Some years ago when my grandmother passed I got this vintage bundt cake pan of hers. This was before I started baking and I was just happy to have it because it was hers and I thought it was pretty. A few days ago I used it for the first time and found it incredibly satisfying to be baking a cake in a pan so entrenched in the nostalgia of my childhood. My grandmother used this pan a lot.
I decided to make a chocolate mayonnaise cake. For those of you who have never used mayo in baking, it sounds pretty gross but makes one of the moistest cakes you will ever have in your mouth (it adds extra egg whites and oil to the batter.) I had a ton of cold brewed iced coffee in the fridge so I replaced the water with that. when it was done I sprinkled it with confectioners sugar. Yum!
I was at The Good Knight the other night and had a delicious pot de creme made with earl grey, so I would like to give this cake a whirl with the earl grey instead of coffee.
Next I want to make the Tunnel of Fudge Cake. If you are not familiar with this gooey amazingness, it won the Pillsbury Bake-Off in the sixties. My grandmother made it all the time when I was young so it became one of my childhood favorites. I wish I had her recipe, as I remember her telling me it was different, saying she was surprised when it won as she had been making a similar cake for years.
I found a recipe on the Pillsbury website but it’s not the same. Word on the street is that the original Bake-Off cake recipe called for a powdered frosting mix that is no longer available. Plus, I know it did not have nuts in it. There are tons of recpies I’ve found that claim to emulate the original. I guess I’ll just have to bake a bunch of cakes until I find the right one and my poor friends and neighbors will just have to eat them.
Children Playing With Fire 