly chocolatey thanks to double dutch cocoa, strong coffee, and real butter. The toasted marshmallow filling is made from actual marshmallows rather than marshmallow spread, so it genuinely has the rich flavor and gooey texture of a warm marshmallow right off the stick. Once the layers are stacked, everything gets enrobed in a velvety swiss meringue buttercream loaded with graham cracker crumbs and just a hint of cinnamon. As if all that weren’t enough, rich dark chocolate ganache is the… umm… icing on the cake. In addition to the cocoa flavor from the devil’s food layers, the ganache adds that melty chocolate flavor you know and expect from s’mores. The only thing missing here is the camp fire and the sticks!

I promise you that this show-stopping cake really does taste as good as it looks. Better even!
If you’re up for the challenge, it’s definitely worth the effort.

S'mores Layer Cake

Servings: 16 to 24-ish
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Devil’s Food Cake
makes three 8-inch layers

butter and flour (or baking spray) for pans
1 1/2 cups unsweetened natural cocoa powder (I used Double Dutch Process)
1 1/2 cups hot brewed coffee (or hot water if preferred)
3 1/4 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 cups peanut oil or vegetable oil
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
4 large eggs
4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Butter three 8 inch round cake pans, line bottoms with parchment paper, butter paper, and dust pans with flour.
Whisk together cocoa powder and coffee (or hot water) until smooth and set aside.
Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda; set aside.
Beat melted butter, oil, and sugars together on medium-low speed until combined.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition.
Beat in vanilla and cocoa mixture. Reduce speed to low.
Add flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk and beginning and ending with flour. Beat until just combined.
Divide batter evenly between the three pans, and bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted into centers comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.

Transfer pans to a wire rack to cool for 30 minutes. Invert cakes onto rack, peel off parchment, and let cool completely.
To achieve a perfectly flat, professional looking cake, you’ll want to slice the very tops of the cakes off to make each layer completely flat and level. You can do this using a very sharp bread knife, or a cake leveler.

If you’re not assembling cakes right away, individually wrap each layer tightly in plastic wrap to prevent drying. Layers can be stored in the refrigerator for a day or two, or frozen (wrapped in plastic wrap first, then aluminum foil) for up to two weeks.

Graham Cracker Swiss Meringue Buttercream Icing:
Adapted from “Layered” by Tessa Huff
3/4 cup egg whites (I used pasteurized egg whites from a carton)
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups (4 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature (cut into 1 tablespoon slices)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place the egg whites and sugar in a very clean bowl of a stand mixer and whisk them together by hand to combine. Fill a medium saucepan with an inch or two of water and bring to a simmer over medium to medium-high heat. Place the mixer bowl over the saucepan to create a double boiler. Be sure that the bottom of the bowl doesn’t directly touch the water, and that the water doesn’t reach a full boil.
Heat the egg whites until they register 160F on a candy thermometer, whisking regularly to avoid cooking the whites. As soon as they’re at the correct temperature, carefully attach the mixer bowl to the stand mixer and add the whisk attachment.
Beat the egg whites on high speed for 8 to 10 minutes until they hold stiff peaks and the outside of the bowl is cooled to room temperature. Stop the mixer and swap the whisk attachment for the paddle.
On low speed, add the butter, a few tablespoons at a time, waiting for it to incorporate before adding more. Once all the butter is mixed in, add the vanilla extract and mix in to incorporate. Turn the mixer up to medium-high and beat until the buttercream is smooth and silky, about 3 to 5 minutes.
If the mixture starts to look curdled, just keep beating. It’ll come together.
If the whites were still too warm when the butter was added and the buttercream is too thin and soupy, refrigerate the bowl in 10 minute bursts until it’s cool (but not cold) and beat again until smooth.
Once smooth, add the graham cracker crumbs and cinnamon and beat in to incorporate.

