Chocolate Ganache and Blackberry Bundt Cake

Is there anything better than a thick, dark chocolate river running down the sides of your freshly-baked cake?  'Course not!  Obviously, Charlotte Ree feels the same, as she has this delightful cake in her book Just Desserts.  I've made her lemon and olive oil cake a couple of times and it's a beauty, as was this one!

The bundt tin apparently originated with Nordic Ware in Minneapolis in the 1950s, and is based on the Kugelhopf tin.  Bundt is derived from 'bund', the German word for a gathering or federation of people.  I love saying that word!  I pronounce it the German way, not like 'bun'; I guess that's how mum taught us to say it.

I was at a cookbook chat at my fave bookshop recently, and the lovely Fiona who owns Avid Reader Books pronounced it the German way.  A couple of ladies across the aisle from me started whispering when they heard her say it like that.  'Interesting', says I  to myself.  'I guess they are of the 'bun' school of pronunciation.' 

let's hoe in now!

Serves 12:

ingredients:

250g./8.8 oz plain/all purpose flour

65g./2.3 oz Dutch-processed cocoa

3 tsp baking powder

170g./6 oz butter, softened (not melted) i.e. at room temp.

225g./8 oz brown sugar

2 large eggs, at room temp.

400 mL/14 oz milk

250g./8.8 oz blackberries or berries of your choice

Chocolate ganache:

150 mL/5 oz thickened cream

150g./5.3 oz dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped or broken up - see Notes

Method:

On goes your oven to 160C/320F to heat up

Grab your bundt tin and give it a good spray with non-stick spray, or do what I do - get Mr P. to grab the butter, and grease it really, really well, then throw around some plain flour to coat it really well

Sift the flour, cocoa and baking powder into a medium bowl

Beat the butter and sugar till pale and fluffy (I used my electric handbeaters but use a stand mixer if you have one)

Add the milk and dry stuff bit by bit till nicely mixed, and spoon/pour into the baking tin

Bake for 50 minutes, or till your skewer comes out as clean as a ... clean thingy

Cool your cake right down! i.e. let it sit in the tin till cold

Then, heat up the cream and add it to the chocolate which is sitting in a small, heatproof bowl

Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then stir together well, and pour over the cake, which is now sitting on a plate of course

Place the fruit all over the top, and serve

Leftovers can sit in an airtight container for a couple of days (here in sunny QLD, it will go into the fridge)

Notes:

I suggest using Lindt chocolate or similar, as it is very easy to break up (just with your fingers) and melts so very easily

look at that batter!  I could swim in it ...

pour into the bundt pan/tin

and baked beautifully at 160C for 50 mins.

oops! a few sticky bits :=)

a glorious pool of ganache

throw on your berry of choice

I could bury my face in that!

lemme eat that now!

c. Sherry M.

(Disclaimer: I rewrote the prose of this recipe, so according to Australian copyright laws, I am not in breach!  Just for those nasty yobs who keep telling me I am!!)