Easter Day

Wow, today was Easter. Where is this year going?!?! It has really snuck up on me this year. If I think about it, I guess that makes sense. My mind was otherwise occupied for a few months, time seemed to be relative. But, here we are in the midst of April showers, and before we know it, we'll be enjoying May flowers *fingers crossed*!

Anyway, this year we celebrated Easter with Matt's Mom's side of the family. We were all signing up for food via e-mail and before I knew it, everything but dessert was spoken for... so, I signed up for dessert! After "The Great Cake Flop" at Celeste's birthday, I was a bit weary about baking another cake from scratch, but, I found this recipe entitled "Decadent Double Chocolate Bundt Cake" and I had to give it a try :) I may not be the best baker in the world, but I always try! Practice makes perfect... right?

So, Saturday afternoon my friend Christina came over (She was making banana bread) and we set out on our baking adventure! It was fun, we had some girl time, stuck our creations in the oven and settled in for a movie. So, we were a bit confused by this recipe of mine... for the most part it was pretty straight forward, but towards the end it was a bit more... confusing. Maybe just because we don't do much baking? I don't know, but it seemed as if we were supposed to do things in the wrong order: Take cake out of oven, pour glaze over cake (this is a bundt cake, so that would be the bottom!), THEN cool for 30 minutes, Then remove cake from pan and sprinkle with powder sugar. Hhmmm. So, we were confused and just went about doing things the way we thought was right: Remove cake from oven, cool for 30 minutes, remove from pan, pour on glaze, sprinkle with powder sugar. NOW I realize why that was wrong and what the recipe was saying ;) So, the glaze is supposed to go on the bottom while the cake is still in the pan so that you don't lose any of that yummy-ness. Instead it soaks into and around the whole thing. Now I know this. Now I also know that when it says to brush the pan with oil, flour it AND coat with cooking spray, that all those steps really ARE necessary EVEN IF your pan is non-stick! There was a bit of a hiccup with the getting the cake out of the pan part... but, I think I patched it up pretty well and that it went fairly unnoticed ;)

So, not the smoothest of cake baking experiences, but it was better than last time and it tasted great! For those of you willing to give it a try, I will post the recipe below. With the benefit of my experience, you should do splendidly!!

The truth is, everyone seemed to enjoy it and it was great spending time with family and celebrating Jesus' death and ressurection and that is what matters! Although, I can't wait for the easter egg hunts to begin :) Happy Easter everyone!

Decadent Double Chocolate Bundt Cake:

Glaze:
2/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup water
¼ cup chocolate-flavored liqueur
2 tablespoons butter
Cake:
1 ½ teaspoons canola oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Cooking spray
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
6 tablespoons butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 cups all-purpose flour (about 13 ½ ounces)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups 1% low-fat milk
2/3 cup semisweet chocolate minichips
2 tablespoons powdered sugar

1. To prepare glaze, combine first 4 ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. Cool completely.

2. Preheat oven to 350°.

3. To prepare cake, drizzle oil into a 12-cup Bundt pan; coat pan thoroughly with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons flour, shaking out excess. Coat prepared pan with cooking spray.

4. Place 1 ½ cups granulated sugar and 6 tablespoons butter in a large bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended (about 5 minutes). Add eggs and egg whites, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla.

5. Lightly spoon 3 cups flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine 3 cups flour and next 4 ingredients (through salt), stirring with a whisk. Add flour mixture and milk alternately to sugar mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix after each addition. Beat 2 minutes. Fold in chips. Spoon batter into prepared pan. Swirl batter using a knife.

6. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately pour glaze over cake. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 30 minutes. Invert cake onto a serving plate; cool completely. Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar.