Chocolate Volcano Cake (Chocolate Bundt Cake with a bunch of icing in the center)

BEST OF THE TASTY CHEAPSKATE

This week it was my birthday! I love my birthday. But the night before my birthday I got home five hours later than planned from my conference. I did not have time to lovingly create a nice layer cake for myself. I actually didn't want to do anything hard at all. And I didn't. I made a gorgeous bundt cake that is super easy and super delicious and stays moist for DAYS (not that we need days around here, but still it's nice to know...).

I made it that morning. It takes about 20 minutes of hands on effort, though you do have to hang out at your house for an hour while it cooks. We ate it that night.

A few notes while I've got your ear.
-The fancy pants pan was a little small for this cake (it may have oozed over in the oven), so be sure you use a larger bundt pan.
-The frosting. The first time I made this it was perfect and liquid-y and glaze-y like it should be. But since then, I've sometimes had it seize up when I add the cocoa. I do NOT know why this happens (scientists???). I suspect it has to do with the temperature of the butter/water, but I'm really not sure. Anyway, when it seizes, it forms this thick chocolate-y paste. Do not fear if this happens. Put it in the bowl and add the powdered sugar. It will loosen up (I know it seems it will only get thicker, but it doesn't) and get runnier (the above picture is with a frosting that seized; you can see that it was still drizzle-able). It won't be as runny as a glaze, but it will be runny enough to drape over your cake in a glorious show of awesomeness.
-At the bottom of this post you'll find pics of the big bundt cake with the glaze-y frosting

Chocolate Volcano Cake
adapted from Through Her Looking Glass
Makes one large bundt cake
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
Cost: $8.00 (much more than a usual cake in this house, but it's birthday season and I will splurge on those birthday cakes. Plus, as I sometimes point out, it's so much cheaper than buying a lousy cake make from lousy ingredients from the store. And it will feed a crowd. It's at least 16 servings making this only $.50/serving)
sugar: .30, butter: 1.25, eggs: .30, flour: .25, cocoa: .50, chocolate pudding mix: .50, chocolate chips: .90, more butter: .60, cocoa: .50, powdered sugar: .90, other stuff: .30

Cake:

2 C sugar
1 C butter, somewhat softened
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
2 1/2 C flour
1 C cocoa
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 C instant chocolate pudding mix
2 1/4 C buttermilk
1 C semi-sweet chocolate chips

Chocolate Icing:

1/2 C water
1/2 C (1 stick) butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 C cocoa
3 1/2 C powdered sugar

To make the cake: 

Grease that bundt pan, baby. Grease it, or you will regret it.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat sugar, butter, and vanilla. Add eggs

Add flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt, instant chocolate pudding mix. Of course you're supposed to sift this, and if you're a person with grit, I suppose you will. I always just dump it in the bowl and then sort of fluff it around with a fork or, heck, the beaters. Because I'm lazy. My cakes turn out anyway.

Now add the buttermilk.

Then the chocolate chips.

Pour it into the bundt pan (or a tube pan).

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes. Then, without opening the oven, turn the temperature down to 325 and bake for another 30-ish minutes (mine was about 35 minutes). Insert a knife or other long cake testing device. It should come out with moist crumbs, but not batter.

Let it cool for 10 minutes. Then turn it out onto a cake platter. Here I must issue another warning. Don't leave this thing in the pan for an hour or few and then expect it to come out. The longer cakes sit in pans, they less they want to leave them. So give it just a brief cooling period and then turn it out.

When it is completely cool, you'll add the frosting.

For the frosting:

Heat water and butter. Melt butter. Then remove from heat and whisk in cocoa and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar and beat (I always have to move it to a bowl for this step because my pan isn't big enough and is non stick and I like to beat icings so the ingredients incorporate fully).

When the cake is cool, pour this into the center. It will overflow down the sides. I should tell you that I also like to spoon it up onto all the sides so that it is on all sides. In fact, I do this a few times (every couple hours or so) to get a chocolate glaze coating on the cake. Because I like it like that, okay.

Old pics so you can see it with the glaze-y puddle of awesome.