Mounds Cake

I'm loving my new bundt pan. Last night I baked a Duncan Hines Dark Chocolate Fudge cake with coconut, white chocolate chips and chocolate chips.To prevent my extra goodies from sinking right to the bottom of the pan, I first baked half of the cake batter for a few minutes so the top would set a bit. I then sprinkled in the goodies and baked the remaining cake batter on top. The cake looked really nice when I plopped it out of my nonstick pan and I'm excited to try it tonight with some Vanilla Bean ice cream. YUM!

I tried baking Junior Mint Brownies once, but because I had put in the Junior Mint at the beginning of the baking process, the candy sank right to the bottom adhering stubbornly to the pan. The brownies had these unsightly sunken pits where the Junior Mints had been.

I got the twice-baked cake idea from an episode of Cooking Around Town; one of the chefs first baked half the cake batter for a few minutes before adding the cherry filling and the rest of the cake batter to prevent the cherries from sinking right to the bottom.

Cooking Around Town is my favorite local PBS show. It's really fun because the host visits various local restaurants and the chefs teach you how to make their signature dishes in their own kitchens. The host, Ron Della Chiesa, also hosts some opera radio show and he often makes opera references, which I don't totally get, but he's really funny to watch because he always likes everything and he's just so predictable. Most chefs seem to warm up to him, but he was unable to win over one chef in particular, who was obviously exasperated with him and immune to his charms. He was like an overly eager "ELMO" who enthusiastically wanted to help with everything and you could tell he was grating on her nerves.

Attention Shoppers: Duncan Hines cake mix is on sale for 99 cents at Shaws this week.