Mini Chocolate Bundt Cakes with Ganache

It’s a bundt. A bundt? This cake has a hole in it. Yes, I am referencing this.

I made these bundtlette cakes for two reasons. First, I had a Junior League meeting and needed a good “thank you” for my committee members. Second, I really wanted to make ganache. I’ve always thought about it, but never actually noshed on some ganache.

Plus, my kick-ass mom graciously “donated” a super-nice mini-bundt pan to me which clearly was a sign that I needed to make cake. Must make cake. IMMEDIATELY.

This recipe was extremely easy and most of the ingredients I already had (bonus!). The only thing I didn’t have was buttermilk. Which, let’s be reasonable, no one ever has on hand. And buttermilk always seems to come packaged in a not-convinient size, like one quart when all you need is one cup.

The solution? Mix one cup of milk with one tablespoon white vinegar and ta-da! Buttermilk substitute.

In addition to substituting for buttermilk, it should be duly noted that I because I am lazy efficient, I also did not butter & flour my pan (used Pam for Baking) and I did not sift together the dry ingredients (“fluffed” them with a fork and called it a day).

When you read the recipe, you’ll notice it calls for coffee. Coffee? Seriously? I want chocolate cake, not coffee cake.

Have no fear, little butterfly. The coffee enhances the chocolate flavor–and you don’t even taste it. I’m a firm believer that any good chocolate cake recipe should involve coffee.

I won’t bore you with how to mix a cake–I’m pretty sure you can figure it out. Let’s just skip to the good part. Ganache. Yea, let’s nosh on some ganache, man.

Ganache is actually fairly easy–I used the Ganache Three Ways recipe from Savory Sweet Life. Just boil the cream, and then whisk into the chopped chocolate. To give my ganache some extra flavor, I used 8 oz of an orange-flavored dark chocolate and 4 oz of regular semi-sweet chocolate.

If you use your ganache right away, it makes a great glaze. Else, you can whip it into frosting or pipe it after it’s cooled a bit.

Now, because I had extra ganache, and I hate wasting things, I filled the bundt cake centers with ganache. If you do this, and then heat before you serve, they are almost like lava cakes. But wait, isn’t there a hole in those cakes?

Well…let’s just say I might have overfilled my bundt pan…so the bottom of my cakes might have baked together. And we’ll leave it at that.

Note: saying a cake is “chocolate topped with orange-chocolate ganache” is an easy way to impress people. Trust me, I’ve said “ganache” about 80 times at work today…

You can see all the steps to delicious cake in the gallery below. Now go get your ganache on!

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