Dark Chocolate Sunflower Bundt Cake
21
I find baking in bundt pans very fiddly. I like ogling at cake pictures on sites like Sweetapolita and wondering "How the heck does she manage to get it out of that bundt completely intact?". See that is my biggest problem with bundt pans. No matter how well I grease and flour them, some stubborn nook and cranny will just refuse to release the cake and make me happy. Instead, I will have to carefully pick the piece of cake that got stuck with a pair of food grade tweezers (Oh, who am I kidding! I just use a chopstick to scrape it out!) and then sculpt it back on the cake so you guys can wonder "Now how the heck did she manage to get the cake out of the bundt pan intact?"
Despite this very annoying issue, I am overcome with the urge to occasionally brave the bundt. Having bought a surprisingly cheap and even more surprisingly sturdy sunflower bundt from Target of all places, I wanted to bake a cake that looked beautiful when it was plopped on its head.
After some trial and error on my polished aluminium traditional German bundts, I was ready to give the dark metal sunflower bundt tin a go. Choosing a cake recipe is very vital while baking in a bundt tin. You will need an almost madeira cake like recipe or a butter cake recipe that is not very moist. Having baked a gorgeous chocolate cake from my signed copy of Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials Chocolate in the past, I knew that was the right recipe. The cake baked beautifully and after I had let it cool enough (the recipe says 10 minutes), I started on the bit which I dread most. The turning the cake out of the bundt tin.
When I had whacked and smacked the sides of the tin like a banshee for nearly 5 minutes and loosened the edges slightly with a butter knife, it was time. The moment of truth. As I heard the cake descend on the wire rack, I viscerally felt my heart descend to my stomach too. I lifted the tin off the cake and there it stood, like a decadent, wicked alien spacecraft with all its beautiful spongy grooves and edges. The Chocolate Sunflower Bundt Cake had landed – in one piece.
DARK CHOCOLATE SUNFLOWER BUNDT CAKE
Preparation Time – 15 minutes
Cooking Time – 1 hour 10 minutes
Serves – 10
Ingredients
For The Cake
375g butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3 eggs
2 cups plain flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup cocoa, sifted
3/4 cup milk
extra cocoa to dust
For The Chocolate Glaze
150g chopped dark couverture chocolate
1/2 cup pouring cream
Method
To Make The Cake
Grease a bunt pan/cake pan of your choice (8 to 9 inches round) with melted butter and dust with flour. Set aside. Pre-heat oven to 160C (320F).
Place butter and sugar in a bowl and beat with an electric mixture until pale and fluffy for about 8 minutes. Add the eggs and beat well. Fold through the flour, baking powder and cocoa. Stir in the milk.
Spoon the mixture in the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes approximately until cooked through when tested in the centre with a skewer. Remove from the oven. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then gently turn onto a wire rack to cool.
To Make The Glaze
Place dark chocolate and cream in a heavy bottomed small saucepan over low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Allow the mixture to stand for 10 minutes until thickened slightly.
Once the cake is completely cooled, pour the glaze over the cake. Cover and refrigerate cake or serve as is with the runny glaze.
this pan is gorgeous. i am getting one in the US this time!
I absolutely love baking in bundt pans. The cakes always turn out so pretty. Your chocolate cake looks sinfully delicious. Bookmarked for the weekend.
Baker Street´s last [type] ..Blueberry Tea Cake
looks so sinful and tempting ! yummy yumm
a spoonful of yumm´s last [type] ..Orange Plum & Rambutan Cooler
Gorgeously yum…
I have problems with my kugelhopf pan… the cake looked pale instead of golden delicious colour. Perhaps I should try baking chocolate cake…
Lisa H.´s last [type] ..Nasi Minyak/ Savoury Rice
Gorgeous!!! I love the sunflower bundt pan!
Bundt cakes are always so tricky, and I cross my fingers as I turn them out hoping that nothing has stuck. It’s always so disappointing to find that it has indeed stuck. Luckily it doesn’t affect the taste!
Jennifer (Delicieux)´s last [type] ..Rhubarb Crumble Cake
I need a new keyboard now as I drooled all over this one… making this today!!
Misty´s last [type] ..Cheese ‘n chutney
Loving your bundt mould! Mine is so plain looking.
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Love the rich and chocolaty cake, Sneh! This bundt mold of yours look quite tricky for the cake to come out neat
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Bundt pans are all the rage here in Singapore but I haven’t caught on to the hype, probably because I don’t really have the space for yet another cake pan!
pickyin @ LifeIsGreat´s last [type] ..Ground Spice Chicken
This looks gorgeous and decadent…
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It looks so good! I love anything chocolate!!
chinmayie @ love food eat´s last [type] ..EDO, Japanese Restaurant & Bar – Restaurant Review
fabulous beyond words
Alison @ Ingredients, Inc.´s last [type] ..Game-Day Favorite: Basil Bloody Mary
Beautiful cake! and it is chocolate.
Laura @ SweetSavoryPlanet´s last [type] ..Zucchini Olive Oil Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze
Hurrah! Glad it came out of the pan. Such a beautiful bundt pan too.
Looks like a lovely decadent chocolate cake recipe. Was drooling over the pools of glaze in the middle of the cake
Emma @CakeMistress´s last [type] ..Lemon & Poppyseed Cake with Lemon Syrup
I find I always have good results when I use a baking spray that has both oil and flour in it. It manages to get into all the nooks and crannies that greasing by hand doesn’t. But as my husband says, it’s all going to be mush when it’s in the tummy right! Looks beautiful Sneh!
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This is gorgeous and makes me want to try a bundt pan again too.
Amanda @ Traditional Foods´s last [type] ..Pumpkin Flowers
What a fabulous Bundt cake! I am bookmarking that recipe.
Amazing shots! So atmospheric.
Cheers,
Rosa
Decadent, rich, moist, tempting, divine —- I want!
Meeta´s last [type] ..Buckwheat Linguine with Aubergine and Mango
Oh how I love chocolate! What a beautiful cake and that chocolate glaze must taste delicious.
Nice to have found your blog!
Magda
My Little Expat Kitchen´s last [type] ..Ice cream, you scream
This photos are amazing, and the shape of pan and a cake is great.
From tips I can say that you can always grease the pan with melted butter, put it in the fridge to settle to 10-25 minutes and then grease it one more time, or just put more glazing, it will be amazing anyway
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