Recipe For Tunnel Of Fudge

A cople of you have asked for the Tunnel Of Fudge recipe - so here it is as Melissa Gray from NPR wrote it in her wonderful book "All Cakes Considered". If you love to bake this is one one wonderful book of cakes !


Tunnel of Fudge Cake

This is the recipe Pillsbury offers for the prize-winning cake that started the bundt pan revolution. It is not exactly the same as Ella Helfrich’s because Pillsbury stopped making the double dutch fudge buttercream frosting mix she used in the original. Now you have to make the whole cake from scratch. Nuts are essential to the cake’s success. A "tunnel of fudge" mysteriously appears in the finished cake. This does make it tough to use the usual toothpick method of determining doneness

Cake
1 ¾ cups sugar
1 ¾ cups butter or margarine, softened
6 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
2 ¼ cups all purpose or unbleached flour
¾ cup unsweetened cocoa ( NOT dutch processed. very important!)
2 cups chopped walnuts
Glaze
¾ cup powdered sugar
¼ cup unsweetened cocoa
4-6 tsp. milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 12-cup Bundt pan (or a 10-inch tube pan). In a large bowl, combine sugar and butter or 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 and spread evenly.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is set and edges are beginning to pull away from sides of pan. Cool upright in pan on wire rack 1 ½ hours. Invert onto serving plate and cool at least 2 hours.

In small bowl, combine glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered.