It’s My Birthday! (aka, Dark Chocolate Chambord Mini Bundts)

So as The Baker of the House, when it comes to your own birthday, you’re kinda hosed, amiright? Baking your own birthday cake n’ stuff? Yeah it can be a drag from the All Hail Me standpoint but, alas, such is our lot in life.

Growing up, my mom made cakes for all our family birthdays. Pretty awesome, right?

When I shipped off to college, a seven hundred mile hop and a skip from home, I was SOL on the annual tasty confection. But, being the clever mom she is, she USPS’ed me some of the most creative cakes I’ve ever seen.

This one she stitched together. Now with Finn paw.

This one is a DIY assemblage, color it in paper cake.

Birthday cake, for me, is one of the top two highlights of the day. The other being the love showered on my old a** self, of course. Ok, of three as there’s always a nice dinner or two sprinkled into the Week of Becky.  But cake man, I mean, c’mon. Cake.

But again, the only way to get my big day cake fix is to either make it myself, let Mike make it (uhhhh no), or buy one.

Buy one, ha.

So the choice is clear. *shrug*

Every year the cake is different. Some years I don’t have time, some years I don’t bother, sometimes it’s a fast n’ easy number, sometimes I do it up.

Ack!  The heat’s on!

Ha, baking pun.

Ok, so I’ve been undecided for weeks, weeks on what to make. Waffling, waffling.  Then figures, I’m whacked with a cold the week before which …. heh, I thought I had a cake chosen but laying on my butt all week did not afford me the opportunity to hit the grocery store.  Plus Mike also had foot surgery and (no offense babe) we all know how guys are when they’re ailing.

Henceforth, last minute I’m scrambling, changing my plan based on what was in the house.  A pantry perusal and a re-skim of my recipes and Dark Chocolate Chambord Mini Bundts it is.  Which I found over on Savory Simple and if you check out the photos there….I mean COME ON!  Cake porn.  Whew.

Now, this is an odd choice for me:

1. I avoid single use tools.  And single use ingredients.  Mini bundt pans strike me as single use, or at least extremely specific.  But.  Got a holiday gift card from the folks so I splurged on a coupla’ things I normally wouldn’t purchase for myself.
2. I never bake with booze.
3. I’ve never made this recipe.
4. I am really gambling with my birthday cake this year.

Sooooo.  Yet it still seems a good idea.  ?!?!

Mike said to me, “Babe, you should make something you haven’t, challenge yourself so if you screw it up, you can share a lesson.”  Fair point.

And (am I belaboring this yet?) Mike and I inherited a bunch of liquor bottles from the 1940’s to the 1970’s that came from my Great Uncle Wesley Polk and Aunt Faye.  Indeed, Polk as in the president.

Uncle Wes was the Chief State Highway Engineer for the State of Illinois from 1942-1949.  The unopened Chambord was part of the grouping.  This collection will be mentioned again, fyi.

Further, the recipe strikes me as fun.  I’ll get to try out my new-ish kitchen scale* for baking, first time ever.  I heard you gasp.   Plus dark chocolate and raspberry together whisper of my teenage years scooping Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Raspberry Swirl.

Anywhooooooo wow long story short, let’s make some cake, shall we?  No, not nervous at all, why do you ask?  Ahem.

Ah. Ha. Then I discover, the eve of bake day, I have the wrong pan. The recipe calls for a twelve well pan.*  Panic ensues.  I swear, it’s always something Murphy’s Law with me. Always. You’ll see.

Internet sleuthing, I discover another version of the recipe for the size pans I purchased.*  Huh.  I also discover a great tip filled article about baking with bundt pans.

Lame attempt at math after lame attempt at math after wide-eyed tossing and turning in bed, I decide:  give it a whirl.  What have I got to lose?  Well, ingredients for sure.  Most definitely my pride.  My nowhere-near-expert-level baking skills will be stretched.  Hopefully I’ll learn something.  Maybe these cakes turn out edible.  Happy birthday to me!

