The Bundt of All Bundts

Ever since I got my first bundt pan last October (thanks, Erin), I've been searching for bundt cake recipes endlessly. Annie's Eats posted the most decadent looking bundt a few weeks ago and I knew I had to bake it. 

Tunnel of Fudge Cake: the bundt that popularized the bundt pan. I googled the cake and found out that this cake won 2nd prize at the Pillsbury bake-off in 1966 and suddenly everyone wanted to get their hands on the once unpopular bundt pan. 

Annie's recipe differs from the original since it has no walnuts, which the Pillsbury recipe says the cake just doesn't work without them. I usually like my cake sans nuts so I went with the recipe from Annie's Eats. Her recipe does resemble the Serious Eats posting, which was an updated version of the cake from America's Test Kitchen. Apparently they baked over TWO DOZEN before settling on that recipe. 

This cake is part chocolate cake plus underdone brownie in the center of each slice, which makes it unbelieveably delicious. While it has three different kinds of sugar in it (granulated, brown & confectioners'), it isn't too sweet because it calls for bittersweet chocolate (and a nice tall glass of milk doesn't hurt either).  

I've been having all sorts of blunders in the kitchen recently and I wasn't free from them while baking this cake. I misinterpreted the recipe when it said to wait an hour and half for the cake to cool on a wire rack. I took this as invert the cake onto the wire cooling rack. When I did this, the underdone brownie part (aka uncooked cake batter) started oozing out of the cake. If anyone else witnessed me trying to figure out what to do while holding the cake on the wire rack around the kitchen and dripping cake batter all over the place, then they would've had a good laugh. I was a hot mess with a hot messy cake on my hands. Somehow I managed to flip the cake back into the bundt pan but not without losing some structure of the cake. The cake managed to survive this sticky situation and I was able to share with friends at our Memorial Day BBQ. 

darkened section=underdone brownie goodness

As for the BBQ, it was a success. Twin Sista and her bf grilled meats and we enjoyed a night of good food, drinks, company and full bellies. 

hard at work

On a side note: my camera hasn't come in yet but most of these pics look fancier because they were taken with Erin's fancy schmancy camera!