The Hilarity Of Grief Or How Many Bundt Cakes Is Too Many Bundt Cakes? (Double Chocolate Peppermint Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake)

Some people react to death and the trappings of death (funerals, etc) in a very somber, dignified fashion.

And some people crack jokes, even while crying.

My family would fall in the camp of the latter. I think I have laughed more this last week than I have the entire previous year. I'm not entirely sure at what--just everything. My dad says we come by it naturally--he remembers his mom and her sisters laughing over their father's coffin. At one point during the viewing, as I was tearing up, my brother Chris whipped out a handkerchief and my sister cracked "he's been waiting his entire life to hand a handkerchief to a lady in distress."

It was just that kind of weekend.

We don't just laugh at death, of course, we also eat. Maybe the visceral, tangible, alive pleasure of eating keeps death at bay. Or maybe we just like to eat. Because I am out of town I usually bring dessert to any family function, and the dessert that stays freshest in my opinion is bundt cake.

So I made 3.

Actually I made 5 for a total of 3 successful, because I left the sugar out of one (no I do not jest--thank goodness I did not bake it) and the other I chose the wrong pan for and you will just have to trust that it killed the cake. It's true I like to bake when stressed, but I usually mean everyday kind of stresses not baking for my grandma's funeral weekend stress. I would not call it my finest baking day ever. But I did eventually produce 3 stellar cakes.

One of the cakes, Lisa Yockelson's Ultra Lemon Bundt Cake, is one of my go-to favorites and has been shared here before. The second was an orange scented whipped cream pound cake, which I will share later. The last, Double Chocolate Peppermint Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake, is actually a Holiday regular for us, but this holiday season I could not make it because of the move, so I figured this was a good time. It actually in some ways was the least successful of the 3 because it is not glazed, and therefore it dried out a little more in the 2 days before it was served and got a bit crumbly. Next time (if I am making the cake ahead by a day or 2) I might glaze it with a chocolate sauce.

But if you serve this cake the day it is made I promise it is absolutely amazing and does not disappoint. Frankly I don't even think it would have disappointed this weekend except it did not compare favorably to the glaze entrapped moistness of the other 2 cakes. The recipe can be found at Baking Bites--someone on the CLBB pointed me to the recipe a year ago and I have been in love with it since.

I'm sorry I do not have a picture of it sliced into--it was hard (and weird) enough grabbing photos of the cakes before they were sliced into. Basically you first dump the dark chocolate batter into the pan and smooth its top. Then you pour the white chocolate batter in and smooth its top--you do not swirl or mix the 2 in any way. During the baking, the dark chocolate batter naturally rises up around the white chocolate batter, producing a cake that appears all dark chocolate on the outside, but actually has white (chocolate) cake inside as well. It's rather nifty. Baking Bites has a great photo of it.