SRC Recipe: Cocoa Bundt Cupcakes

I always look forward to receiving my SRC assignment each month. After our reveal day, I anticipate getting the e-mail that says "your blog assignment is.....". Whoop whoop. What fun.

Secret Recipe Club (SRC) has been a really fun outlet for me. Each month our amazing hostesses assigns us a blog. There are four groups and each group gets a Monday that is their Reveal Day. They browse through their assigned blog and choose a recipe to make and blog about on their given day. It's just that awesome!

This month I was assigned the blog Chocolates and Dreams. Is that a great name or what! 

I love this quote from the author:

Today I cook and blog and some day do hope to start my own cafeteria. A nice small place where food and dreams are cherished and relished.

Take some time to visit her about me page and learn more about her journey in to cooking and blogging. 

A few of my assignments have been from bloggers in other countries...which is always a fun challenge. I'm sure it's a challenge for them as well when they get American blogs. I have learned to pay very close attention to recipes. 

As I looked through her blog I had several things picked out to possibly try. Visit her recipe page to see some really great recipes.

I had two dessert recipes picked out...both chocolate. One was her eggless chocolate cupcakes, and the other (which is the one I made) was her Cocoa Bundt Cupcakes. I know, I know...they're both chocolate cupcakes...maybe I was just feeling the NEED for chocolate. I'm sure I will still make the eggless ones. 

The Cocoa Bundt Cakes turned out wonderful. I had received a phone call last week asking if I could bring a meal to a family from church. Earlier in the day I thought about something to make them for dessert and these came to mind. I hadn't made my SRC recipe yet and thought this would be the perfect time. Yes, it was a risk, because what if they didn't turn out? Well, then they wouldn't have dessert and I'd just try again and no one would ever know. 

I have mini bundt pans and that's what I chose to make them in so each family member would have one individual cake. AND there were 4 left over, so each of my family members received a cake as well.

I realized as I went to make them that I only had about 1/2 a cup of white flour...YIKES...I had made two loaves of bread and a pie last week and my daughter had made cookies which depleted the supply. I did have some White Whole Wheat flour and used that. It still turned out great but did have a little bit of an earthy flavor which we still liked. 

The other thing I wasn't sure on was the butter. The recipe called for the butter but didn't say what to do with it. From the pictures it looked like it was melted, so I melted it, but  made the mistake of adding it to the milk (it looked like all the wet ingredients were mixed together)...um...don't do that...the butter started to solidify in the milk immediately. OOPS. It still worked.I also failed to see the part in the directions that said "add wet ingredients two spoonfuls at a time". OOOPS. It still worked..Phew! 

This was a super yummy recipe and I'm so glad I tried it. Oh, and it was really quick and easy. I made a peanut butter glaze to drizzle on top!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 2/3 c.   Flour
1 1/2 c.   Sugar
   1/2 c.   Cocoa
   1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
1 1/2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 1/2 c.    Buttermilk/Sour Milk
       2       Eggs
   1/2 c.    Shortening/Butter ( I used butter)
       1 tsp. Salt
       1 tsp. Vanilla Essence (pure vanilla)


Instructions: (these are her instructions, I'll put any comments in italics)

Mix all the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately. I may have done something wrong because when I added the melted butter to the milk it began to solidify...Of course I didn't stir it so maybe that was it...oh well, it still worked. 

Once all the dry ingredients are mixed sieve the ingredients thrice to get rid of all the thick particles. The mesh that you use should be very fine for best results. This process gives the cake a very fine texture as against a slightly lumpy texture other cakes get. This is very difficult to explain. Once you have used this process a few time you will understand. I didn't have a sieve so I just used the whisk attachment on my mixer to try and "fluff" it a bit. I really need to buy a sieve or whatever else it's called. 

Put the oven to reheat at 175 degrees C. Since it was a cake, I guessed this might be about 350 degrees. I didn't have time to look it up.

Now mix in the wet ingredients slowly. Two spoonfuls at a time. Yes, as mentioned earlier, I completely missed this step and added it all together. 

Once mixed spoon into the bundt cupcakes and put to bake for around 20 minutes per batch. This will give you around 24 - 30 small cupcakes and around 12 big ones. I used both normal cupcakes dish and my new bundt dish. I used my mini-bundt pans which made 12 perfect baby cakes. I also greased and floured them. I wasn't sure if I should or not, but typically do so I played it safe...I would have been sad if they stuck. 

These were so yummy. I hope you take time to make them. Check out all the other amazing SRC recipes below, and please be sure to go over to Chocolates and Dreams and show her some love...

With Joy UNquenchable,