Tunnel of Fudge

« The cake. The icon. The Tunnel of Fudge. »

Nordic Ware is celebrating their 60th anniversary this year. Nordic Ware is perhaps best known for the tube pan called a Bundt® pan. Forty years ago, Ella Rita Helfrich submitted a recipe to the Pillsbury Bake Off Contest that used a Bundt® and mysteriously formed a soft fudge core inside a chocolate cake. The cake won and launched not only the Bundt® pan into the mainstream, but helped to create an icon of hospitality for the next decade. I can't think of a single party or social event in the 70s that didn't include a Bundt® cake of some sort or another. Cake mixes were all the rage and with the Bundt® pan, anyone could turn out a pretty cake in an hour with little effort.

I suppose that the advent of gourmet food, a.k.a. Nouvelle Cuisine, in the 80s caused the cakes fall from grace as America discovered pine nuts and blackened anything. Even now, with all the prancing TV celebrity chefs who seem to appeal mostly to those who don't cook, the cakes are seen as too simple, too pedestrian, too 70s that even a chocolate wine port sauce couldn't sex up enough. Food snobs killed the Bundt® cake. It was an unjust execution.

Food fads come and go, but classics like the Bundt® pan are always around for those who tire of silly trends and return to the tried and true. For the 60th anniversary, Nordic Ware has created a special anniversary edition of the Bundt® that is a little bit larger than the ones presently made and, best of all, it also features a set of handles, that were inexplicably removed years ago. It's a pity that H. David Dalquist, the man who, with his wife, created the Nordic Ware company and the famous pan, died early last year and will miss the celebration. The Washington Post featured an article, Let Them Eat Cake, that is a wistful epitaph of the creator of the cake pan that no kitchen should be without. I know it's just a cake pan, but no other tube pan is quite the same as the classic Bundt®. It's an icon. It's a cake. It's a memory of a time when the cake was the safest option on a buffet table filled with cheese balls and jell-o.

To celebrate, I thought I'd make the infamous "Tunnel of Fudge" cake that was so incredibly popular when the cake mix for it was introduced. I originally tried it in my Nordic Ware 'cathedral' Bundt® pan a month or two ago, but my impatience turned the cake into a chocolate volcano spewing molten goo as Jarkko and I tried to stent the flow surging forth from the fractured cake. I tried it again in a regular tube pan with a bit more patience with much more success. Impatience is not a virtue.

The tunnel of fudgy goo in the center of the cake is a wonder of baking chemistry as a large part of the butter, sugar and cocoa are driven inwards by the heat of the pan. It's a very dense, slightly dry around the edges, and very chocolaty cake that is best enjoyed with a large glass of milk. Happy 60th birthday Nordic Ware! Forty-five million Bundt® pans are out there, lurking in the dark reaches of kitchens around the world, waiting for their owners to remember the joys of simple, lovely Bundt® cakes.

Tunnel of Fudge Cake

Serves: 16
Prep Time: 35 min (Ready in 4 hr 30 min )
Source: Pillsbury

Cake:

• 1 3/4 cups or 4.2dl sugar
• 3,5 sticks or 400g margarine or butter, softened
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups or 4.75dl powdered sugar
• 2 1/4 cups or 5.5dl all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup or 1.75dl unsweetened cocoa
• 2 cups or 4.75dl chopped walnuts (NOT optional)

Glaze:

• 3/4 cup or 1.75dl powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup or 3/4dl unsweetened cocoa
• 4 to 6 teaspoons milk

1. Heat oven to 350F/190C. Grease and flour 12-cup/28dl Bundt® pan or 10-inch/25cm tube pan. In large bowl, combine sugar and margarine; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar; blend well. By hand, stir in flour and remaining cake ingredients until well blended. Spoon batter into greased and floured pan; spread evenly.
2. Bake at 350F/190C. for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is set and edges are beginning to pull away from sides of pan. (Since this cake has a soft filling, an ordinary doneness test cannot be used. Accurate oven temperature and baking times are essential.) Cool upright in pan on wire rack 1 1/2 hours. Invert onto serving plate; cool at least 2 hours.
3. In small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered.