TWD: Nutty, Chocolatey, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake

This week’s Tuesdays with Dorie was selected by Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort: nutty, chocolatey, swirly sour cream bundt cake.  Whew, that’s a mouthful isn’t it?  On the plus side, you know exactly what you’re getting – no surprises when you open your book and take a gander at the recipe.  There it is – a sour cream bundt cake with a pecan (or walnuts if you prefer) and chocolate swirl running through the middle.  Dorie also includes raisins and cinnamon in the swirl, though they apparently didn’t make the title cut.  I skipped the raisins in mine, not because I’m not a fan of raisins and chocolate (Raisinets, yum!) but because I couldn’t find any at my in-laws (where I’m house sitting this week) and hadn’t thought to bring any.

The most exciting thing about this week’s pick though was the opportunity to use my new 6-cup bundt pan!  Most bundt recipes call for a 12-cup pan, so this allows me to halve them, which means I can make room for more bundt cakes in my life.  They’re so easy, but a full size bundt feeds a lot of people.  A mini bundt is much more manageable, and cute too 🙂

This bundt is pretty easy to throw together until you get to the swirl.  The recipe calls for layering the cake batter and the swirl several times, and I found it nearly impossible to spread the batter over the swirl so it went into the oven mostly uncovered.  I expected it all to fall off when I flipped the bundt out, but a fair amount had baked into the cake.  Quite a few of the TWD’ers had trouble with their bundt sticking to the pan, so I buttered and floured liberally and fortunately, didn’t run into that issue.

I cut a tiny piece of my cake so I could try it before popping the rest in the freezer as a welcome home treat for Shane’s parents, and I’m so glad I did.  It was terrific!  It’s dense with a really tight crumb but very moist.  I was a bit skeptical about the orange zest in the cake and how it would work with the flavors in the swirl, but it all melded wonderfully.  Many thanks to Jennifer for hosting this week.  You can find the recipe for the bundt on her blog or on page 182 of Baking: From My Home to Yours.