Classic Comfort Desserts - Wacky Chocolate Cake
April 14: Chris Kimball, editor of Cooks Illustrated, gets back to basics by creating a mouthwatering cake with flour, sugar and chocolate as the main ingredients.
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Tunnel of fudge cake
Chris Kimball, editor of Cook's Illustrated
Serves 12 to 14
INGREDIENTS
Cake
• 3/4 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder, plus extra for dusting pan
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 2 ounces chopped bittersweet chocolate
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 cups pecans or walnuts, chopped fine
• 2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
Chocolate glaze
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
Do not use a cake tester, toothpick, or skewer to test the cake — the fudgy interior won't give an accurate reading. Instead, remove the cake from the oven when the sides just begin to pull away from the pan and the surface of the cake springs back when pressed gently with your finger.
1. For the cake: Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 12-cup Bundt pan and dust with cocoa powder. Pour boiling water over chocolate in medium bowl and whisk until smooth. Cool to room temperature. Whisk cocoa, flour, nuts, confectioners' sugar, and salt in large bowl. Beat eggs and vanilla in large measuring cup.
2. With electric mixer on medium-high speed, beat granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. On low speed, add egg mixture until combined, about 30 seconds. Add chocolate mixture and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds. Beat in flour mixture until just combined, about 30 seconds.
3. Scrape batter into prepared pan, smooth batter, and bake until edges are beginning to pull away from pan, about 45 minutes. Cool upright in pan on wire rack for 1 1/2 hours, then invert onto serving plate and cool completely, at least 2 hours.
4. For the glaze: Cook cream, corn syrup, and chocolate in small saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, until smooth. Stir in vanilla and set aside until slightly thickened, about 30 minutes. Drizzle glaze over cake and let set for at least 10 minutes. Serve. (Cake can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days.)
Wacky cake
Chris Kimball, editor of Cook's Illustrated
Serves 6 to 8
This moist cake gets even better when served with vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream.
INGREDIENTS
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup natural cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt
• 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup water
• Confectioners' sugar for dusting
DIRECTIONS
1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Coat 8-inch-square baking pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. Whisk flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together in pan. Make one large and two small craters in dry ingredients. Add oil to large crater and vinegar and vanilla separately to remaining small craters. Pour water into pan and mix until just a few streaks of flour remain. Immediately put pan in oven.
3. Bake until toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 30 minutes. Cool in pan, then dust with confectioners' sugar. (If tightly wrapped, cake will keep for three days at room temperature.)
Cold-oven pound cake
Chris Kimball, editor of Cook's Illustrated
Serves 12
INGREDIENTS
• 3 cups cake flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 20 tablespoons (2 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs
Read more:
The Legendary Tunnel of Fudge Cake (in a cast iron bundt pan)
The famous Tunnel of Fudge bundt cake: after this recipe won second place in the 1966 Pillsbury Bake-Off, it took the country by storm and transformed the bundt cake pan from an obscure oddity to a must-have in any baker's kitchen. When baked correctly, this is a rich chocolate cake with a mysterious tunnel of molten or softened chocolate in the center, similar to the modern day lava cake. How rich is this cake? Three other famous words can describe this cake: Death By Chocolate. And yet, this may be one of the most difficult bundt cakes to make. This video shows one attempt at baking the famous Tunnel of Fudge cake. Can you make this cake any better? Try it yourself and see! The recipe for this cake can be seen on my Web site, Cast Iron Chaos, at:
Cast Iron Chaos on Facebook:
Cast Iron Cooking on Facebook:
History of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake:
MUSIC: Symphony No. 9 (1824), Allegro molto assai (Ode to Joy) by Ludwig van Beethoven. Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra (Public Domain).
Music courtesy of Musopen:
A Look at Vintage Cast Iron Cake Pans (plus Chocolate Fudge Cake)
Cast iron cake pans are extremely rare, and if you're fortunate enough to own one, then be sure to use it with pride! These circular metal cake pans are almost always called Bundt pans, but in fact that's not accurate. These cake pans have been around for as long as 100 years before Nordic Ware trademarked the name Bundt in 1950. There are many designs of these pans, though thanks to the popularity of the Bundt pan, folks simply refer to any circular cake pan as a bundt pan. But regardless of what you call it, it's a magnificent cast iron pan that will produce a beautiful and delicious cake.
This is a brief look at the history of these rare cast iron treasures. Whether you own a fluted cake pan, a Hurricane, a Monarch, or even the King, you're one of an elite group of cast iron bakers! Go ahead and show off your wonderful cast iron cake pans, because they're attractive and especially very useful.
A lot of information on cast iron cake pans can be seen on the Facebook group Cast Iron Bundt Bakers Anonymous:
Also here, we're preparing a chocolate fudge cake in a vintage cake pan called The Monarch. The recipe for this cake can be seen on my Web site, cast Iron Chaos, at:
Cast Iron Chaos on Facebook:
Bundt cake | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Bundt cake
Listening is a more natural way of learning, when compared to reading. Written
language only began at around 3200 BC, but spoken language has existed long ago.
