I was sixteen and running late for my first date with a boy whom I really liked and I made the cataclysmic mistake of telling my dad to “entertain” him for a few minutes. After I sprayed my last bit of Aqua Net onto my two inch high bangs, glossed over my lips and slipped on my “pumps”, I walked into our family room to find my dad, six foot three inches tall, and my date tap dancing on our wood floors while my dad whistled and sang, “I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy.”
I almost passed out. How could HE embarrass me like that?! And then my date looked over at me with a huge smile and my dad innocently asked, “What?! You SAID that I should entertain him, didn’t you?” How could I argue with that? I spent the rest of the evening laughing with my date over the whole embarrassing dance routine and realized it was nice to be dating a guy with a good sense of humor…a lot like my crazy dad.
Little did I know, I would be marrying this guy several years down the road and we would always fondly look back on our first date and retell it to mortified friends, relatives and later our children who are now at dating age and would absolutely kill my husband if he pulled anything like that on them.
My dad has always been a very loose cannon, but I think that is what I love most about him. I have laughed the hardest with my dad, tasted the very best food with him and have been one of the centers of his universe for 42 years now. And yesterday, on his birthday, I got to give him a small token of my absolute love and appreciation for him—a big, messy, gooey and nutty Tunnel of Fudge birthday cake, recipe courtesy of Annie’s Eats.
My dad is the biggest chocoholic I know and this cake seems to be quite the homage to chocolate with a ooey gooey chocolate center, a dark, rich crumb and is finessed with a thick chocolate ganache glaze that is oozed over the cake. I sprinkled mine with nuts because he doesn’t believe any baker worth her salt would dare offer chocolate without ’em and I have to admit a nutty birthday cake is rather apropos for a guy like my dad.
This cake was a real show stopper friends. My entire office ate it up like we were on a deserted island and I smiled and not-so-humbly accepted many compliments about this being “delicious”, “incredible” and totally a chocolate lover’s dream cake (albeit a very messy one to make and eat).
Why don’t you live it up and make this crazy rich and chocolaty cake just because? You will not be disappointed one iota except perhaps with the mess that ensues. It does require a fairly hefty amount of separate bowls, pots, mixers, etc. Recruit a dishwasher who is ready to trade labor for cake…that’s what I’d do if I were you. I am always all about honesty here.
Tunnel of Fudge Birthday Cake
Adjusted minorly from Annie’s Eats (from Cooks Illustrated)
Makes one bundt cake
Pan Preparation:
2 T. melted butter
2 T. cocoa powder
Cake Ingredients:
½ cup boiling water
2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 cups all-purpose flour
¾ cup cocoa powder (original recipe uses Dutch Process but I did not have some so click link to follow recipe exactly)
1/2 t. baking soda
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. salt
5 large eggs, at room temperature
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
one and a quarter cups (2½ sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
For the Glaze:
¾ cup heavy cream
¼ cup light corn syrup
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ tsp. vanilla extract
To make the cake: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a small bowl, melt butter and whisk in ONE tablespoon of the cocoa powder. Use a basting brush to baste a bundt pan. Get in every crevice to insure the cake will come out properly later. Add 1-2 T. of cocoa powder to the pan and tapped it around until it coated the entire pan, similar to flouring a pan.
In a small-ish bowl, pour boiling water over the chopped chocolate and let sit while it melts. In the meantime, in a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour through salt. If your powdered sugar is lumpy, please sift that first. Whisk together the hot water and melted chocolate until smooth and let it sit. Crack one egg at a time into a liquid measuring cup and then pour the egg into a bowl. This way, if you get one bad egg, it doesn’t ruin the whole batch of eggs you have cracked.
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar and mix on medium speed for 1-2 minutes until fluffy and well combined. Add the eggs, and beat on low until combined. Add in the vanilla and combine. Scrape the melted chocolate into the stand-mixer bowl and beat on low until amply mixed together. Add half of the dry ingredients, and mix on low speed until just combined. Don’t over mix. Scrape down the bowl several times and mix on low until all ingredients are incorporated.
Carefully scoop the batter into the bundt pan. The neater the better here, trying not to get batter on the middle, “wand” of the bundt pan. This is so you don’t have stray bits of chocolate that burn towards the top of the middle of the bundt pan as the cake bakes. Bake for 45 minutes or until the sides of the cake pull away from the pan.
I let the cake cool for about 15 minutes on a wire rack in the pan and then turned the cake upside down and carefully let it slide out onto my serving plate. The original instructions have you cool it entirely in the pan, but my concern was that it might be more likely to stick this way since it would be steaming the sides of the cake while it cools. I cooled it about a half an hour before glazing it because I was in a hurry and that honestly worked fine.
For the Glaze: Put the chocolate, cream and corn syrup in a heavy bottomed medium-sized pot. Cook over a low heat and stir frequently until the chocolate is smooth and melted. Stir in the vanilla and let cool for 30 minutes. Then pour or ladle the glaze carefully over the cake in a zigzag fashion.
Serve when set-up and cooled. Enjoy!
November 17, 2012 at 12:48 pm
This looks so good! You are so fortunate to have such a wonderful dad to pay tribute to.
November 19, 2012 at 8:21 am
I am and I really know it. Thank you.
