Easy Chocolate Bundt Valentine’s Cake

EASY & GORGEOUS- (DID I SAY EASY?) VALENTINE’S CAKE

Valentines’ Day is just around the corner! And if your’e wanting to make a show-stopping & heart-felt cake- you can! This cake is perfect for the beginning baker. Trust me!

For a moist & deliciously rich cake- you will not find a better recipe than the Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Birthday Cake Recipe- www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/big-chocolate-birthday-cake-recipe-2042432. It’s amazing! But I promised you easy- so if you want to skip the completely from-scratch version then here’s my semi-homemade recipe that’s just as good with a fraction of the work.

Recipe:
(Ingredients: Box of chocolate cake mix, 3 eggs, 1 cup of strong coffee, 1/2 cup of greek yogurt, 1/2 cup of vegetable oil, 1 packet of 4 oz chocolate pudding & 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips)

Follow the directions on a chocolate box cake mix- substituting strong coffee for milk (this really heightens the chocolate flavors). Additionally add 1/2 cup of greek yogurt, a 4 oz packet of instant chocolate pudding, and a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips! Your children, significant other and friends and family will be so impressed! I kid not!

Decorating the Cake:
(Ingredients for glaze: 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, 1 cup of heavy whipping cream
For buttercream flowers: 1 cup of vegetable Crisco, 1/4 cup of milk, 4 cups of powdered sugar, pink and red food coloring)

For starters- use a bundt cake pan. Why? It’s perfect for beginners. You don’t have to worry about leveling, layering or icing a cake which takes practice. The budnt cake is already in an elegant shape. Just heavily grease the cake pan with cooking spray and bake per the instructions on the box.

My 2-ingredient chocolate glaze recipe is also SPECTACULAR! Seriously! Here goes! In a medium-sized pot, heat 1 cup of heavy whipping cream on medium heat until the milk begins to bubble. Then add one cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and reduce the heat to low stirring until the chocolate has completely melted into the milk. Turn off the heat. Let the glaze completely cool for up to two hours. Then spoon over your inverted and completely cooled gorgeous chocolate cake.

You could totally serve the cake just like this because the bundt cake glazed does make a nice presentation. But to add that special Valentine’s touch we are going to now pipe red, pink and white flowers on top. Don’t freak out. Its super easy. You will need to cream a cup of vegetable shortening with a hand mixer or a stand mixer along with the milk. Once the shortening and milk are combined slowly add in 4 cups of powdered sugar ( I cup at a time) until it turns into icing! That’s it- you’ve made icing!  Once you have made your frosting separate it into three bowls. You will add red food coloring to one bowl, pink to another- but leave the last bowl uncolored. Add as much coloring until you get it to the color you want. I like McCormicks red food coloring it gets it just right. Next you will need to put your icing into icing bags with star-shaped tips. Press the bags down and just make circles. It’s that easy. Save the left over icing…I have another Valentine’s project coming up we can use it for!

You can do this! Now go for it! I would love to see how your cake turned out so please leave a comment or tag me on Instagram!