Mocha Walnut Bundt Cake - And A Break...

 

Coffee, walnuts and chocolate - they have a way of worming their way into my baking wish list! The trio in a marbled bundt cake - irresistible! Flip through Dorie Greenspan's Baking - From My Home To Yours and this cake is sure to charm you into baking it! A rich batter of dark chocolate, ground walnuts and coffee swirled through a vanilla walnut batter. A drizzle of chocolate sauce over the slice adds to the charm. A slightly but pleasantly dense cake with a fine crumb . The chocolate and coffee part, if you ask me, was even better! 

I have to admit, I am not always lucky marbling cakes. Turns out Lady luck was on my side this time around, may be I can marble cakes after all! One way of doing this is placing alternate spoonfuls of batter in the pan and then running a skewer through it to give a more marbled effect. First spooning all of the batter of one color into the bundt, then the other batter on top, then swirl will give a ginkgo pattern. Amazing! With marbled cakes, you will hold your breath till you cut the cake and see what pattern has emerged -  its never the same! Amazing!

 Mocha Walnut Bundt Cake , From Dorie Greenspan's 'Baking - From My Home To Yours'.  I have halved the original recipe and baked in my small 6 cup bundt pan.

Watch this video for tips on preparing a bundt pan and unmolding it properly.

https://bit.ly/3ompZ4Q

How to melt chocolate

https://bit.ly/35hZYfu

 

How to grind nuts for baking

https://bit.ly/35hs8av

Ingredients:

• All Purpose Flour - 316 grams / 2 1/4 cups - grams (please refer note) 
• Finely ground walnuts - 1/2 cup 

• Baking powder - 1 teaspoon
• Salt - 1 teaspoon
• Unsalted butter, at room temperature  - 226 grams / 8 oz /1 cup (please read note) plus
  
• Unsalted butter at room temperature - 28 grams /1 oz / 2 tablespoons / , cut into 4 pieces ( to be used for melting the chocolate)
• Bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped - 3 ounces / 84 grams
• Hot or cold coffee (can also use plain water)- 1/4 cup
• Finely ground instant coffee or  instant espresso powder - 1 teaspoon ( I have used heaping 2 teaspoons, for full recipe as I used hot water)
  
• Sugar - 350 grams /1 3/4 cups ( I use super fine)
• Eggs, at room temperature - 4 large / 192 grams
• Pure vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons
• Whole milk ( I have used 2%), at room temperature- 1 cup

Procedure : 

GETTING READY: Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C / 350°F. Grease a 9 - to 10-inch (12-cup) Bundt pan with special attention to the nooks and crannies, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. 

 

Sift together the flour, ground walnuts, baking powder, and salt twice. Set aside. Break the eggs and put them in a bowl, whisk lightly, weigh, set aside.

Melt the 2 tablespoons of butter, chocolate, instant coffee and hot water in a pan of barely simmering water (watch video above). Remove the bowl from the heat. Set aside. You can also melt using a microwave. 

Have another medium sized, clean and dry bowl ready. You will be mixing the chocolate batter in this. An extra spatula and a thin long skewer to swirl the batter.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably with a paddle attachment or with a hand mixer in a large bowl ( I used my hand mixer, speed 2), beat the remaining 1 cup of butter and the sugar at medium speed for about 3 minutes – you’ll have a thick paste; this won’t be light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one by one, beating well after each addition. The mixture should look smooth and satiny. Beat in the vanilla extract. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients and the milk alternately, adding the dry mixture in 3 portions and the milk in 2 (begin and end with the dry ingredients).

Scrape a little less than half of the batter into the bowl with the melted chocolate and, using a rubber spatula, stir to blend thoroughly.

If you want to go for the gingko pattern, scrape all of the white batter into the pan and top with the chocolate ( I have put the chocolate first). If you want a more marbled pattern, alternate spoonfuls of light and dark batter in the pan. When all the batter is in the pan, swirl a table knife sparingly through the batters to marble them.
Bake for 60 to 70 minutes ( I baked the small cake for 50 minutes), or until a thin skewer inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean and the vanilla part is a nice golden brown. Transfer the Bundt pan to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes before unmolding ( I use a plastic knife), then cool the cake completely on the rack. I play safe, cool for almost 1/2 to 1 hour.

 

Please note:


Flour - Dorie measures flour using the dip and sweep method, which weighs 140 grams /5 oz per cup.
Walnuts - I have first ground chopped walnuts and then measured. I have then ground it with some of the flour in the smallest jar of my mixer before proceeding.
Butter - To get the butter to room temperature, take it out of the fridge, weigh and cut into cubes and keep it on your counter. The butter should not be too soft or oily - it should be pliable but still cool to the touch, that's when its ready to use says Dorie.

I am going to be taking a short break from blogging - just stealing time for myself! A few of my blogger friends have been kind enough to guest-post for me during this period. So stay tuned for some fabulous treats coming up! Please do visit my space, leave your much awaited comments or drop me a line at suma dot rowjee at gmail dot com for any queries or just to say hello! Would love to hear from you!