Recipe Review - Chocolate Velvet Fudge Cake

I needed a quick and easy chocolate cake recipe to bring to a gathering yesterday, and this week's Heavenly Cake Baker's selection fit the bill.  This is a very simple bundt cake to prepare - mixed in mere minutes.  Overall, the texture was lovely and the flavor was good, although a bit on the dry side if eaten alone - easily fixed with a generous dollop of Morello Cherry Whipped Cream (recipe below).

The recipe calls for a silicone bundt cake pan, but others used traditional bundt pans with success.  The directions also specified spraying the pan with baking spray, which usually enables the cake to release perfectly, but...

I didn't get so lucky.  Also, my cake batter was completely mixed and lump free when I poured it into the pan, but if you look closely, you can see the finished cake had a modeled appearance.

Nothing a sprinkling of powdered sugar couldn't fix.

I probably won't be making this recipe again, but only because Rose has so many more chocolate cake recipes to choose from that are phenomenal.  If, however, you're in a huge hurry and don't have the time to invest in one of her more complicated cakes, go ahead and give this one a try.

Most of the recipes featured by The Heavenly Cake Bakers are not shared online, but they can be found in the book Rose's Heavenly Cakes by Rose Levy Beranbaum.  

24 ounce jar of Dark Cherry Morello Cherries in Light Syrup (Trader Joe's), juice reserved

1/2 - 1 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon arrowroot 

2 cups heavy cream, whipped

Drain cherries from their light syrup, reserve cherries and put the light syrup and 1/2 cup sugar in a med sauce pan; reduce the syrup to half it's original volume. Whisk in arrowroot until thickened.  Remove from heat and add reserved cherries and almond extract; puree with an immersion blender to desired chunkiness (blender or food processor may also be used).  Refrigerate or chill over an ice bath before folding into whipped cream.