Jasmine's Fancy Spiced Baby Bundts w/Chocolate Ganache

I wish I could say that I were sharing a heartwarming or a riveting story about my first year teaching at a new school or what that #summerlife is all about, but no. Today, I'm sharing a recipe. So, buckle up! It's a good one.
You might be asking yourself, "Why in the world does she feel the need to share a recipe with us?" Great question, truly. The honest answer is that I have way too much time on my hands because summer is finally here, so why not?!

I feel like I read somewhere that millennials were ruining bundt cakes. It could have been an Onion article or something The New Yorker covered to make us feel bad about the amount of avocado toast we supposedly eat or how we don't buy diamonds any longer, but I'm bringing bundts back, baby! I found this beautiful Fall inspired Mini Heritage Bundt cake pan at Sur La Table similar to this one, but they were TINY. You think I can just walk away from a mini bundt cake pan like this? No, I couldn't. So, I bought it months ago and it has sat in my cupboard ever since…until yesterday. 

Yesterday was a summer day like any other. I woke up around 11:30 AM feeling bad about the amount of sleep I got, but you learn to live with that guilt…and rest. It was a nice, gloomy morning and rain was coming, so I decided to cringe-binge watch Riverdale. I was 3 episodes deep when I decided I wanted to bake those Fall-inspired spiced bundt cakes that I thought of months ago. I had all of the ingredients I needed, a cook book with a recipe that I could adapt to make a spice cake, and the drive to make something delicious...or not. It was a gamble! 

I was going for a spice cake, so I took a Devil's Food Cake recipe from the book Sweet Chic. I decided to halve the recipe because I didn't need 3 dozen mini bundt cakes. I added some ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon to it and instead of adding vanilla extract, I used rum extract. Very potent, but it came across. I decided to brown the butter because I thought that would elevate the taste, plus in French, browned butter is Beurre noisette. Fancy. 

I thought that a caramel sauce would compliment the spice cake, but after making the caramel sauce, feeling proud about how it came out, allowing it to harden, and then watching it separate, I had to toss it. I let my friends taste just the plain cake and they gave me honest feedback about my baby bundts. We came to the conclusion that a chocolate ganache would work just fine. Much easier to make and just as tasty. 

Of course, as a millennial, I documented all of it on my Instagram story. It was a riveting story with twists, turns, and rejoicing when the baby bundts came out of the pan. I felt like I was on my own episode of The Great British Baking Show. The hustle and bustle I felt in my own kitchen was exciting and the anticipation watching the bundts bake made my heart race. Needless to say, this is not just another summer cake recipe. My friend said that it tastes like Christmas and I'd have to agree. I feel like I was trying to usher in Fall/Winter on a rainy Sunday and in my opinion, I did just that. Enjoy!

Jasmine's Fancy Spiced Baby Bundts w/Chocolate Ganache

Dry Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp nutmeg 

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup sugar

Wet Ingredients

1 cup milk, room temperature

3/4 cup browned butter (browned & cooled)

2 eggs, room temperature 

3/4 tsp Rum extract

Chocolate Ganache

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 

For the Cake:
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees
2. Brown the butter and let it cool. I followed steps from this site: https://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_brown_butter/
3. Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl and set aside
4. Once the butter has cooled, add the sugar and butter to a mixing bowl and beat it on a low speed
5. Add each egg individually, making sure egg is completely incorporated in the batter
6. Add the rum extract and mix on low
7. Take your dry ingredients and add about 1/3rd of the dry mix to the batter and mix on low
8. Add 1/3rd of milk and continue this pattern until all ingredients have been incorporated, ending with the milk
9. Melt about 1 tbsp of butter and grease your mini bundt pans. (I also sprayed a tiny but of Pam in the pans after the butter because I'm an anxious mess and I needed to know that they would come out.)
10. Add flour to each mini bundt and move it around, so each ridge is completely dusted with flour
11. Add the batter to each bundt and smooth out the tops. Be sure not to overfill your pan because the cakes will rise!
12. Bake for 15 minutes and let cool

For the Ganache:

I chose to make the ganache on the stove, but there's a way you can make it using the microwave!
1. Heat a small pot of water
2. Add 1 cup of your heavy whipping cream to a small mixing bowl 
3. Heat the HWC and slowly add the semisweet chocolate chips
4. Whisk slowly until all chocolate chips are added and evenly incorporated
5. Remove the bowl from heat and allow to cool

You can choose to dip the bundt cakes in the chocolate or drizzle the ganache on. I went for the dip because, you know, fancy.

My Bundt Babies Covered in the Chocolate Ganache

My Bundt Babies straight out of the pan