Toasted Marshmallow Filling:
10 oz mini marshmallows
1 stick unsalted butter
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 cup powdered sugar

Line a sheet pan with parchment paper and spray the paper with cooking spray or rub with butter. Reserve 1/2 cup of mini marshmallows, and spread the rest on the tray in a single layer.
Toast the marshmallows under the broiler in your oven, rotating the pan if necessary to promote even browning. Keep a close eye on the pan, as this should only take a few minutes but the exact time will depend on the strength of your broiler and how close the pan is to it. The marshmallows should mostly be a dark toasty brown, but not burned. Watch them like a hawk through the oven door.
Let the marshmallows cool to room temperature before proceeding, and they should peel off the greased parchment in one single sticky layer.

Place the toasted marshmallows in a medium saucepan along with the unsalted butter. Heat over medium to medium-high heat, stirring regularly, until the marshmallows are all melted and completely combined with the butter.

Transfer the marshmallow mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer and beat in heavy cream and powdered sugar. Transfer the bowl to the refrigerator and let cool completely, then beat again to loosen the mixture up a little. The mixture will be a bit stiff and sticky, but should be soft enough to spread.

Glossy Ganache Drizzle:
4 oz good quality dark chocolate (60% works well)
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 tablespoon honey
pinch salt

Chop chocolate into small, easily melted pieces and place in a heat proof bowl.
Heat heavy cream, honey, & salt in a small saucepan (or microwave save bowl) just until it comes to a light boil, and immediately pour directly over chocolate. Wait 2 to 3 minutes before stirring until completely smooth and melted and free of lumps. If the mixture seems very hot still it may melt the icing as you pour it so wait a few minutes for it to cool slightly. Do not let it get too cool or it will not drizzle nicely and may look messy.

*Do not make the ganache until the cake is completely iced and ready to decorate.

Decorations: (optional)
Remaining 1/2 cup mini marshmallows
Broken pieces of graham crackers

Toast the remaining mini marshmallow on a sprayed or buttered parchment lined baking sheet in the same way they were toasted for the marshmallow filling. Try to space them out on the pan so they don’t all touch, and toast them to a lighter brown than you did for the filling. It’ll be easier to decorate with individual marshmallows, and they’ll melt less if they’re only lightly toasted.
You probably won’t use the whole 1/2 cup, but it’s nice to have more than you’ll need so you can choose the nicest looking ones.

Assemble cake:
Place the first cake layer on an 8″ cardboard cake round, serving plate, or cake stand. Using a cake round will make it easier to ice and decorate, especially if you have a revolving turntable for decorating (I use a lazy suzan, but you can also just spin your plate or cake stand while you work).

Fit a piping bag with a large round or star tip and fill with a cup or two of the graham cracker buttercream. Pipe a thick dam of icing around the outside of the cake to contain the marshmallow filling. This will ensure that the filling stays in place and doesn’t squish out when the layers are stacked.

Place half of the toasted marshmallow filling in the center of the cake and spread it smooth and even using an icing spatula. Add the next layer of cake, looking from directly over the top and from eye level at the cake to make sure each layer is directly one above the other, rotating the cake to be certain. Repeat the same procedure with the buttercream dam and the other half of the marshmallow filling, then add the third and final layer of cake and check for straightness again. Using about half of the remaining icing, crumb coat your cake (If you have any icing left in the piping bag, empty it out and use that too). Starting with the top of the cake, spread the icing thin and work some of it down the sides of the cake to completely cover the whole thing in a thin, smooth, even coat of icing. This first layer of icing seals the cake and keeps crumbs from being visible in the outer layer of icing. It may seem like unnecessary trouble, but it really is worth it to get a smooth professional finish on the icing.

Place the cake in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes to an hour to help set the icing and firm up the cake.
Spread the remaining buttercream over the whole cake the same way you did the crumb coat. Start by smoothing the top and slowly working the icing down the sides to cover the cake completely. Try to get the icing as completely smooth as possible with straight sides and a flat, level top. I use a long offset icing spatula. Refrigerate the cake again for at least another 30 minutes (or up to a day).

