Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake

Brenda turns thirty-nine this week. August 14. I am choosing not to think about the fact that I am one year from forty, because forty is a number that sounds like it belongs to someone else. Someone older. Someone who has figured things out. I have not figured things out. I have just gotten better at pretending.

Dave asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said a day off, which I meant literally. No driving. No cooking. No packing lunches or signing permission slips or negotiating between children who are convinced the other one is looking at them wrong. One day where the only person I am responsible for is myself. Dave said he would handle everything. I believed him, which was either trust or recklessness, and the line between those two things is thin.

He did handle it. He took all four kids to the truck stop on my birthday, which sounds like a terrible birthday activity but the kids love the truck stop because Dave lets them climb on the trucks that are in for repair, and there is a vending machine that sells Gatorade, and these are apparently the ingredients of a perfect day when you are between six and twelve.

I stayed home. I sat in the kitchen with coffee and did absolutely nothing for two hours, which is the hardest thing I have done all year. Then I baked my own birthday cake, because the chocolate sheet cake is the only cake I want and nobody makes it as well as I do, which sounds arrogant and is simply true. Chocolate, buttermilk, butter, eggs, flour, baked in a sheet pan. The icing goes on while the cake is still warm: cocoa, butter, milk, powdered sugar, vanilla, pecans. The icing melts into the top and forms that fudgy layer that makes everything wrong in the world temporarily right.

Gayle came over for dinner. I made my own birthday dinner too, because I wanted to: pot roast, mashed potatoes, rolls. Gayle brought a card and a jar of her bread-and-butter pickles, which she makes every summer from her garden cucumbers, and which taste like August in a jar. Dave gave me a new travel mug for the truck, insulated, with a lid that actually stays on, which is the most thoughtful gift a trucker can receive and Dave knows it.

Thirty-nine. One year from forty. One year from a number that means something, or means nothing, or means I have survived another lap around the sun, and the cake is good, and the pickles are good, and the family is here, and that is the only math that matters.

The chocolate cake I describe in the story is the one I’ve made for years — sheet pan, warm icing, pecans — and nobody asked me to share it here because it belongs to me in the way that certain recipes just do. But the Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake is the recipe I’d point anyone else toward when they’re chasing that same feeling: the one where the chocolate is deep enough to mean something, where the crumb is tender, where the whole kitchen smells like a decision well made. If you’ve ever baked your own birthday cake — and you should, at least once — this is the one to make it with.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 55 minutes | Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes | Servings: 12

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, divided
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 cup hot strong brewed coffee
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
For the chocolate glaze:
4 oz semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/4 cup powdered sugar, sifted
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Preheat your oven to 350°F. Generously grease a 10- to 12-cup Bundt pan with softened butter and dust with 2 tablespoons of the cocoa powder, tapping out any excess. Set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, remaining cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined.
Cream butter and sugar. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or using a hand mixer), beat the softened butter and granulated sugar on medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition and scraping down the sides of the bowl. Mix in the vanilla extract.
Alternate the dry and wet ingredients. Reduce mixer speed to low. Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating with the buttermilk in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Mix just until combined — do not overmix.
Add the coffee and chocolate chips. Carefully stir in the hot coffee until the batter is smooth and uniform; the batter will be thin. Fold in the chocolate chips.
Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs. Do not overbake.
Cool. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then invert onto the rack and cool completely, at least 1 hour, before glazing.
Make the glaze. Place the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, bring the heavy cream, butter, and corn syrup just to a simmer. Pour over the chopped chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes, then whisk until smooth. Sift in the powdered sugar and cocoa powder and whisk until glossy and combined. Let the glaze cool for 5 to 10 minutes until slightly thickened.
Glaze and serve. Place the cooled cake on a serving plate. Pour the warm chocolate glaze over the top, letting it run down the sides. Allow the glaze to set for at least 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake — The Birthday Cake I Made for Myself