Tunnel of Fudge Cake - #BundtBakers

It's April 21 and two things are happening today. First, it's Bundt Bakers day! And second, it's the sixth anniversary of my craniotomy. I always celebrate with a special cake. However, with the unexpected move, I had no plan in place. I decided to make the bundt the cake this year. But what to bake? The theme this month is a really good one - retro desserts. However, I couldn't think of anything that felt special enough for the anniversary celebration. I asked friends for suggestions and pulled out my mother's cookbooks from the 60s/70s. Lots of great cakes but I just could not think of how to turn them into Bundts. Plus, there are a few ingredient limitations here.

One cake kept coming up over and over though - the Boston Cream Pie. I have always wanted to make one and I had all the ingredients on hand. I even wrote it into the list for this month's Bundt then changed to the Tunnel of Fudge cake right before hitting submit. Bundt cakes themselves are retro and the Tunnel of Fudge cake is the cake that made the Bundt famous. Would that make it the ultimate retro Bundt? Perhaps.

I should point out that I am breaking the host's rules a bit. Felice asked us to recreate retro desserts in Bundt form. I missed that key word. I honestly did not notice it until yesterday. The Tunnel of Fudge isn't a recreation since it was always in Bundt form. Sorry, Felice! I will work on a Lady Baltimore Bundt as my penance. It requires figs though and the likelihood of me getting figs here is miniscule so I'll need a worthy substitute.

This version of the Tunnel of Fudge cake comes from the amazing recipe developers and testers over in America's Test Kitchen. Unlike other versions, this does not include nuts. I don't mind nuts in my cakes but I tend to skip them when I plan to share the cake with friends who may not like nuts in desserts.

Happy anniversary to me! And happy Bundt Bakers day! As usual, links to all the other Bundts are below.

PS. I'm still itching to do a layer cake for my anniversary cake. When I get my all baking supplies in a couple weeks, it just might happen.

PPS. Is it weird that I travel with a Bundt pan and a kitchen scale? I didn't think so.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Recipe slightly adapted from:  America's Test Kitchen

Yield: 1 six cup Bundt cake

Ingredients For greasing the pan: 1 tablespoon butter, melted 1 tablespoon cocoa Cake 1/4 cup boiling water 1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup all purpose flour 1 cup confectioner's sugar 6 tablespoons cocoa powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 eggs 1 egg yolk 10 tablespoons butter, room temperature 1/2 cup granulated sugar 6 tablespoons brown sugar Glaze 3/4 cup confectioner's sugar 1/4 cup cocoa powder milk to reach desired consistency

Directions Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix together the cocoa powder and melted butter then completely coat the inside of a 6 cup Bundt pan. Pour the boiling water over the chocolate chips. Let it sit for about 30 seconds and then whisk until smooth. Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, and salt. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the vanilla, whole eggs, and egg yolk. Cream together the butter and two sugars until light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture and beat until just combined. It might look curdled. Next, beat in the chocolate mixture. Finally, stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Pour into the prepared Bundt pan and bake 30 minutes or until the edges start pulling away from the side of the pan and the cake springs back when lightly touched. Note that the centre will be fudgy. Allow to cool in the pan for about an hour then invert onto a plate and allow to cool completely. When completely cooled, whisk together the glaze ingredients then pour over cake.

Notes Be careful not to overbake or you'll lose the fudge effect. My cake here is slightly overdone.

You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about #BundtBakers, can be found on our home page. And don’t forget to take a peek at what other talented bakers have baked this month ~

• Boston Cream Bundt by Andrea at Adventures in All Things Food
• Boston Cream Pie Bundt Cake by Mary at Los Chatos Chefs
• Campbell's Tomato Soup Cake by Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Coca~Cola Bundt Cake by Mondo at I Bake He Shoots
• Hummingbird Bundt Cake by Teri at The Freshman Cook
• Inside-Out Ho Hos Lava Bundt Cake by Colleen at Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Key Lime Bundt Cake by Sarah at The Chef Next Door
• Lemon Meringue Pie Bundt by Felice at All That's Left are the Crumbs
• New York Style Crumb Cake by Tammy at Living the Gourmet
• Nutella Chocolate MIlkshake Bundt Cake by Bea and Mara at I Love Bundt Cakes
• Orange Creamsicle Cake by Sue at Palatable Pastime
• Pantera Rosa Bundt Cake by Rocío at kidsandchic
• Root Beer Float Bundt Cake by Rebekah at Making Miracles
• Sock It To Me Cake by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Strawberry Milkshake Swirl Bundt Cake by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas
• Tomato Soup Bundt Cake by Tux at Brooklyn Homemaker
• Tunnel of Fudge Cake by Kelly at Passion Kneaded

