{TWD} Mocha Walnut Marble Bundt Cake

A marbled bundt cake might be the perfect "take-along" cake. No frosting is required, so transport is a breeze. But it's far from plain - it carries it own decoration -the marble pattern - tucked safely inside. The marbling dresses up the cake, making it look a lot more difficult than it really is. What's more, a full bundt recipe makes a cake big enough to feed a small army. And a bundt nearly always tastes great.

This week's Tuesday With Dorie recipe is the Mocha Walnut Marble Bundt Cake, and it was an ideal dessert to bring along to my book group meeting two weeks ago.

n.o.e.'s notes:

- Erin of When in Doubt…Leave it at 350 (her blog name contains such good baking advice!) chose the cake for us to bake this week. Her blog post will have the recipe, or you can find it on pages 180 and 181 of the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.

- Walnuts have become a favorite of mine. I wanted to amp up the walnut flavor, so I toasted the walnuts before grinding them as fine as my food processor would grind and I substituted 2T of walnut oil for 2T of the butter in the cake.

- Dorie specifies a bundt pan with a 12 cup capacity, but the batter would definitely fit in a 10-cup pan.

- The recipe is a bit fussy, requiring ground walnuts, chopped chocolate, brewed coffee AND espresso powder, in addition to the usual suspects: room temperature butter and eggs. It was a three bowl process, along with a mixer, food processor, miscellaneous measuring cups/spoons, knife, cutting board, etc.

- Dorie gives directions for a marble pattern that ends up resembling a ginko leaf. First you put all of the light batter in the pan, then the dark. Finally, you sparingly draw a knife through the batters. I was a little bit worried about my marbling, but it turned out to be pretty.

- I buttered my bundt pan, which is dark coated, then dusted it with Wondra flour, a tip I picked up from of the cake goddess Rose Levy Beranbaum. (although I'm pretty sure that Beranbaum coats her pans with melted shortening and then Wondra.) My cake released beautifully and looked tight and smooth. One thing that I always do when the cake is still warm in the pan is to loosen the cake along the pan's ridges using a cheap plastic picnic knife. Works like a charm!


the verdict:

The cake turned out "moist but not gooey" in the words of one of my tasters. It received positive reviews from all of the adults who tried it at book group (unfortunately several of us gave up sweets for Lent, so we couldn't partake). The best review? From the host couple's 8th grade son, who told me he enjoyed "4 or 5 pieces" and then assured me, "The cake is beast!"

A "beast" bundt? It really is a perfect cake.

Tune in next week, when it's my turn to host Tuesdays With Dorie - the recipe I chose is Swedish Visiting Cake!