Chocolate vacation cake

A quick chocolate-buttermilk Bundt with a soft, velvety crumb

Hello!

I just got back from a lovely vacation with a group of friends I’ve known since high school—we get together once a year, and chose Lake Michigan this year for its central location and gorgeous beaches. I had no idea how wonderful the beaches are there! As well as miles and miles of trails and surprisingly warm and clear lake water. Highly recommend if you don’t want to fly to the usual beach destinations.

Our friend Kathy was working for most of the vacation, but volunteered to make a GF chocolate Bundt cake with ingredients she brought pre-measured from home, including a Bundt pan that she brought on the flight with her in a backpack—a seasoned lawyer’s attention to detail and commitment to getting the project done.

This gave me the idea to go back to a recipe I was working on last year for a chocolate Bundt made with buttermilk and cocoa that you can mix and bake in about an hour and has the loveliest, soft, even crumb which inspired my kid to ask if it was made from a mix (I don’t bake from mixes, but took the compliment as it was intended).

It can be hard to bake while on vacation, but this recipe is perfect for travel: you don’t need to melt chocolate for this cake, and all of the ingredients are easy to find and even pre-measure and pack the dry ingredients in a zip lock bag—there’s usually even random bottles of oil and cocoa in rental cupboards. Just buy some local fruit to go with the cake and you have dessert and snacks for days.

I hope the summer is unfolding for everyone just the way you want, with projects or books or travel, or staying home and relaxing.