After Eight Bundt Cake

I really think you should make this After Eight Bundt Cake this Christmas. With a rich chocolate sponge, peppermint cream topping and plenty of addictive after dinner mints, it is a simple yet beautiful sharing cake to enjoy over the holidays – and whilst I’ve made it in a bundt tin, unlike other recipes that come with a peppermint filling, by saving it for the decoration it means you can make this cake even if you only have a regular tin to hand!

This is important, because I want to tell you a story about another After Eight Cake, the After Eight Cake that inspired this one.

When my mother was young, she was a Queen’s Guide, which meant she received one of the highest awards the Girl Guides offered. As part of this, she collected a tonne of badges for everything from DIY, to cooking to ironing (seriously, I don’t know how she gets such crisp corners!) and as part of this she was no stranger to fundraising bake sales. As regular readers will know I’ve not always been the most confident baker, my ability to bake and write baking recipes coming many years after I started on savouries. One of the stories she always told me to boost my confidence was about the time her mother, my Ma-ma saved the day the say one of her charity bake sale chocolate cakes went rather wrong.

The cake had sunk in the middle, so much so the middle of the cake was unsalvageable. So what did Ma-ma do? Helped my mother cut out the middle of the cake to turn it into a ring – not unlike the most simple of bundt tins – before icing the top, and decorating it artfully with a spiral of After Eights. The day was saved, and the cake was purchased by one of the most discerning local matrons when it came to baked goods.

This is that cake, made modern, with edible gold leaf and lustre, still simple enough for the most nervous of bakers.

How do I make sure the bundt cake does not stick to the tin?

I think the only thing that is really intimidating about baking a bundt cake is making sure you can turn it out of the tin. I was worried about this at first, but honestly, follow these simple steps and you’ve got nothing to worry about.

1. Invest in a good quality tin. Those thin, flimsy bundt tins that don’t have a thick non-stick coating? Buying one of those is where you’ve already gone wrong. No doubt a good quality bundt tin is not cheap, but it is an investment piece. I really ought to use mine (I have this one #ad) more.
2. Take care with prepping the tin. I don’t believe in non-stick cooking sprays, I simply make sure I get margarine (or butter, but it is margarine I use in the cake) into every last cranny of the tin with a piece of kitchen towel before dusting the whole thing generously with cocoa – I’d use flour for a non-chocolate bake. This method is enough if you have a good tin: I’ve never had a bundt stick, and I’ve hardly got the least complicated tin!
3. Don’t try to get the cake out straight away. Leave it 10 minutes to give the crust of the cake time to cool and harden.

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After Eight Bundt Cake

• Author: Rachel Phipps
• Prep Time: 25 minutes
• Cook Time: 50 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Yield: Serves 12–14 1x
• Category: Cake
• Method: Baking
• Cuisine: Christmas

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Description

This easy After Eight Bundt Cake recipe pairs a rich chocolate cake with a peppermint cream topping and plenty of everyones favourite after dinner mints for a show stopping holiday cake that is great for sharing!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the Chocolate Bundt Cake

• 65g ( 2 1/4 oz) cocoa powder, sifted, plus extra for dusting
• 120ml (1/2 cup) boiling water
• 4 large eggs
• 160ml (2/3 cup) milk
• 230g (8 oz) self raising flour (see note)
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 130g (4 1/2 oz) margarine, plus extra for greasing
• 360g (12 1/2 oz) golden caster sugar
• pinch salt

For the After Eight Decoration

• 100g (3 1/2 oz) icing (powdered or confectioners) sugar
• 3 tbsp double (heavy) cream
• 1/2 tsp peppermint extract
• After Eights
• sugar simple syrup (or a 1:1 mix of sugar dissolved in water)
• gold lustre spray
• edible gold leaf

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Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees.
2. Place the cocoa powder and the boiling water into the bowl of your stand mixer and beat until it has formed a thick paste, scraping down the sides if necessary.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients for the sponge to the bowl and beat until the mixture is uniform, again, making sure to scrape down the sides well with a spatula.
4. Grease your bundt tin well with a piece of kitchen paper and a little more margarine, before dusting the tin with sieved cocoa powder. Tap out the excess over the kitchen sink.
5. Pour the cake mixture into the tin, tapping it firmly a couple of times on the worktop to knock out any big air bubbles. Bake for 50-55 minutes until the sponge is cooked through and is starting to come away a little from the outside of the tin. Use a cake tester or a wooden skewer to check for doneness – it should come away clean.
6. Leave the cake to stand in the tin on a wire cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then, use a blunt eating knife to prise the sponge away from the middle hole if necessary before turning the cake out onto the cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.
7. To make the topping, sift the icing sugar and stir in the cream and the peppermint extract to form a thick paste. Gradually add cold water until you have a cream just thin enough to drip down the sides of the cake.
8. Spoon over the topping, and top with broken After Eights.
9. Edible gold leave won’t stick to the chocolates by itself, so add a few dabs of sugar syrup to the chocolates, and stick on pieces of edible gold leaf; I find attaching it with the end of an eating knife works best. Spritz with edible lustre, and serve.

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Notes

American self rising flour contains salt, whilst British self raising flour does not, so if you’re working with American flour don’t add any extra salt to the recipe.

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