Around Mother’s Day our office had a pot luck luncheon.  My company provided pizza and pasta and we were asked to salads or dessert.  People in my office know that I am baker, so I had no choice but to bring some sort of baked good.  I had recently come across the recipe for a tunnel of fudge cake, so thought I would try it … it was big hit with my office crowd.  However, as with most things I bake, I was not a big fan of the cake, I thought it was dry, but I have to admit the chocolate fudge glaze was heavenly.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Ingredients:

Pan Prep:

1 tablespoon Dutch processed cocoa powder**

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted

Cake:

½ cup boil water

2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

2 cups (10 ounces) all –purpose flour

¾ cup (2 ¼ ounces) Dutch processed cocoa powder**

2 cups (8 ounces) confectioners’ sugar

1 teaspoon salt

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 cup (7 ounces) granulated sugar

¾ cup pace (5 ¼ ounce) light brown sugar

20 tablespoons (2 ½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Glaze:

¾ cup heavy cream

¼ cup light corn syrup

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.  In a small bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder and melted butter.  Use a pastry brush to evenly coat the inside of a 12 cup bundt pan.
2. In a medium bowl, pour the boiling water over the chopped chocolate.  Let stand for a minute, then whisk until smooth.  In a medium bowl, combine the flour, cocoa powder, confectioners’ sugar and salt.  Combine the eggs and vanilla in a liquid measuring cup and beat lightly.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the graduated sugar, brown sugar and butter.  Beat on medium – high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  With the mixer on low speed, add in the egg mixture until combined.  Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for about 45 minutes or until the edges of the cake begin to pull away from the pan.
4. Allow the cake to cool on a wire rack for 1 ½ hours before inverting onto a platter.  Allow to cool completely, about 2 more hours.
5. To make the glaze, combine the cream, corn syrup and chocolate in small saucepan.  Heat over medium heat, stirring frequent, until smooth.  Blend in the vanilla.  Set aside for about 30 minutes, until slightly thickened.  Drizzle the glaze over the cake and let set for at least 10 minutes before slicing.

Source:  Annie’s Eats

** I had trouble finding Dutch processed cocoa powder  but after doing some research I learned that Dutch processed  is basically alkalized unsweetened cocoa powder and if you cannot that either the substitution is for 3 tablespoons Dutch processed cocoa = 3 tablespoons natural cocoa powder plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda