Week 27: Tunnel of Fudge Cake

A few weekends ago my boyfriend, Chris, and I spent the weekend in Bridgehampton. I know, we’re very chic people. Anyway, I needed a cake to bring to our hosts’ home that would survive the train trip so I chose my go-to when a cake needs to travel – a Bundt!

A while back over an IM chat with my dear college friend, Lauren, she mentioned her love of vintage cake recipes, including one called “Tunnel of Fudge”. Lauren, like me, loves a Bundt pan. She’s my go-to when I have questions about bundt glazing, recipes, etc. She recently sent me the pic below of a Bundt display at this year’s Orange County Fair. Love it!

I looked up Tunnel of Fudge recipes and they sounded delicious, but oh-so-elaborate. Many contained nuts, which I don’t like to use in cakes when it’s being served to people I’m not sure are nuts about nuts. And one thing that really bugged me was many of the nutty recipes insisted the nuts were essential to maintain the infrastructure of the cake. You see, the cake has a ring of fudgy filling, so it needs a sturdy cake around it to hold it all together.

I searched far and wide and found a Tunnel of Fudge recipe that used (drumroll please)… cake mix! AND – no nuts! Thank you, “jamiej” of Food.com for posting this recipe. I followed it to the letter and it turned out fabulously. So much so, that I’d like to take the concept and create a version using vanilla ingredients or maybe white chocolate.

Here’s my mise en place.

“What’s that chocolate milk-looking substance,” you ask? Oh, that’s just some Baileys Irish Cream! I had exactly 1/2 cup left over from when I made my Baileys Irish Cream Cake. I knew this cake was a winner once I saw Irish cream listed in the ingredients. It really adds a rich taste to the cake.

The first step was to make the fudgy filling. I placed my milk in a saucepan over medium high heat and whisked in the pudding mix until it came to a boil.

Once it was bubbling, I removed the pan from the heat and stirred in the chocolate chips and butter and set it aside.

Next it was time to make the cake batter. This was hard work! I mixed the cake mix, oil, sour cream, Irish cream, eggs, and vanilla in a large bowl. But not before giving my Bundt a generous spray of Pan and a sprinkle of some of the dry cake mix.

Once the batter was all mixed and smooth, I reserved 2 cups of batter and poured the remainder into the prepared Bundt. Now this was the tough part. I spooned the fudge filling mix in a ring on top of the first portion of cake batter. I was given strict instructions to keep the fudge filling from touching the sides of the pan.

I think I succeeded. But it was definitely a little nerve-wracking as there was a good deal of filling to place on top of the batter.

The final step in the assembly of the cake was to spread the two cups of reserved batter on top of the fudge ring without disturbing the filling too much.

The cake baked in a 350 degree oven for about 30-35 minutes. I rotated the pan halfway through, taking a break from all my paranoia about whether or not I assembled the cake correctly. Was there enough batter on top of the fudge filling? Enough batter below it? What if the filling accidentally touched the sides of the pan? What if it’s a disaster and I need to PURCHASE a cake to bring for the weekend? The horror! What if the cake falls apart on its way to its destination?!? Luckily, raw cake batter is an excellent remedy for cake baking anxiety.

The cake emerged from the oven looking pretty good. I let it cool in the pan on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

This baby flipped out of the pan just fine. Phew! There were no signs of filling leakage, though I did notice some of the ridges on the top of the cake looked a little… sunken in. When I fondled the ridges, they jiggled, leading me to believe the tunnel of fudge was pretty close to the surface of the cake.

I gave the cake a generous dusting of powdered sugar before boxing it up for its train trip to Bridgehampton the next morning.

Our hosts made a lovely fuss over the cake, whipping up fresh Baileys flavored whipped cream to serve with it. It was plated beautifully with fresh berries, but my phone’s camera unfortunately lost some of the pics I snapped of the plated cake. Here’s a grainy photo of the cake’s cross section. You can see ( I hope) the tunnel of fudge is pretty substantial. And, as I suspected, the fudge filling had sunken low in the pan, settling close to the top of the cake.

It tasted great – really moist, flavorful, and chocolatey. I think the Baileys and sour cream really made the difference.

This concoction was easy to make and transport. Like I said, I definitely want to try a variation on this recipe, perhaps using less chocolateley ingredients. Not that there’s anything wrong with chocolate!