Make your ganache just before you’re ready to remove the cake from the fridge.

It’s not necessary, but I find it easier to get an even, professional looking drizzle with a squeeze bottle. Slowly add the ganache just around the outer edge of the top of the cake so that it drips in some places. Slowly rotate the cake to do the entire outside edge. Once you’re happy with the amount of drizzle coming down the sides, fill in the center of the top of the cake with ganache, smoothing it flat with a clean icing spatula before the ganache sets.

If you’d like to add decorations to the top of the cake, be sure to add them before the ganache sets.

This cake will keep well in a cake saver at room temperature for a day or two if the weather is not too hot or humid. Otherwise, cover tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

If refrigerating, bring cake to room temperature at least two hours before serving.

basic bundt series: chocolate bundt cake

Hey there! Remember me?

If you follow me on instagram, you probably already know from my stories that I have been a busy busy BUSY little bee. If you don’t follow me, btw, what the hell man?

Not cool.

In the months since the holidays, I designed and renovated another hair shop with my husband and wonderful amazing mother, and now Maxwell’s has a second location in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It’s taken every ounce of strength in my being not to call it “Maxwell’s 2, Electric Boogaloo”. Sadly for me, but more appropriately, Russell decided to keep the same name, Maxwell’s for Hair, or Maxwell’s Crown Heights if you need to keep the two locations straight.
It’s absolutely nuts, but you guys, we’re a chain! (Oh Spud!)

I also moved into a new position at work, which is amazing and exciting and perfect for me, but getting used to the new role has taken a lot out of me, which is another reason that I’ve been MIA on this end.

Oh yeah, and I decided to paint our bedroom, which basically turned into redecorating the entire room from floor to ceiling. I’ve brought some of you along with me on this journey via instagram stories, but just to re-cap, I painted the walls, painted the ceiling, got new bedding, added a bunch of purdy new potted plants, and after an exhaustive search, decided on new curtains.
If I can get my shit together maybe I’ll post about it, because there have actually been even more changes in there since I last blogged about my apartment, but who am I kidding?
No promises.

Thankfully, things are beginning to calm down around here and it feels like, at least temporarily, life is getting back to normal. The new shop is doing well, I’m adjusting to the new position, and the bedroom is like 93% done.

I also got a new oven for Christmas which has not seen nearly enough action, so now that things are calming down I’m hoping to get back into baking much more regularly. Just in time to get back into the kitchen, Nordic Ware released a stunning new bundt pan that you know I just HAD to have.

Their Brilliance pan is modern yet timeless, perfectly elegant, and absolutely gorgeous. I’ve said it time and time again, but on top of being beautiful, Nordic Ware bundt pans are sturdy, heavy-duty, ultra-non-stick, and unbelievably durable. You know I bake a butt load of bundts y’all, so trust me, these pans hold up well to a beating!

They’re also a family owned company that still makes their beautiful bundt pans right here in the good ol’ U.S. of A. The bundt pan is by far their most famous and popular product, and no one makes bundt pans as well as they do.

I’ve been trying to perfect a chocolate bundt for a good long while now to share as part of my Basic Bundt Series. I’m always looking for bundt recipes that are classic and simple, relatively easy to prepare, impossibly delicious on their own, but also customizable with a few simple changes or substitutions.

After more recipe testing than I’d like to admit (it’s written all over my waistline), I’ve finally perfected the most amazing chocolate bundt cake the world (or at least my mouth) has ever known!

It’s perfectly moist and tender, with rich chocolate flavor thanks to the addition of both dutch process cocoa and mini chocolate chips, and has a nice depth from the addition of both coffee and brown sugar. It’s also just sweet enough without being cloying, and the best part? No stand mixer! The whole thing can be thrown together with a big bowl, a whisk, and a silicone spatula!

A coworker of mine described the flavor of this cake as “Oreos dipped in milk” which honestly might be the highest praise any of my cakes have ever received.

Ever.

