Who else holds their breath every single time they unmold a Bundt cake? It doesn’t matter how many Bundts I make, how many years I’ve been baking, or which recipe I’m using; there’s always a sliver of terror in my chest when I flip over the pan, only to be relieved by the gentle thud of the cake releasing from the pan. Perhaps because I made this Marble Bundt Cake on the heels of my Apple Orange Rye Honey Cake, which seems to stick to some degree no matter how I prepare the pan, I was extra nervous. Nevertheless, because BAKED has inspired me to love Bundt cakes oh-so-much, I am quite happy any time we have a Bundt cake on the schedule for Baked Sunday Mornings. It is one of their beloved classics from BAKED: New Frontiers in Baking, yet I had not previously had the pleasure of making it. I’m glad to say that’s now been rectified, and I will gladly make it over and over in the future. 🙂 I am again going “rogue”, as the rest of the group made Banana Piloncillo Ice Cream this week, but I had made this cake last year (while in Israel) at exactly the same time of year, and never got it posted, so I decided to come back to it and finally get it on the blog. By all accounts, it is one of my favorite BAKED Bundts ever.
The cake consists of a vanilla batter, which you’ll separate into two bowls and then add cocoa powder and melted chocolate to one of them to create the chocolate batter. Start by melting the chocolate and adding cocoa powder to create a glorious pool of chocolate goodness and set it aside for now. Cream the butter to a ribbonlike texture, then add the sugar and beat until fluffy, followed by the eggs. Then comes the key ingredient, sour cream, which categorically makes all baked goods better, along with vanilla extract. (I bumped it up to about 2 ½ teaspoons and switched to vanilla bean paste. Because VANILLA.) Lastly, add the combined dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt) in three additions. Voilà, you have vanilla Bundt batter!
But now, you’ll pour ⅓ of said batter into the melted chocolate. Both batters will be quite thick, and you’ll layer them into your Bundt pan vanilla-chocolate-vanilla. Use a spring-loaded ice cream scoop for the chocolate layer so that the scoops don’t fully touch the edges of the pan. You’ll swirl the two batters together twice with a knife– once now, and again after adding the top layer of vanilla batter. Make sure to swoop the vanilla and chocolate together, but not so much that you can no longer see the distinction.
I baked my cake for 55 minutes, a little less than the recommended 1 hour; it was perfectly moist in the middle, but the outside was a touch dry. Now, I should say that my baking times in my Israeli oven were sometimes waaaay off, so I would still shoot for an hour next time. Because of the slightly dry exterior, I brushed my cake with simple syrup for a little extra moisture, which did help reduce a bit of crunchiness. Regarding the above fear of clingy Bundts, I’m happy to report that aside from a random tiny strip that stuck to the pan, my cake released beautifully!
I made this cake for a coworker’s birthday at the little school where I was working at the time, and she was so appreciative. It’s a great cake for both casual (read = any day ending in ‘y’) and celebratory occasions, and will often please even those folks who don’t love chocolate. (I mean, who are those people??) The recipe intro in the book also validates this Bundt as an excellent breakfast choice, which I wholeheartedly support!
Find the recipe for Marble Bundt Cake at Baked Sunday Mornings and see how the other bakers liked it too. 🙂
© Dafna Adler & Stellina Sweets, 2019.
