Tunnel-of-Fudge Cake
Updated June 4, 2024
- Total Time
- 2 hours plus 2 hours to cool
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 2½cups walnuts or pecans, chopped
- 2tablespoons unsalted butter
- ¼teaspoon salt
- 1¼cups unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
- 1cup sugar
- ¾cup dark brown sugar, packed
- ¾teaspoon salt
- 1teaspoon vanilla
- ⅓cup vegetable oil
- 2large egg yolks
- 4large eggs
- 2cups confectioners sugar
- 2¼cups bleached all-purpose flour
- ¾cup natural cocoa powder
Nutritional analysis per serving (10 servings)
877 calories; 56 grams fat; 20 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 17 grams monounsaturated fat; 17 grams polyunsaturated fat; 90 grams carbohydrates; 5 grams dietary fiber; 61 grams sugars; 12 grams protein; 274 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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Preparation
- Step 1
Place a heavy baking sheet or pizza stone on a shelf in the lower third of the oven. Heat the oven to 350 degrees (see note).
- Step 2
On a large baking sheet, roast nuts in the oven for 10 minutes. Keep watch that they do not burn. Pour into a bowl, and add 2 tablespoons butter and ¼ teaspoon salt. Toss well and set aside.
- Step 3
Generously butter the inside of a large 12-cup Bundt cake pan.
- Step 4
In a mixer, beat butter to soften until it becomes fluffy. Add sugar, then the brown sugar and continue to beat until airy. While beating, if the bowl does not feel cool, place it in the freezer for five minutes, then resume beating.
- Step 5
Beat in ¾ teaspoon salt, vanilla and vegetable oil.
- Step 6
Beat in two egg yolks. Crack the four whole eggs into a large mixing bowl. With a small knife, cut yolks and barely stir the eggs, minimally blending the whites and yolks.
- Step 7
With the mixer on the lowest speed, beat the eggs into the batter in three batches. Mix in confectioners' sugar and the cocoa.
- Step 8
In a large mixing bowl, stir flour and nuts together. Then with a spatula stir the flour-nut mixture into the batter. Pour the batter into the Bundt pan.
- Step 9
Bake for 40 minutes. You cannot use the toothpick test because the cake contains so much sugar that the center will not set but will remain a tunnel-of-fudge. You are dependent on a correct oven temperature and the 40-minute cooking time.
- Step 10
When removed from the oven, the cake will have a runny fudge core with an air pocket above the fudge. About 30 minutes after taking the cake out of the oven, press the inside and outside edge of the cake bottom down all the way around to minimize the air pocket. Let the cake, still in the pan, cool on a rack for two to three hours. Invert the cake onto a platter and let cool completely.
- This cake is supposed to have an oozing center, so a poke test will not accurately test doneness; you are dependent on a correct oven temperature and the 40-minute cooking time. Because of this, we recommend using an external oven thermometer and also making sure your oven is properly calibrated.
Private Notes
Comments
If we are not using nuts, should we add butter and salt to the flour, or skip it altogether and simply add flour, or flour and salt, to sugar mixture?
I've made a "tunnel of fudge" cake many, many times before but this recipe is perfect...just what I would expect from Shirley Corriher. Follow the instructions exactly. And use GOOD cocoa.
Liz, either "natural" or "Dutch-processed" (sometimes just called Dutched) cocoa should work here. Dutch-processed is darker-colored and less acidic than natural. American cocoas like Hershey's are what this cake would have been made with back in the 60's and will make a reddish cake with classic flavor. However, using one versus the other only matters when the acidity of the cocoa is factored into chemical leavening, which it isn't here.
Does the center still ooze a day or two after baking?
I made this cake, and it was delicious. Very fudgy. But the center (unlike Yeats') held. It was not runny. Oven was set to 350, with two thermometers. 40 minutes exactly. Maybe my Bundt pan was the wrong shape? It was 12 cups, but very ornamental. No real harm, as I just called it a chocolate walnut cake.
This recipe does not nearly recreate the cake my mother used to make using the original Pillsbury recipe with the mix that was ultimately discontinued. I made this recipe today and it is 1) way too sweet, 2) way too gooey (the tunnel of fudge should be like a piece of fudge running through the cake, not a molten mess), and 3) way too much work, especially for the outcome. It's going in the garbage. I may try the revised recipe Pillsbury developed.
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