Drunken Chocolate Cake

Sometimes the simplest ideas will just hit me. Ideas that I'm sure nearly everyone else has thought about long ago but seem like breakthroughs of epic proportions to me. I am not a frosting person. Pretty much full stop on that one. I think buttercream is just too rich and cream cheese frosting a bit wonky. (Chocolate ganache, on the other hand, may be one of the most delicious things in the world.) So, a few weeks ago my friends M-- and S-- (because I really am feeling too clever by half today I will now call them M&S) invited me to dinner and I said that I would bring a cake. That cake was supposed to be my last Daring Baker's Challenge but as I had the Econ Midterm of Doom to deal with that weekend, Dorie's Perfect Party Cake wasn't going go happen, but I did manage to make a box mix chocolate bundt cake that I added a few handfuls of chocolate chips too.

After I flipped the cake out of the pan, I could tell it needed some sort of topping. I can been in a rush greasing and flouring the pan and hadn't knocked the flour out well enough, so there were small pale patches all over the cake, leading to a sort of sickly impression. I didn't have the supplies on hand to make a ganache but I did have a box of powdered sugar so thought a glaze would do [Here comes the eureka moment- get ready for it] and thought that instead of using water for the glaze, I would use a flavored liquor (oh, wait, you have been doing this for years? It's as I suspected- that I am the last person ever to get it). I raided M&S's liquor cabinet and came out with a bottle of Razzmatazz (please do not ask me what this actually is as I have no idea, it's one of those DeKuyper liquors in a brown bottle, with pictures of raspberry on the label). I put about a cup of powdered sugar in a bowl and then sprinkled in a little Razzmatazz and mixed and kept adding the liquor till it got to a pourable, but thick consistency. Then we drizzled it over the cake.

The result- surprisingly good. The glaze had a very strong raspberry flavor that complemented the chocolate cake and made it seem much fancier than a plain old box mix. S-- had a great idea for the future (and also took this picture for posterity) which is to glaze the cake twice- once when it's hot, so the glaze soaks in and flavors the cake itself, and a second time when cooled, to make it pretty. I will definitely try it in the future but make the first glaze much thinner and less sugary than the second.