Holiday party season started officially last weekend. We had so many events to go to we needed most of the week to recover. This weekend was much the same. One of the best events last weekend was a tree-trimming open house at Elizabeth's house in Palo Alto.
Elizabeth is a managing editor at Weldon Owen, a publishing house that is responsible for the Williams-Sonoma series of cookbooks among other things. While Elizabeth doesn't work on cookbooks (at least not yet!) she is a terrific home baker. The spread of baked goodies she prepared looked bakery beautiful and I felt a personal responsibility as her friend to try absolutely everything. That's just the kind of friend I am.
The biggest hit was the Black Russian cake. You may know about doctoring cake mixes, and you may have even heard of adding Kahlua to a cake, but the vodka in this cake really gives it a holiday kick! Elizabeth not only came up with the recipe (after doing much research online) but she chose to make the cakes in very pretty mini bundt pans (see photo above this post). You could just as easily make this in a large bundt pan or as sinful cupcakes...
Black Russian Bundt Cake
Ingredients
Cake:
1 package plain devil's food cake mix, without pudding
1 three-ounce package instant chocolate pudding mix
1/2 cup Kahlua
1/4 cup vodka
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs (room temperature)
Glaze:
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1/8-1/4 cup Kahlua
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Lightly grease (Crisco) and flour a 12-cup bundt pan.
Combine cake mix, pudding mix, Kahlua, vodka, water, oil, and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Beat for three minutes with an electric mixer. (Scrape sides of bowl halfway through.)
Pour batter in the pan and bake for 45 minutes or until done.
Cool 10 minutes and transfer to a plate.
For glaze, add Kahlua to the confectioners sugar until honey-like consistency (you can use a fork to mix it).
Drizzle glaze over cake.
Note: For mini bundt cakes, adjust cooking time to about 25 minutes (check with toothpick, cake tester, or--Elizabeth's usual fallback--spaghetti for doneness).