November 17, 2012 at 1:04 pm
Ha, ha, ha! Thanks for the laugh! 🙂 I think I would have passed out if my dad did that to me! It’s definitely a story to share with your kids. Too bad you don’t have any video footage! Anyhow, your dad is a hoot and I bet he just loved every bit of this yummy goeyness!
November 17, 2012 at 1:07 pm
I love tunnel of fudge cake! It’s so ’70s.
November 17, 2012 at 2:19 pm
Beautiful tribute to a man who sounds simply awesome 🙂
And you and your husband have such a romantic love story!!! 😉
Your cake fits all!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
November 17, 2012 at 4:52 pm
Your Dad is a man I would love to meet. I bet he had a good laugh after you and your date (now husband) left that evening. Too funny.
Like your tribute, this is one terrific cake, Geni. I’ve gone without a bundt cake for far too long, apparently. I need to get one so that I can make this cake, just because …
November 17, 2012 at 5:27 pm
Lovely! I’m going to make this right now for my daughter whose birthday it is today. In your recipe you’ve left out “sugar”– you’ve written powdered………
November 19, 2012 at 8:31 am
Thank you so much! I love when I get feedback so my recipes can be right. I try very hard to make them accurate.
November 17, 2012 at 6:16 pm
What a tender and sweet post! I am charmed by the chocolate cake and your loving tribute to your father. A most scrumptious post!
November 17, 2012 at 9:10 pm
What a wonderful cake for your dad!
November 18, 2012 at 6:53 am
I enjoyed reading your story. Seems your husband passed a crucial test on that first date 🙂
November 18, 2012 at 7:44 am
My daughter and family loved the cake. The one substitution I made was oil for the butter. Yummy cake! Thanks for. Wonderful post and a great cake.
November 18, 2012 at 10:05 am
So glad you liked it and the substitution worked for you! 🙂 Thanks for reporting back…I love it when people try the recipes and let me know how it goes.
November 18, 2012 at 7:47 am
That cake looks too perfect. I better eat up all the evidence. You can’t have something that pretty in the house too long!
November 18, 2012 at 7:58 am
The bundt cake looks splendid! I would love a huge chunk too!
November 18, 2012 at 7:59 am
What a wonderful story, Geni! Your dad sounds like quite a wonderful character, and so does your husband. What a cake you made for his birthday! Fudge on fudge and in a bundt, truly a chocoholic’s dream. Happy Birthday to you dad!
November 18, 2012 at 8:49 am
Love the story! What a beautiful cake! Happy belated birthday to your father 🙂
November 18, 2012 at 1:40 pm
Love the story of your first date with your hubby 🙂 So cute. And this cake sounds amazing!
November 18, 2012 at 3:03 pm
Wow, what a cake! Happy birthday to your dad! 🙂
November 18, 2012 at 4:26 pm
Beautiful cake! Happy birthday to Dad!
November 18, 2012 at 8:53 pm
🙂 such precious memory and thanks for sharing. The cake looks delicious, and I’m sure your dad is very proud of you. 🙂
November 19, 2012 at 12:24 am
That was funny and really embarassing, I think I will do that to my daughter when she turns 16 🙂
Anyways that fudge cake looks amazing
November 19, 2012 at 8:32 am
Please just don’t tell her you got the idea from me. 😉
November 19, 2012 at 6:56 am
Happy birthday to your dad Geni! Love the date story (and the aqua net reference!). 🙂
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November 19, 2012 at 11:46 am
Your dad sounds AMAZING! That’s probably the best first date story ever. 🙂
November 19, 2012 at 3:04 pm
oh what a wonderful post, wonderful cake and most certainly a wonderful dad!
November 19, 2012 at 4:14 pm
This will be going on my dessert table for the Christmas party that I have each year. Thank you!
November 20, 2012 at 5:23 am
Both your dad and your husband sound totally awesome! That is such a great story…and this is such an amazing cake!!
November 20, 2012 at 3:00 pm
That sounds EXACTLY like something my dad would do. He still loves to embarrass me whenever possible. Though, now that I’m older, I don’t mind as much and just see it as him embarrassing himself haha! I’m sure your dad loved this cake, it sounds so decadent.
November 20, 2012 at 9:49 pm
As I was reading this, I just had the feeling this was going to be the man you would go on to marry! I love your Dad already.. what a great sense of humor!! Pile on those nuts!!
November 21, 2012 at 4:21 am
I am so glad that you enjoyed this. Also, the story is HYSTERICAL. When that guy didn’t run immediately in the other direction, I had a feeling you might have married him. I married my HS sweetheart too 🙂
November 21, 2012 at 10:02 am
That sounds exactly like something my dad would do, he still refers to any friends of mine he meets as my ‘little chums’ despite us all going on 30 at this point
November 21, 2012 at 10:25 am
That makes me smile. 🙂
November 21, 2012 at 11:52 am
I always love me a bundt…toss in a little fudge and I say oh ya to that!!!
Happy Thanksgiving Geni!
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November 25, 2012 at 1:18 pm
Mmm this cake looks so good. Your husband and father sound quite hilarious, what a great first-date story!!
December 2, 2012 at 5:56 pm
Geni, I’ve been soo behind on my blog reading and knew I had to sneak over a catch up on some of your baking! Oh boy, did I miss a chocolately rich good one!! Happy so belated birthday to your dad – how wonderful to have such a close, loving relationship as you two do, joking and embarrassment aside, he sounds like an amazing father! I think this cake will go over really well this holiday season!!