Tunnel of Fudge Cake

I do not bake very often, and with a bit of trepidation I picked up a recipe that my Mom used to make for us that comes from the days of yore. I am not sure if she created the recipe or if she got it from a magazine or cookbook. I have held on to this recipe for almost 40 years and had not made it because one of the ingredients is no longer available here in our grocery stores.

The ingredient? Frosting mix. In the days of everything pre-made, this has disappeared from our grocery shelves replaced with already made frosting. I decided to try it with pre-made frosting not entirely sure how this would turn out, or even if I needed to adjust the ingredients. So here is the recipe, what I did, how it turned out, and what I would change with what I did…Here is a preview!

Preview

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups of butter softened
6 eggs – I used 5
1 1/2 cups of sugar
2 cups of flour
2 cups of chopped walnuts
Fudge Frosting Mix (I used pre-made Triple Chocolate Fudge Chip Frosting)

Now let’s jump in. Grease a bundt or tube pan and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. I got out my Kitchen Aid mixer and secured the batter beater. To the mixing bowl add the butter and cream on high speed. Add the eggs one at a time and incorporate into the butter completely before adding the next.

Butter and eggs

Then gradually add the sugar keeping the mixer at high speed until it is light and fluffy. Remove the bowl from the mixer. The rest will be done by hand. Gradually add the flour until it is all combined.

Flour has been added

Next add the walnuts, bit by bit until they have all been added.

Nuts have been added

Next add the frosting also a bit at a time and combine until uniform in color.

Fudge frosting added

Pour the very thick batter into your bundt pan and level out.

Batter added to the bundt pan and leveled

Bake for 60 – 65 minutes. At this point I thought the top looked a bit to moist so I baked for another 10 minutes. (Do not do the additional 10 minutes!) Remove from the oven and let the cake cool in the pan for 2 hours.

Cake right out of the oven

After two hours invert the pan onto a plate. Looks pretty doesn’t it?

Inverted cake

For the couple of pieces I added a bit of frosting to the pieces as I was not sure what the middle would be like.

With a bit of frosting

Needless to say, I did not get the tunnel of fudge, but I can see a darker area in the cake which had I not cooked this for the addition 10 minutes would have been the tunnel of fudge! Still, we ended up with an amazing chocolate cake!

Serve it up!

It had a wonderful chocolate fudge flavor and I loved the nuts and the bits of melted chocolate from the chips in the frosting. In a way it reminded me of really good fudge brownies! Try this out and see what you think, and be sure to let me know!

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Hogs and Kisses!

Hogs and Kisses!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

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Dinner and Cards

Last night we were having dinner with friends Gene and Betsy followed by a game of progressive rummy! So much has been going on lately that we had not had a dinner and card night for a long time! There were two challenges for the evening. The first challenge for was to come up with a vegetarian dinner; the second was to beat Betsy at cards!

Thinking about dinner I wanted to do something that I could prepare ahead, and that is pretty simple to make. So last night I hoped to win at cards and I made Manicotti!

Ingredients
For the stuffing:
2 Eggs
1 1/4 containers of Ricotta cheese
1 15 oz. frozen chopped spinach, thawed and the water squeezed out
2/3 cup of finely minced onion
1 tsp. garlic powder
3/4 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. parsley flakes
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese, shredded
1 cup grated Mozzarella

Manicotti Shells – uncooked
Tomato Basil Sauce – 24 oz. jar + cups of water
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
1 1/2 cups Mozzarella

Beat the eggs until well blended. Add the ricotta and mix well with the eggs until the mixture no longer has lumps. Add the spinach, the onion and the spices. Combine. Then add in the cheese.

Manicotti filling

Everything is ready to go!

Next take the Manicotti shells and with your hands stuff the shells until tightly packed. Next mix the water and the sauce together, and add one cup to a 9×13 baking pan. Shake the pan from side to side to spread it out evenly. Lay the Manicotti in the pan. Cover with the remaining sauce and then sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Ready to cook

I got this ready ahead of time and then set it in the refrigerator until I am ready to start cooking. When ready to bake, turn the oven on to 350 degrees and bake for 45-55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving.

I served dinner fresh steamed asparagus, and Texas toast.

Dinner is served!

We followed this with a salad.

Spring mix salad with raw sunflower seeds

After dinner we shared a Port wine with some really excellent chocolate!

Port and chocolate for dessert

Dinner was a hit!

We played progressive rummy

Card game

and I think someone was cheating!

Someone could be cheating

Needless to say I did not win. Betsy took the game again!

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