Orange chocolate chunk Bundt cake
In celebration of finishing a rather epic math exam, my graduate school friends and I decided that a celebration of the cheese and chocolate variety was in order.
KatieHat was hosting this party – she convened the critical cheeses, baked some brie, and opened her apartment to all the exhausted students exiting the exam. Obviously I was in charge of the cake, as "Mollie-cake" has become a thing here at school.
I chose this orange chocolate Bundt cake recipe because it looked (and was) delicious; the fruit makes it feel just a little bit springy, and it appeared to be reasonably transportable. It's very orangey (4 oranges worth of zest and juice of one!), and I love the dark chocolate chunks in the cake. KatieHat lives a couple miles away, so after letting it cool out of the pan for about 30 minutes I popped it back in and wrapped it in a plastic bag, filled my backpack with ganache ingredients, hopped on my bike, and one-handedly steered my way to Medford with a cake tucked under my arm and my muscles screaming by the end (this is no angel food cake – bundt cakes are dense!).
When I arrived I made a traditional ganache (not the one in the original recipe), so it was just half heavy cream and half semi-sweet chocolate. Just a heads-up, it takes a while (about an hour) to cool to a drippy enough thickness.
Orange chocolate chunk Bundt cake
Adapted from SmittenKitchen
Cake
3/4 cups (1-1/2 sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
4 eggs at room temperature
1/4 cup grated orange zest (from 4 large oranges)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3/4 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups semisweet chocolate chunks
Ganache
1 cup heavy cream
1 heaping cup semisweet chocolate chips
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 10-inch Bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, then the orange zest.
3. Mix together 3 cups flour, the baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. In another bowl, combine the orange juice, buttermilk, and vanilla. Add the flour and buttermilk mixtures alternately to the creamed butter, beginning and ending with the flour. Fold in the chocolate chunks.
4. Pour into the pan, smooth the top, and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until a cake tester comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.
5. For the ganache: Heat the cream in the microwave or on a stovetop until hot but not boiling. Add in chocolate chips and let sit for 3 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let the ganache cool (you can do this in the fridge if you're in a hurry) until it's thick enough to not just run off the cake when you pour it. Drizzle ganache over the cake. I had some ganache left, so we put it on the table for people to add additional chocolate to their individual slices.
