Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Frosting

Ooooh chocolate cake.

Ooooooooh bundt.

Ooooooooooohhh baby.

This is a delicious, moist, decadent cake complete with ganache. Ganache is a fancy word for the laziest frosting made with two of the most delicious manmade compounds, cream and chocolate. 

Our ganache had a smidge too much cream, so it was a bit runny, but we made up for that by warming up extra and pouring it over our slices. No harm, no foul.

The cake is lovely--deeply chocolatey, spongey, not too sweet. A perfect pairing for the rich ganache. I love the ridges provided by the bundt pan...it looks so fancy!

All in all, it's a delicious cake for chocolate-lovers, and just might convert some not-so chocolate lovers too.

Oh yes, I forgot to mention...it's fussy. It calls for buttermilk and fancy cocoa (though cocoa is really usually okay if you switch it out, just a different result), separated eggs, brewed coffee, awkward measurements, yadda yadda. The original recipe even calls for sifting the flour, but ain't nobody got time for that. I promise, it's worth (most of) the trouble :).

Chocolate Bundt Cake with Ganache Frosting

Yield: a bundt cake, what do you think??

Ingredients:

cake:

• 1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon brewed coffee
• 3/4 cup (Dutch process prefered, Hershey's if you can't find anything else!) cocoa powder
• 2 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 whole eggs
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/4 cups plus 1 Tablespoon buttermilk
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoon canola oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups, plus 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour (whisk it up for a bit to aerate, or sift if you'd like)

ganache:

• 10 ounces chocolate (chips are okay but block chocolate is better)
• 6 ounces (3/4 cup) cream
• ^note that I changed the ratio from 8:8 to 10:6 in order to account for the fact that ours was too thin 

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F and move the rack to the middle position. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan.
2. Boil coffee and cocoa powder on the stove, or microwave the coffee until very hot and mix in the cocoa powder. The idea is to bloom the cocoa so it's aromatic compounds are activated in the hot liquid. Whisk carefully or risk getting cocoa powder all over yourself! Set aside to cool.
3. Using a stand mixer, hand mixer, or strong arm, whisk sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk until combined. Then, add the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla, and whisk again until fully combined. 
4. Mix in flour for 2 minutes, then add the coffee-cocoa mixture and mix another few minutes or so until your batter is thin, runny, and smooth. Pour into prepared pan and bake 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. When cake is done, cool in the pan until it reaches room temperature, then invert onto a plate.
6. For the ganache: microwave or heat on stove the cream until just scalding (not boiling). Pour immediately over the chocolate chips in a medium bowl and let sit for about 1 minute. Then, stir to combine. If the chocolate is not entirely melted, microwave for short (15 sec) bursts until you are able to just combine the two. Aim for a smooth, homogeneous, glossy mixture. 
7. Let cool on the counter about 20 minutes, then spread over cooled cake. Extra ganache makes delicious hot fudge sauce for ice cream, if there's any left!

Video of stirring ganache, one of those weirdly meditative things to watch...

Adapted from Joy the Baker