By Sophia Musante ’22 and Frances Ross ’22
A chocolate bundt cake is the perfect recipe for winter! This rich, moist and chocolatey treat, inspired by Inquiring Chef, can be topped with homemade grasshoppers, an original recipe, which are also perfect to eat plain or to give as a gift! Although it may appear complicated and time consuming, this recipe is simple and worth the effort.
Ingredients
Cake:
- 1 ¼ cups + 1 tablespoon water
- ¾ cup cocoa powder
- 2 ¼ cup sugar
- 1 ¼ teaspoons salt
- 2 ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 ¼ cups + 1 teaspoon buttermilk
- 1 cup + 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour, sifted
Ganache:
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate chips
Grasshopper:
- 8 ounces white chocolate
- 6 ounces semi sweet chocolate
- 2 ounces dark chocolate
- 1 package Oreo Thins
- food dye
Caramel Sauce:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ¾ cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions:
Cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a bundt pan with butter and dust with flour.
- Combine the water and cocoa powder in a small saucepan and bring it to a boil while whisking frequently.
- Remove from the heat and let the mixture cool back down to room temperature. This will take about 30 minutes. Make caramel while mixture cools.
- When the mixture is nearly cool, combine the sugar, salt, baking soda, eggs and egg yolk in a large bowl. With a hand mixer, mix on low for about one minute until evenly combined.
- Add the buttermilk, oil and vanilla extract. Mix on low for about one minute. Add the flour and mix on medium for about two minutes.
- Add the cooled water and cocoa powder mixture and mix on medium for about three minutes.
- Pour the mixture into the bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, around 60 minutes. While baking, make ganache and grasshopper.
- Let the bundt cake cool down completely before flipping it onto a serving plate. Top with chocolate ganache, grasshoppers and a drizzle of caramel.
Ganache:
- Place chocolate in a medium bowl.
- Heat cream in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and quickly add chocolate. Whisk until smooth.
- Allow the ganache to cool before pouring over cake.
Grasshopper:
- Separate eight ounces of white chocolate into six bowls and microwave each until melted.
- Add food dye, making a seperate color for each bowl, and stir.
- Pour dyed white chocolate onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Make sure the white chocolate is in a rectangular shape, forming a gradient of colors.
- Freeze until solid.
- Pour semi-sweet chocolate into one bowl and microwave until melted. Place semi-sweet chocolate on top of white chocolate and freeze until solid.
- Separate cream from cookies of about half of the oreo thins. Crush the cookies.
- Spread the cream over the semi-sweet chocolate. Freeze for three minutes.
- Spread a thin layer of dark chocolate over the cream. Sprinkle on the crushed cookies until a layer of cookie covers the grasshoppers. Freeze until solid.
- Cut into pieces and place on cake or eat.
Caramel Sauce:
- Pour sugar into a small saucepan. Add water to moisten the sugar.
- Place over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the mixture becomes clear, about three to five minutes.
- Raise the heat to medium high and continue to cook until the caramel turns amber, about 2-5 minutes.
- Remove the mixture from the heat and immediately add heavy cream.
- Add butter and stir until the mixture becomes smooth. Add vanilla extract if desired.
- Let caramel sauce cool before using.
