Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Nutty, Chocolatey, Swirly Sour Cream Bundt Cake


Sour cream pound cake, swirled with a brown sugar-chocolate-cinnamon-nut mixture, baked in a bundt pan. Sounds pretty good, right?

Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort selected this bundt cake (recipe here) for all of the Tuesdays with Dorie bakers to make this week. It's quite a responsibility to pick the recipe and host, and we all have to wait so long before it's our turn. That's why I hate to say it, but I didn't love this one.

I nixed the raisins in the swirl, and doubled the walnuts. I had a lot of trouble with the swirl layer. I couldn't get the batter to cover it because the sugar in the swirl made it very difficult to cover up. Nonetheless, the cake baked up beautifully with a lovely, crunchy exterior, and a chewy, moist interior. So why didn't I love it?


It was the swirl. The swirl didn't melt in the batter and remained as a layer of raw sugar with a sprinkling of walnuts and chocolate chips. It made the cake fall apart when it was sliced. I'm not a fan of dusting things with powdered sugar, so I topped the cake with Dorie's ganache. That made it a crunchy-chewy-falling-apart-dripping-in-chocolate hot mess.

I do plan to make this one again because the flavor and texture of the cake were great. But I'll skip the swirl and add cinnamon to the cake instead.

Thanks, Jennifer, for hosting this week! Sorry I messed up your pick. :-)
at

17 comments:

  1. JoyJanuary 25, 2011 at 5:22 AM

    It looks beautiful! I love your pan!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownJanuary 25, 2011 at 7:28 AM

    At least you tried it! I think that means more to the hostess (host) than anything. oh, the adventures we have in the kitchen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. KayteJanuary 25, 2011 at 10:40 AM

    Okay, we are still good friend, but my favorite part was the cinnamon swirl with nuts and raisins! And I would never think of voluntarily dousing it in chocolate...lol. It looks good for those people, though, and very pretty on that plate. Oh, well, we still both LOVE INDIAN food!

    ReplyDelete
  4. FlourchildJanuary 25, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    Great idea to top with ganache! It looks so tasty! I cut the recipe in half.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Jessica of My Baking HeartJanuary 25, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    Regardless of the swirl mess, the cake looks beautiful - I'm drooling over that ganache right now! :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownJanuary 25, 2011 at 12:22 PM

    Ooh, ganache can cover a multitude of...I won't say sins, because your cake looks great. But it makes everything better, doesn't it? I also thought the swirl was a little raw, myself, and mine also had some undissolved kosher salt in it. But I kind of liked the sweet/salt together.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Bella BakerJanuary 25, 2011 at 12:23 PM

    well I guess they can't all be winners! Nice idea to add the ganache! I happened to really enjoy this one!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Welcome to our crazy blessed lifeJanuary 25, 2011 at 2:39 PM

    Bummer that you didn't like the swirl. I bet it will be great when you try it the way you described. :) It looks fantastic.

    ReplyDelete
  9. TiaJanuary 25, 2011 at 4:48 PM

    mmm ganache... over the top goodness!

    ReplyDelete
  10. PamelaJanuary 25, 2011 at 6:29 PM

    Ganache?! You are brilliant! I am sorry that the swirl didn't do what it was supposed to, though. I seriously didn't think I'd like this one, but I loved it!

    ReplyDelete
  11. margotJanuary 25, 2011 at 9:27 PM

    Yum, chocolate-covered Bundt cake! I was tempted to glaze mine since it was not very attractive, but was too lazy. Good luck with your next version, I definitely think this one is worth a repeat.

    ReplyDelete
  12. DiJanuary 26, 2011 at 5:14 AM

    I liked the swirl, but I think there was too much of it. I'd like to try it again with less. I also used brown sugar, which I think melted a bit more than regular sugar would have. Sorry this one didn't turn out the way you hoped it would.

    ReplyDelete
  13. CindyJanuary 26, 2011 at 9:40 AM

    I went for a 'layer' instead of the swirl. I wonder if using brown sugar instead of white in the swirl would work? Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  14. UnknownJanuary 26, 2011 at 4:15 PM

    I had trouble covering the swirl too Leslie, but I did enjoy the contrast of the slightly raw swirl with the cake. I have a feeling your second attempt will be much more successful for you :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. KatrinaJanuary 27, 2011 at 9:15 PM

    Nothing can be too messed up when it's covered in ganache! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousJanuary 30, 2011 at 12:30 PM

    It doesn't look like a hot mess in the first photo! My minis had sort of a swirl topping (on the bottom), but it ended up working out - probably because I made minis and didn't try to slice them.

    ReplyDelete
  17. UnknownJanuary 30, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    Crunchy-chewy-falling-apart-dripping-in-chocolate hot mess? Hm. I guess I'm failing to see the problem, here, because it sounds phenomenal!

    ReplyDelete