Friday, December 30, 2016

Chocolate Buttermilk Bundt Cake



This turned out to be one of the best cakes I've ever baked in my life. I was browsing around on Pinterest looking for something new to try out. I also had a new bag of Callebaut cocoa powder that I was waiting to play with. As I looked around I chanced upon this recipe on the Taste and Tell blog by Deborah Harroun. I had most of the ingredients and the recipe was the kind I like - straightforward and uncomplicated. What I didn't have I could make or replace easily and so I decided to try it out.

I didn't have cake flour so I made some - all you do is replace 2 tbsp of plain flour with 2 tbsp of cornflour for every cup of flour and sift it well. I made more than required for the recipe and stored the extra cake flour in a labelled canister in my baking supplies cupboard.

I didn't have Dutch processed cocoa so I just used the Callebaut cocoa I had.

For buttermilk I put in a dash of white vinegar into the required quantity of milk and let it sit for a few minutes.

Instead of unsalted butter I used normal Amul butter and didn't add salt as the recipe demands. Most of us are used to baking with Amul butter and so am I and I don't stress out when a recipe asks for unsalted butter because usually the recipe also required you to add salt. I just use good old Amul and no one has complained about my cakes yet!

I used a Nordicware bundt pan instead of a regular 'boring' cake tin to get a fancy looking cake. This was also because I didn't want to ice the cake and therefore wanted it to look nice on its own. Since the pan I have is quite large I doubled the recipe. You will find the original recipe in the link above.



Chocolate Buttermilk Bundt Cake


2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2/3 cup hot coffee
3 1/2 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 cups butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
4 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cups chocolate chips

Set the oven to preheat to 180C.

Butter the bundt pan well and dust with loose flour.

Mix the hot coffee and the cocoa powder till you have a smooth thick mixture. You can brew fresh coffee or simply use instant coffee and hot water like I did.

Now sift the cake flour with the baking powder into a clean mixing bowl and set aside.

In the bowl of your stand mixer (or in a large mixing bowl if you're using a hand held mixer) cream the butter and sugar till it's pale. This should take around 5 to 8 minutes.

Add the eggs one at a time and keep mixing between each egg. Make sure your eggs are not cold from the fridge because the batter might curdle. Don't panic if it does, though - just proceed with the recipe and it will sort itself out on its own.

Add the vanilla after the eggs and then start adding the cake flour. I use the smallest measuring cup from my set and slow the speed of the mixer as I drop in the flour a little at a time. Once the flour is all in and is just about combined it's time to add the coffee-cocoa mix. Keep the speed of the mixer slow so you don't splash everything with the liquid.

Once it's mixed in pour in the buttermilk. Mix and then finally add the chocolate chips and mix further till just blended into the batter.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake till the cake is cooked through - around 35 to 45 minutes depending on the size of the bundt and your oven. Poke the cake in the centre with a cake tester or long satay stick to check. If it comes out clean your cake is ready.

Let the cake cool in the tin for a while - at least 20 minutes - and then unmould carefully. Let the cake cool completely before you cut it or it will break while cutting.

You can serve the cake with a dollop of plain vanilla ice cream to balance the rich dark flavours of coffee and cocoa, or have it as it is like my family did.









1 comment:

Unknown said...

Hey how much would 2 cups butter be in gms?