Ok, getting started, I reread the recipe for about the bazilliointh time and see that it’s leavened with baking powder.  What luck I found this article before my attempt, the difference between Dutch process and natural cocoa powders.  I could have blown the whole thing over cocoa powder.  Dutch process, baking powder; natural cocoa, baking soda.  So glad I bought both last week at Blommer Chocolate Factory.

It’s an easy assembly, really.

Weigh your flour. Interesting discovery with this scale — it rounds to the nearest .03.  Add a sprinkle of flour, .03 higher.  Remove flour, subtract .03.  Quite odd.

Next add your baking powder and salt and give it an ol’ whisk to combine.

After that, add your cocoa powder by sifting. If you don’t have an actual sifter,* no worries, just use a fine mesh sieve.*  If you don’t have that, whisk the cocoa into a nice fluff in a separate bowl then whisk it into the flour mix.  I use a spiral whisk* most often, myself; surely it’s a preference thing.

Right ok, so next cream the room temp unsalted butter and cup o’ sugar on low speed for a good five minutes.  I was following the original recipe to.a.tee, I was yep so nervous.

Once time’s up, with the mixer still on low, add one egg and let it combine thoroughly before adding the next egg.  Once that’s mixed in there nice and good, add your melted chocolate.  Make sure the chocolate has cooled before you add it.

Yes, *wince,* it kinda hurt opening this bottle.

Then it’s par-tay time with the booze!  Not really, it’s just a tablespoon mixed with the cream and vanilla in a small bowl.

Now, with the mixer still spinning on low add some of the flour mix and then some of the liquid, back and forth between the two within one minute, as the directions stated, until all in.  Pop the speed up to medium for thirty seconds and you end up with this glorious mousse-like cake batter.

Lightly grease those cake forms and scoop that thick, luxurious batter in there.  Here I dusted the pans with cocoa powder but no don’t, skip that, it didn’t work.  Just grease lightly and you’re good.  I ended up overfilling, aiming for 2/3rds full but half is better.  I know, such conflicting info out there — should I fill it half, 2/3rds, how much, I dunno, I’m so confused…..!

Off to the preheated 350° oven ya go, kids.

So here I am, taking sweet sweet extra time because you should not rush when baking, freaking out through the entirety.  The lil’ guys are toasty in the oven when I accidentally turn the timer off.  Off.  Omg I turned the timer off.  What a bozo move!

What did I do?  After collecting my jaw, I sat on the floor and watched through the little window. Tested.  Watched.  Tested.  Watched.  So my times are advisements.  FYI.

Liiiiittle disappointed that the buggers were not exactly like the author’s photos, felt a ping of failure but that’s a bugaboo with blogs, right?  Comparing your finished product to gorgeous staged “after” shots?  Try as hard as you can not to do that, ok?  Otherwise you’ll end up down the path of “oh I can’t bake” which is absolutely not true.

So on that baking time, if you use pans like mine, bake for about twenty minutes but keep a keen eye on them.  A major fault of these particular pans was the short dimple in the middle; it didn’t go completely through like a true bundt which caused the outer circle to be nearly overdone, the middle runny.  So, don’t buy the pans I did. 

And then see above?, on the left, the four cakes in pans dusted with cocoa.  The lone cake on the right, solely a greased pan.  Henceforth, as you can see, the cake on the right is more attractive and presentable, despite my blurry photo.

Time to make the sauce.  Combine the heavy cream (you can sub milk, it’s ok), Chambord, and dark chocolate.  Either double boiler it or pop it in the microwave on fifteen second intervals until the chocolate is near melted.  Give it a stir to smooth it out and try not to dump it directly down your gullet.

Drizzle that rich, glossy, boozy sauce over that cake (or roll around in it, who am I to judge?) and then stuff your face.  If you find your sauce is too thick, thin it with more cream or plain old milk until it drapes as desired.