Lemon & Thyme Cookies - Crazy Ingredient Challenge

The ingredients for this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge are lemon and thyme. These ingredients are pretty straightforward to combine so I challenged myself to use them in an unexpected way. Unfortunately, my roller coaster life took an unexpected twist last week and I thought, well, "lemon and thyme" just won't happen. I still had not decided on what to make and I ended up moving to a country where lemons are not easily sourced. We have lots of limes and oranges but lemons are only grown in certain areas. Maybe we just don't like lemons? I am not sure what it is. Thyme, however, is abundant. You will not walk into a kitchen here and not find several bunches of thyme. Sunday through Saturday, we are using thyme.

With all the rushing and figuring things out and trying to settle in, I decided to keep my lemon and thyme ambitions simple. I went with cookies! I keep saying that I am not a cookie baker yet somehow, I keep reaching for cookie recipes when I am in a rut. These were simple and pretty good though. One day, one day, I will be an excellent cookie baker.

Be sure to visit all the other Crazy Ingredient Challengers this month! See what they did below and won't you join us next month?

Lemon Thyme Cookies
Yield: ~36 cookies

Ingredients

2 eggs
2/3 cup of sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
zest of 1 lemon
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves, minced
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
additional sugar for rolling

Directions

Whisk together eggs and sugar until pale colored, thick and frothy. Pour in the coconut oil, lemon zest, thyme and lemon juice and whisk until combined.
In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Stir in the flour mixture into the egg mixture.
The dough is sticky so chill until firm enough to handle.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment.
Take a scant tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball. Damp your hands if dough starts sticking to them. Roll each ball into sugar and place on the prepared cookie sheet.
Bake for about 8 minutes or until very lightly browned.
Cool and enjoy.

An InLinkz Link-up

Garlic Sunflower Bread - #BreadBakers

Today I had a rough day at work. I had to tell my coworkers that I was leaving. It was completely unexpected and sucked big time. In 24 hours, I'll be in a different country, starting a new chapter of my life.

I'm not prepared. I'm reeling. I'm glad that I took time out to bake this bread. I'd been neglecting my blog for the last few months while my life took crazy twists and turns. Hopefully, this new chapter brings back regular blogging.

The bread is supposed to be a sunflower. Clearly, I didn't do as great a job as the original but it's still clearly flower-like. Right? I didn't make any major changes to the recipe. The theme for this month's Bread Bakers is garlic so instead of a plain butter filling, I used garlic butter. I didn't have black sesame seeds so I used parsley. No big deal.

I'll then ask you to visit Jo Cooks for the beautiful version and the recipe. My garlic butter filling that I generously used is below.

Be sure to visit all the other Bread Bakers too!!

Garlic Sunflower Bread

Dough and instructions on Jo Cooks

Garlic Butter Filling
113 grams extremely soft butter
10 cloves finely minced and crushed garlic
Garlic powder to taste

Mix the ingredients together. Taste and add more garlic if needed. A little pepper would be great too.

Brush the garlic butter generously over each layer and over the center dough.

• Black Garlic Parmesan Sourdough Bread from Magnolia Days
• Buttery Garlic Cheddar Rolls from Kylee Cooks
• Buttery Garlic Knots from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Buttery Garlic Pull Apart Bread from Cook's Hideout
• Caramelized Garlic Chèvre Stuffed Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Cheddar, Garlic and Jalapeno Beer Bread from A Palatable Pastime
• Cheddar Garlic Dinner Rolls from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Cream Cheese Stuffed Garlic Rolls from Herbivore Cucina
• Domino's Style Garlic Bread from Gayathri's Cook Spot
• Easy-Peasy Garlic-ky Mini Rolls from G'Gina's Kitchenette
• Garlic Batard from Hostess at Heart
• Garlic & Gorgonzola Focaccia from Baking in Pyjamas
• Garlic, Herbs and Cheese Bread from La Cocina de Aisha
• Garlic Naan with Green Chiles from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Garlic Pull Apart Rolls from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Garlic Sunflower Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Gluten Free & Vegan Garlic Breadsticks from What Smells So Good?
• {Gluten Free} Seeded Black Garlic Flat Bread from Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Green Garlic Parathas - Flat Bread from Sneha's Recipes
• Herbed Garlic Butter Garland Bread from Ruchik Randhap
• Multi Grain Garlic Naan from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Pissaladière from The Bread She Bakes
• Roasted Garlic Focaccia from Sizzling Tastebuds
• Triple Garlic Knots from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Whole Wheat Garlic Ciabatta Bread from Cooking Club

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.