Cake o' the Week: Chocolate Marble Gooey Butter Cake

I'm heading to a Women's Retreat with some friends from work, so I thought I would bake a cake to take along.

*Warning:  This cake is not for the faint-of-heart.  Seriously, it has a lot of butter in it, so if you have heart issues, you probably shouldn't eat it.  

Ingredients

Crust
1 package (18.25 oz) plain yellow cake mix
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
1 large egg

Filling
1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, at room temperature
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 stick (8 tablespoons) butter, melted
3 3/4 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted
1 package (6 oz.; 1 cup) semisweet chocolate chips

Baking

1.  Place rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Set aside an ungreased 13- by 9- inch baking pan.

2.  For the crust, place the cake mix, melted butter, and egg in a large mixing bowl.  Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 2 minutes.  Stop the machine and scrape down the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula.  The batter should come together in a ball.  With your fingertips, pat the batter evenly over the bottom of the pan, smoothing it out with your fingers until the top is smooth.  Set the pan aside.

3.  For the filling, place the cream cheese in the same mixing bowl that was used to make the crust, and with the same beaters (no need to clean either), blend with an electric mixer on low speed until fluffy, 30 seconds.  Stop the machine and add the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.  Stop the machine and add the confectioners' sugar.  Beat on medium speed until the sugar is well incorporated, 1 minute more.  Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

4.  Place the chocolate chips in a small saucepan over low heat.  Cook, stirring until the chips are melted, 1 to 2 minutes.  Measure out 1 cup of the cream cheese filling and fold it into the chocolate mixture, stirring so the batter becomes well combined and all one color.  Set aside.

5.  Pour the remaining filling on the crust and spread with the rubber spatula so that the filling covers the entire surface and reaches the side of the pan.  Drop spoonfuls of the chocolate batter over the top of the filling, then swirl them with a dinner knife so the top of the batter has a marbled effect.  Be careful not to cut through the crust.  Place the pan in the oven.

6.  Bake the cake until it is well-browned but the center still jiggles when you shake the pan, 25 to 45 minutes.  Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool, 30 minutes.  Cut into squares and serve.

*Store this cake, covered in aluminum foil, at room temperature for up to 4 days or in the refrigerator up to 1 week.  Or freeze it, wrapped in foil, for up to 6 months.  Thaw the cake overnight in the refrigerator before serving.  

How to Get Your Cake Out of the Bundt Pan

One of the scariest things about using a bundt pan is getting your cake out when it's done.  Bundts are notorious for mauling your cake when you try to take it back.  Over the years, I developed my own little timing, and it seems to work well so I thought I would share it.

1. Grease your pan with oil, butter, or cooking spray.
2. Dust with flour.  I skipped this step for years; it seemed messy and who wants to stop to bother with that when your delightedly and impatiently putting your cake in the oven?  However, this step has proven to be very important.  
3. Don't over or under cook your cake.  I know that seems obvious, and you don't do it on purpose.  However, if your cake is too wet or too dry, there may not be much that can help it.
4. (This was a shocker to me.) Let the cake cool for about 30 minutes before removing it from the pan.  It seems natural to either try to remove it immediately or let it cool completely, but I've found neither succesful.  I always tell people, "Let it cool until you can pick up the pan with your bare hands, and then flip it and take it out."  Again, that usually takes about half an hour.  

Voila!  Hopefully your creation is sitting beautifully on a plate on your counter.  However, if you cake ever does stick, there are a couple of last minute tricks you can turn to:

1. If you have almond bark in the house, heat it up and drizzle that stuff all over.  No one notices anything past that beautiful chocolate shell. 
2. Powdered sugar.  It's like the glitter of the baking world.  You can try dousing it all over, and see where that gets ya. 

Hey, sometimes I like to do these things anyway.  Let me know if this was helpful, or if you have any other handy tricks of your own.

Cake o' the Week

I really like to bake cakes.  I think it's partially because I love hospitality, and a good cake is like hospitality on the go.  I bake a lot of cakes, so I thought I could start doing a cake o' the week. I'll even share my recipes.  The biggest downside is that I won't get to hide things up my sleeve... but, hey, blogs slowly kill the element of mystery in life anyway.

This week's cake:  Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake

Not a great picture, but I was in the middle
of watching the Super Bowl.

Ingredients

1 box yellow cake mix
1 box vanilla pudding
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup water
3 eggs
8 oz. sour cream
6 oz. chocolate chips (mini chips work well in the recipe, but are not necessary)

Baking

-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bundt pan with cooking spray or butter.  Lightly dust with flour.
-Mix cake mix, vanilla pudding, oil, water, eggs, and sour cream until thoroughly blended.  Stir in chocolate chips.
-Bake 35-45 minutes, until cooked through.  Let cake cool in pan for about 30 minutes, or until you can touch the pan with bare hands.  Remove promptly.  To make it as moist as possible, wrap in plastic wrap when you remove it from the pan and refrigerate overnight.   

Variations:
-You can add nuts, coconut, or peanut butter chips when you add the chocolate chips.
-You can also use other flavors of pudding instead of vanilla (banana makes it fun for breakfast).
-At Christmas I dye it green and bake it in this fun Christmas-tree shaped pan that my friends the Davises and the Hatchers got me.