Sunday, March 15, 2009

Today's lesson: Chocolate Rum Bundt Cake

Today is the IDES OF MARCH!!!! Beware!!!

It is also, un-assasinatedly, my father's birthday. He turned the big 5-7 today, and his birthday wish to me was that I bake him my grandmother's famous chocolate rum bundt cake. It was a cake my grandma (whom we called Mimi) made every christmas and it's the best thing ever. It evokes all these images of christmas and santa and fireplaces and turtlenecks. I could eat this cake everyday, but as it has an entire stick of butter melted into it, I try not to.

I like to think I've improved on the recipe...my aunts all use store bought cake mix but I find that to be blasphemy...why would you want to use a mix when it's just as easy and tastier to make your own? I've tried out a few different cake recipes over the years and this is my favorite one so far, it's from Food & Wine:

Ingredients

1. Vegetable oil spray
2. 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
3. 3/4 cup canola oil
4. 1 cup sugar
5. 1 large egg
6. 2 cups all-purpose flour
7. 1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
8. 1 tablespoon baking soda
9. 3/4 teaspoon salt
10. 1 cup strong-brewed coffee
11. 1 cup buttermilk

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Spray a 12-cup Bundt pan with vegetable oil spray. In a small saucepan, melt 2 ounces of the chopped chocolate over low heat, stirring constantly. Scrape the chocolate into a medium bowl and let cool slightly. Whisk in the oil and sugar until smooth, then whisk in the egg.
2. In a small bowl, whisk the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients to the chocolate mixture along with 1/2 cup of the coffee and 1/2 cup of the buttermilk; whisk until smooth. Add the remaining dry ingredients, coffee and buttermilk and whisk until smooth.
3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake in the lower third of the oven for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out with a few moist crumbs attached. Let the cake cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then turn it out and let cool completely.

To make the cake with rum, I just mix in a couple tablespoons of rum once the batter is completely mixed. You can booze it up to taste.

The real magic happens after the cake is done. That is when you prepare the rum glaze. Again, my aunts use rum EXTRACT, but who the hell wants that? I want, and therefore use, the real stuff. Okay, brace your heart:


Rum Glaze:
1 stick of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 cup cold water
2-3 tbl rum (more or less depending on taste)

Throw all these ingredients in a small pan, stir until the sugar is dissolved and the butter is melted and bring to a frothy boil. Then, while the cake is still warm, poke as many holes in it as you can with a fork, toothpick, whatevs. Drizzle the glaze over the cake til it's soaked up as much as it possibly can. Let the cake sit for a little while, then move to your serving platter.

ENJOY BITCHES! It's so good. Thank you, Mimi. Hope you're proud.

2 comments:

  1. so what'd your dad say? did he enjoy it even though you didnt follow grandmoms recipe exactly?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes. In fact, he said it was even better. Boo-yah!

    ReplyDelete