How did they taste?  Most important, right?

They were good.  Pretty good.  The crumb was quite fluffy.  Airy. I am a super harsh critic of my own baking so ok hang on, let’s ask Mike. 

Hey Mike, how was the cake?  “It was good.  [Said with that lilt, you know the lilt.] [That’s also code for yeah it was edible, I’d eat it again, but you have better aces in the hole.]  You like things rich, dark, fudgy, and dense. I don’t so I thought it was good.  How ’bout I eat another right now and let you know?” 

In the end, if you’re going to make this, yeah, I’d recommend you use the pan the recipe was designed for.  I bet they’re much better that way.

So not quite a win, not quite a fail.  Lessons learned.

But happy birthday to me!  Another one in the bag.  Whew.  Sniff.

Note: This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Dark Chocolate Chambord Mini Bundt Cakes

Yield

6 cakes

Prep time

25 Min

Cook time

25 Min

Total time

50 Min

Dark chocolatey cakes with a hint of black raspberry, drizzled in a dark chocolate Chambord ganache? These will satisfy that chocolate itch.

Ingredients

The cakes

• 3 1/2 ounces (99 g) cake flour
• 3/4 teaspoon (3 g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (6 g) fine sea salt
• 1 ounce (28 g) unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch-processed)
• 1/2 cup (118 ml) half and half
• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) Chambord Liqueur (or any raspberry liqueur)
• 1/2 tablespoon (7 g) vanilla extract
• 2 ounces (57 g) unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 3 ounces (85 g) unsalted butter, room temp
• 7 ounces ( 1 cup, 198 g) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs

The sauce

• 3 ounces (85 g) bittersweet chocolate, rough chopped
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) Chambord Liqueur

Instructions

The cakes

1. Heat the oven to 350° F (176° C). Spray the mini bundt pans lightly with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl then sift in the cocoa powder which can be done easily with a sieve. Whisk everything together until unified.
3. Separately, mix the half and half, vanilla, and Chambord.
4. Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar on low for 5 minutes.
5. Next, leaving the mixer on low, add one egg letting it combine fully before adding the second egg. Once combined, add the melted unsweetened chocolate and mix until there are no streaks.
6. Still on low speed, flip between adding the wet and dry ingredients but do so within a minute. Add some dry, add some wet, back and forth. Scrape the bowl then mix for 30 seconds on medium.
7. Scoop into the mini bundt pans and bake for about 20-22 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean (a few crumbs = perfect). See recipe notes.
8. Cool in the pans for ten minutes then flip them out onto a cooling rack. A tip from the original author: should the cakes crown over the edge of the pans, carefully smush them with a flat surface before turning out.

The sauce

1. Over a double boiler, add the bittersweet chocolate, cream, and Chambord, heating and stirring carefully until the chocolate is melted and everything has combined. Serve atop the cakes or pour directly into your mouth. Either or.
2. Alternately, microwave the sauce ingredients at 15 second intervals in a microwave safe bowl until the chocolate has just melted. Stir to create a smooth sauce.

Notes:

This recipe was originally written in ounces. This recipe was also originally written for a 12 well mini bundt pan, turning out 12 mini cakes. The advised baking time is 22 minutes.

I used one cup mini bundt pans which would yield 6 cakes. My baking time was approximately 20 minutes.

Recipe adapted from Savory Simple.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

463.37

Fat (grams)

23.42

Sat. Fat (grams)

14.32

Carbs (grams)

56.79

Fiber (grams)

3.58

Net carbs

53.21

Sugar (grams)

36.87

Protein (grams)

5.22

Sodium (milligrams)

256.68

Cholesterol (grams)

43.44

Please see the "info" section for nutrition details.

cake, chocolate, Chambord, raspberry

recipes

American

*The mini bundt pans, mini bundt pan sets, kitchen scale, sifters, fine mesh sieves, and spiral whisks are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.