Milk Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes

This weekend a few of the women of my family (my mom and two cousins) got together to make an old family favorite recipe called Antipasta, but more on that later. This busy day started early, well not too early and went until the evening. My mom made soup and a salad for lunch and she appointed me to make dessert. A month ago I bought Baking From My Hom to Yours and have been slowly reading through it. When I came across this recipe I knew it would be perfect for a lunch or shower. Fair warning! This dessert it rich! A few of us ate half of our cake and then went back to working on the Antipasta and would come back for nibbles! Also, I had forgotten about how fast my mom’s oven bakes things so the cakes were a little dried out. Despite those minor details they were still delicious and looked great! You will notice that the recipe calls for a mini bundt pan. They really are pretty easy to find. I bought mine at Linen’s and Things because ours is closing and everything was on sale. I really felt like a vulture hovering over prey in that store. I was good though, and didn’t buy anything I didn’t have on my list! You can find the pans that have 6 or 12 cake molds. Enjoy!

Chocolate Mini Bundt Cakes
(adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking From My Home to Yours”)
(makes 6 mini bundt cakes)

Swirl:

3/4 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

2 tsp sugar

Cake:
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 ounces (1 stick/8 tbsp) unsalted butter, softened at room temp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk
7 ounces good quality milk chocolate, melted and cooled

Glaze:
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

2 tsp light corn syrup

1 TB chopped pecans or toasted walnuts

To make the cake:
Preheat oven to 350F. Generously butter a 6-mold mini bundt pan. (Each mini bundt is about 3.5 inches wide x 1.75 inches tall.)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until smooth, about 3 minutes. Add egg and beat for 1 minute more, then beat in the vanilla.

On low speed, add half the flour mixture and mix only until it is incorporated. Add in the milk and mix until just blended. Then add the remaining flour mixture and mix only until it is incorporated. Blend in the melted chocolate.

Fill each of the mini Bundt molds with a little batter, then divide the swirl ingredients evenly among the molds and top off with the remaining batter. Bake at 350F until cake tester comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes.

Cool for 5-10 minutes in pan. Then remove the mini bundt cakes from pan and cool to room temperature before glazing.

To make glaze:
Melt chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water or in the microwave on low. Stir in corn syrup. Spread glaze or drizzle over cakes and sprinkle with nuts. Allow glaze to set at room temperature, about 15 minutes.