chocolate cinnamon bundt cake with mocha icing

this past weekend my mom had her hanukkah party (yes, we had our hanukkah party before hanukkah started and yes we also lit all the candles in the menorah...that's how we roll) and she asked if i wanted to bring dessert. of course! my thought process:

• make something that can feed about 10 people (and not cookies cause i made cookies for gifts)

• got any kitchen toys that i have yet to use? yes i do! hi there new bundt pan!

• make something blog-able (see? i do still think you you poor neglected blog baby)

so i went to my homemade magazine-clipping cookbook and came up with this: chocolate cinnamon bundt cake with mocha icing drizzle. ummm yes please! i made it vegan (obviously) and added applesauce for half of the oil and ended up with a really fantastic cake. it's super moist with a little bit of a chewy crust, kind of like a brownie cake and that is a very good thing! and it has some flavor depth from the cinnamon and espresso to take a little further than just plain old good chocolate cake.

i'm so out of blogging practice that i baked this cake and then totally flaked on taking a pertty picture of it, and because there is no photographic evidence i really don't even have to tell you about the, um, less then perfect removal of cake from pan. despite the brand new nonstick pan and the light coat of oil it was not a seamless flip. in fact, the whole top of the cake decided it was perfectly happy in the pan, thank you. i think this could be due to not letting it cool long enough before flipping (the recipe says 10 minutes...i will advise 20). so i pulled out the top bits, smooshed them back onto the bottom half, tried to tell myself it looked fine, knew it really showed it's smooshed-togetherness and then realized i could just flip it over and make the bottom the top, or the top the top (all this flipping and inverting has me confused!) and no one would be the wiser.

chocolate-cinnamon bundt cake with mocha icing
(probably from bon appetit...)
ingredients:
1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder, divided
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups packed brown sugar, divided
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch mixed with 6 tablespoons water
1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup vegan margarine

preheat oven to 350, brush a 12-15 cup nonstick bundt pan with oil.

whisk 1 cup boiling water, cocoa powder, and 2 teaspoons espresso powder.

whisk 2 cups flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a bowl.

using a mixer, beat 2 cups brown sugar with the vegetable oil, applesauce and vanilla in a large bowl to blend. add cornstarch mixture and blend until smooth. beat in half of the flour mixture then the cocoa mixture and then the remaining flour mixture until blended. fold in 1 cup of chocolate chips and pour batter into the bundt pan.

bake about 50 minutes, until a tester comes out clean. cool for 20 minutes in the pan then invert onto a cooling rack and cool 15 minutes longer.

meanwhile stir remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons espresso powder and 2 tablespoons water in a small saucepan over medium heat until the sugar melts. remove from heat and add the margarine and 1/4 cup chocolate chips and stir until melted. drizzle the icing over the cake and let cool then serve!

i didn't use all of the icing....the rest is going on top of ice cream. yum!

happy holidays everyone!

-d