Heavenly Cake Bakers: Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

Photo by Matt Korahais

Nothing like a really sturdy workhorse of a cake pan to make a simple bundt stand out. The kind people at New York Jobs with Justice/Urban Agenda, where I kept the books for over a year, sent me a gift certificate to Williams Sonoma. Instead of sensibly keeping it to re-gift for presents, or to hoard toward the purchase of my someday mixer, I went right out and spent it on something I'd been coveting, the Heritage Bundt Pan from NordicWare. Many of my Heavenly Cake baking colleagues had been sporting this beautiful piece, and I was jealous. I'm not sure what the 'heritage' is (Matt said it sounded vaguely like one of those awful narrow-focus units one gets in school (i.e. Black History Month), but the pan is exceptional. Not only is the end result high-class, with all those sharp waves, but the pan is heavy-duty and cooks perfectly, and so far I've had no trouble getting the cakes to release.

Photo by Matt Korahais

 And not to brag, but I think the composition of the shot at the top is to die for. I'm spoiled in my photographer. I just make the cakes around here, people. The Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake, for all the words in its name, is a very simple cake, the chocolate in it is cocoa so I didn't even have to melt anything. It was also easy to eat, with a plain pound cake texture. Matt compared it to the pre-packaged pound cake sold in bodegas (in the best way of course).

Photo by Matt Korahais

Liana, who recently moved out, came by and made a beeline for the cake plate, then did an about face after she'd had some and refused to take any home to her new roommates on health grounds. Their loss.