Part of that “Oreo” flavor definitely comes from using dutch process cocoa, which is darker and richer, more chocolatey and less cocoa-y, than traditional baking cocoa. It’s definitely worth looking for, but if you can’t find it, don’t worry! This cake will still be incredibly moist and delicious and chocolatey, if just a bit lighter in color and less Oreo-like in flavor.

I went with a basic white glaze because I thought it would contrast nicely against the deep dark brown of the cake, and I honestly didn’t think any more chocolate was necessary. If you wanted to though, you could certainly go for a ganache or cocoa glaze instead.

In terms of customization, the sky’s the limit with this basic chocolate cake. One of my favorite ways to jazz it up is to zest an orange or two into the granulated sugar before mixing it in with the dry ingredients, and then swapping out the brewed coffee for some fresh squeezed orange juice!
You could also swap out the mini chocolate chips for a cup of fresh raspberries or halved pitted cherries to add some summer brightness.
If you wanted a more powerful coffee flavor you could also mix a couple teaspoons of espresso powder in with the coffee, or make a glaze with a coffee liqueur. Speaking of adding liqueur to the glaze, why not go nuts with some Amaretto or Frangelico, or even go all out with bourbon or rum?

Gussied up and personalized, or un-fussed with and made as written, this chocolate cake is a definite crowd pleaser y’all!

Chocolate Bundt Cake

Servings: 12 to 16
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1 cup hot brewed coffee
3/4 cup dutch process cocoa powder (plus more for pan) *see note
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter (plus more for pan)
1/2 cup peanut (or vegetable) oil
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons real vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 cup mini chocolate chips (optional) **see note

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Brush (or spray) a 10 to 12 cup bundt pan with softened butter (or oil), and add a few tablespoons of cocoa powder. Shake the cocoa around the pan until evenly distributed, and tap out any excess.

In a large measuring cup or microwave safe bowl, combine the coffee and cocoa powder and whisk out any lumps. If the coffee is still very hot, add the stick of butter and stir until melted or, if necessary, microwave it just until the butter is melted. Whisk in oil, buttermilk, and vanilla to cool the mixture down a bit before adding the eggs. Then add the eggs and brown sugar and whisk until well blended and free of lumps.

In a separate bowl, whisk together granulated sugar, flour, salt, & baking soda and powder. Make a well in the center of the flour and pour in the liquid ingredients. With a silicone spatula, stir just until there are no visible streaks of dry flour left. Then stir in the mini chocolate chips if using, just until evenly distributed.

Pour batter into the prepared pan, not more than 3/4 of the way up the sides. If using a 12 cup pan, all the batter will fit. In a 10 cup pan, you may want to reserve just a tiny bit to avoid a mess in your oven. Bake in the center of the oven for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the cake no longer jiggles, and the top springs back when gently pressed with a fingertip. You could try a toothpick or cake tester but the melted chocolate chips may give you a false reading.

Cool for about 30 minutes on a wire rack before turning out of pan. Turn out onto the rack and cool completely before glazing.

Best Simple Bundt Cake Glaze:
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 to 2 1/2 tablespoons half & half

Mix sugar, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons half & half together in a small bowl. Mix until completely smooth and free of lumps. You want the glaze to be very thick so it doesn’t slide right off the cake, but it does need to be liquid enough that it pours smoothly. If necessary, thin the glaze out with more half & half, adding only about 1/4 a teaspoon at a time to avoid thinning it too much.

Place a sheet pan under the cooling rack to catch any drips, and pour the glaze in a steady stream over the cake.. Let the glaze harden for at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Cake can be stored, tightly covered at room temperature, for about 3 days.

cooks notes:
* I use a dutch process cocoa for a deep, rich chocolate flavor, but if you can’t find it, regular cocoa powder will work.
** If you use regular size chocolate chips or chunks, they’ll likely sink to the bottom of the pan and could cause the cake to stick. The minis however, are light enough to stay evenly distributed throughout the batter as it bakes.