TWD - Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt cake & Coconut Tea Cake

Can you believe it's April already? I can't. Seems like last week was Christmas. Now, it's the 5th of April. Easter is over. Spring is in full bloom. And I baked not one, but two weeks worth of recipes for TWD!

I wasn't able to bake last week's Coconut Tea Cake, the recipe that Carmen of Carmen Cooks picked for her turn as hostess. You need to drop by her blog and see the gorgeous pictures of her cake. I just didn't get to it before the deadline to post it for TWD last week.  This week, Erin, of When in doubt...leave it at 350, picked the Mocha-Walnut Marbled Bundt cake. On Wednesday of last week I had one of those "good news, bad news" days. The bad news was that the two houses I was supposed to clean both canceled their cleanings. One woman was short on money and the other had a daughter home sick. So, I had the day off. The good news was since I was off I would have the time to bake not just one, but both of the TWD recipes. The coconut one for me and the Mocha-Walnut one for the hubby. I had everything I needed to bake both on hand and after gathering it all together, I got to work.

I am pretty sure I had baked the Mocha cake before. I had Dorie's book long before I became a member of the group and had baked a lot of different recipes from it. (The almond biscotti is one of my early favorites!) I had a posted note on the page for it and vaguely recall baking it. I couldn't recall what we thought of it though.

I decided to bake the Coconut Tea cake first.  I had read a lot of posts that talked about mild coconut flavor, so I upped mine by adding about 1/2 teaspoon of coconut extract. I also added the dark rum Dorie mentions. (optional, but so good is what she said) I used untoasted coconut in the batter, and toasted coconut sprinkled over the top of a glaze I made using milk, coconut extract and powdered sugar.  After burning a batch of coconut in the oven last time I had to toast coconut I decided to play it safe and "toast" it in a frying pan, on top of the stove, under my watchful gaze. Turned out perfect. (Hahaha, as I am typing this I am looking over the recipe and just realized I used a paddle attachment rather than a whisk attachment to mix up the batter. Guess it didn't hurt the cake any.)

This cake came together easily and turned out fabulous. Moist, chewy, rich, definitely a recipe I will make over and over again. It reminded me of a buttery pound cake, only coconut flavored. :) Thanks Carmen for a delicious pick. I loved it.

This week's recipe, the Mocha-Walnut Marbled bundt cake was also a winner here at my house. I whipped it up as the coconut cake was baking. It was pretty simple to put together. I had coffee already brewed and keep espresso powder on hand all the time. It's great for kicking up the flavor of chocolate. I actually use Via, the new instant that Starbucks sells. I didn't toast the walnuts before grinding them. I used a large ice cream scoop and scooped the batter into the pan, alternating the white batter with the chocolate batter. Once it was all in the pan I dragged a knife through the different batters to marble it.

I read several blogs of bakers who made this last week and all mentioned really watching the baking time, or even cutting it shorter by a few minutes. I set the timer for 10 minutes sooner than Dorie suggests and it was perfectly baked when I checked it. I cooled it, made a chocolate glaze using dutch processed cocoa, coffee, powdered sugar and a touch of vanilla. Once I drizzled it over the cake I then sprinkled a few chopped walnuts on top.

Delicious! Moist with just a hint of nutty flavor. I think I would toss some chopped walnuts into the batter next time. I like nuts in my baked goods. And, I might even kick up the espresso a bit, give it a tad more coffee flavor. It was almost lost in the chocolate. But, still, a delicious cake. Thanks Erin. You picked a winner. :) Be sure to drop by her blog for the recipe. And, of course, stop by TWD and check out what all the other bakers who baked this week thought.