Learning by listening is a great way to:
- increases imagination and understanding
- improves your listening skills
- improves your own spoken accent
- learn while on the move
- reduce eye strain
Now learn the vast amount of general knowledge available on Wikipedia through
audio (audio article). You could even learn subconsciously by playing the audio
while you are sleeping! If you are planning to listen a lot, you could try using
a bone conduction headphone, or a standard speaker instead of an earphone.
You can find other Wikipedia audio articles too at:
In case you don't find one that you were looking for, put a comment.
This video uses Google TTS en-US-Standard-D voice.
SUMMARY
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A Bundt cake is a cake that is baked in a Bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive ring shape. The shape is inspired by a traditional European cake known as Gugelhupf, but Bundt cakes are not generally associated with any single recipe. The style of mold in North America was popularized in the 1950s and 1960s, after cookware manufacturer Nordic Ware trademarked the name Bundt and began producing Bundt pans from cast aluminum. Publicity from Pillsbury saw the cakes gain widespread popularity.
Happy National Bundt Cake Day!
Wednesday, November 15th, 2023 - DragonFjord-Like Daily Puzzle Solution
Happy National Bundt Cake Day!
Get your own puzzle to play along! Can you beat my time?
National Bundt Day, also known as National Bundt Cake Day, is observed every year on November 15th. As people across the United States plan menus for the holidays, a bundt cake is sure to be on the list at least once.
#NATIONALBUNDTDAY
A Bundt cake can be any cake baked in a Bundt pan, forming it into a distinctive ring shape. The mold of the Bundt pan was initially inspired by the traditional European fruit cake known as Gugelhupf. It was in the 1950s and 1960s that the cookware company Nordic Ware popularized the style for the mold design and trademarked the name Bundt. Nordic Ware started producing Bundt pans made from cast aluminum. Similar pans are sold as “fluted tube pans” or other similar names.
In the beginning, the Bundt pan did not sell well, and Nordic Ware considered discontinuing the product. Then in the 1963 New Good Housekeeping Cookbook, the Bundt pan was mentioned, and sales increased. In 1966, sales increased dramatically when a Bundt cake called the “Tunnel of Fudge,” baked by Ella Helfrich, took second place at the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and won a $5,000.00 prize. The publicity from the Bake-Off resulted in more than 200,000 Bundt pan requests.
Nordic Ware has sold more than 60 million Bundt pans across North America.
Have you ever eaten a Bundt cake? If not, today is the perfect day to try it for the first time. If you’re looking for the best kinds of Bundt cakes to try, we have 10 flavors you can try:
Lemon
Pineapple upside down cake
White chocolate raspberry
Gingerbread
Pumpkin spice
Chocolate
Lemon raspberry
Peanut butter chocolate chip
Strawberries and cream
Red velvet
If you want to try your hand at baking a Bundt cake, there are some tips and tricks you should use to ensure your success. First of all, if this is your first Bundt cake, you will want to stick to a pan that is pretty plain and simple and not so elaborate. (You might be surprised that not all Bundt pans are the same!) After you have chosen your pan, you’ll want to choose your recipe. Some cake recipes work better in Bundt pans than others. This includes cakes with denser batters, such as pound cake. You’ll probably want to avoid cake mix from a box, and also sponge cakes, as these recipes aren’t as dense. After you have carefully chosen your recipe, grease your Bundt pan with shortening and then dust it with flour. You don’t want to grease the pan with butter as this ingredient will cause the cake to stick to the pan as it bakes.
Bundt cakes take longer than other kinds of cake to bake, and it’s not uncommon for it to bake for at least an hour. To make sure your Bundt cake is done, stick a toothpick in the center and make sure it comes out clean. One last tip is to cool it for a bit before flipping the pan upside down to get the cake out. You may have to bang the pan a little bit on the counter to get it to come out. Also, don’t worry about frosting your Bundt cake. Due to the difficulty of frosting a ring-shaped cake, Bundt cakes are typically served undecorated, glazed, or dusted with powdered sugar. If you’re someone who isn’t into eating cake, there are other things food you can make with your Bundt pan. Some people use their Bundt pans for monkey bread, sub sandwiches, lasagna, stuffing, or gelatin salads. A Bundt pan is also great for making an ice ring for punch. Others don’t use their Bundt pan for food, they use it to make crafts. A Bundt pan is wonderful for creating holiday wreaths, gift baskets, and planters. You could even stick two Bundt pans together to make a cute pumpkin craft, which is perfect for the fall season.
HOW TO OBSERVE #NationalBundtDay
Get out your Bundt Pan and make a cake. There are so many different cakes to make using a bundt pan, and they come out beautiful too. You just can't go wrong. Use #NationalBundtDay to post on social media.
NATIONAL BUNDT DAY HISTORY
To mark the 60th anniversary of the Bundt pan, Nordic Ware designated November 15 as National Bundt Day.
#nationalbundtday #bundtcake #bundt #nothingbundtcakes #DragonFjord #dailypuzzle #asmr #shorts
Fun Facts About Your Favorite 90s Foods
Weird History is taking you back to the 90s for your favorite foods. When it comes to the 1990s, everyone enjoyed many bodacious goodies we wouldn't have wanted to be without. Those staple foods we associate with the decade include snacks, meals, desserts, and even beverages. We ate them for breakfast, lunch, or dinner - or maybe all of the above. They were yummy, and they bring back memories with every bite.
#foodhistory #90s #weirdhistoryfood