It was never my wish to curse you all as I am cursed, but please be aware that as I sit here typing this the theme song to the Brady Bunch is playing in my head, with the words ingeniously changed to “the Baby Bundts”, from “the Brady Bunch”. Enjoy humming that tune for the rest of today, at least for me it replaces the other song I have been singing for weeks, which for some reason is the jingle for the Lemon Detox Diet. WOW! Look at me now… Slight tangent there, and now back to the matter at hand. Baby Chocolate Bundts! The recipe for these petite bundts comes from a book that I agonised over buying for an awfully long time, because of it’s sky high price tag at the Gigantor of a book store, which is not going to be around much longer…you know the one. The book in question is called The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread, and if you click on the link here, you can find it at a much more reasonable price than what I paid. The Book Depository friends, enjoy!
The book in question turned out to be a very worthwhile purchase anyway, because it covers a wide range of American classics, in a really thorough step-by-step way. All the basics are there, like carrot cake, and the gorgeous Amy’s Bread “Pink Cake”, which I may just have to bust out the next time one of my boyfriend’s little nieces has a birthday party. For the kids, that is. Not for me. ahem. The book also has some great pastry and yeast based recipes and of course, these little baby bundts. In the book these are styled as “Chocolate Donuts”, but I have to say, that after tasting them, they just cannot live up to my idea of a donut. They are delicious cakes, moist and with a tender crumb, good texture and not too sweet, but they are definitely cakes. Not donuts. If there is one thing I have learned, it’s that it’s always better to call a spade a spade and in this case (by the transitive property) call a cake a cake.
But what a cake! These, when topped with a sweet sugar glaze look as cute as a button and they make great use of that mini-bundt pan which you spent $15.99 on, knowing full well that you may never use it. If you zapped these in the microwave, and then drizzled them with some warm ganache, you would have the perfect vessel for a scoop of ice cream, or a pile of fresh strawberries and cream and a very elegant dessert to boot. What’s more is that this recipe makes a really large batch with relatively few ingredients, and they do a great job of pleasing a crowd, be they children or co-workers. Next time I make these, I might go one step further, and try a full chocolate imersion, by making up a simple chocolate glaze and dredging the little cakes through in their entirity. Mmmmm….chocolate coma…
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Chocolate Baby Bundts
Adapted from The Sweeter Side of Amy’s Bread, John Wiley and Sons Ltd, 2008
2 cups and 1 tbsp Plain flour
1 1/2 tsps Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bi Carb Soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups Caster Sugar
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder (The darkest and richest you can find)
60g Dark chocolate, grated
3/4 cup very hot water
60g butter, melted
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, (or sour cream, thinned out with regular milk) room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsps Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bi Carb Soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups Caster Sugar
1/2 cup Cocoa Powder (The darkest and richest you can find)
60g Dark chocolate, grated
3/4 cup very hot water
60g butter, melted
1 1/4 cups buttermilk, (or sour cream, thinned out with regular milk) room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the glaze
6 tbsps Icing Sugar
1-2 tbsps Milk Preheat oven to 180C, and spray your twelve cup mini bundt pan with cooking spray. This will make 24 baby cakes, so we will use the pan twice.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a second smaller bowl, combine the sugar, cocoa powder and grated chocolate. Pour in the super hot water and whisk until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate has melted completely. Add the butter, buttermilk (or sour cream), eggs and vanilla and whisk until well combined.
Add the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture and stir until it’s a gorgeous cohesive chocolate goo. Pour the batter evenly among the 12 prepared mini bundt pans, I found it easiest to transfer the mixture to a pyrex jug and pour from there. Bake for 15 or so minutes, or until the tops spring back when touched and a toothpick inserted into the center of a doughnut comes out with a few moist crumbs.
Let cool for 5 minutes in the pan, then turn the doughnuts out onto a rack to cool. From there, you can run cold water over the back of the pan, to cool it down faster, and grease it again, before putting the remaining batter in to bake, as before.
Once they are cool, and sitting on the rack, you can make the glaze, simply by whisking the ingredients together until they are a thick, but pourable consistency. Put a sheet of baking paper under the wire rack, to catch the drips, and then drizzle to your heart’s content.
hehe now I have the Brady Bunch song in my head! :P These look lovely and I love the innate portion control :)
If these are the little chocolate cakes that made an appearance in the office, and they look like they are…. then they are yummy!