Chocolate & Orange: Make a Brizzle Holiday Cake

Memorable, moist, chocolaty and orangey with drizzled toffee brickle in a Grand Marnier glaze, I named it Brizzle. It's dummy proof, a praise magnet that takes only 30 minutes to prep, an hour to bake, 5 minutes to glaze. Print the recipe (or keep it secret) because you'll be asked.A perfect dessert alongside the pumpkin and apple pies on any holiday table.

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Preparation time: 30 - 40 minutes Baking time: 1 hour Yield: 12 servings

Brizzle Basics

Click here to download a PowerPoint version of the recipe

Lots of Options, Simple Ingredients

Cake Ingredients in words and pictures

• 1 box of your favorite yellow cake mix (Duncan Hines, Betty Crocker,
  Pillsbury, they all work)
  
  
• 1 small box instant pistachio pudding mix (Jell-o brand is reliable)
  
  
• Fresh eggs -- 6 small, 5 medium or 4 large
  
• 1 cup orange juice. Stir or shake well just before adding to the batter.
  

• Substitute tangerine or sweet tropical fruit juice such as Mango, Pineapple or Passion Fruit, or...
  
• Substitute a half cup of raspberry jelly for a half cup of juice

• 1/2 cup trans fat-free cooking oil (such as Crisco canola oil)
• 1/2 tsp pure Vanilla extract
  
• 3/4 cup walnut or pecan halves, or use whole and broken pieces
  
• 3/4 cup Hershey's chocolate syrup
  • Substitute dark chocolate syrup, or Dove, Smuckers or another brand of fudge syrup to impart a deeper or fudgier flavor. You may need to warm the fudge slightly in a microwave. If hot, wait until it's just warm before use. (Or pour the hot fudge over ice cream, take a snack break, then try again!)
    
  • Substitute genuine Maple syrup for a maple-flavored cake

Brizzle Ingredients in words and pictures

• 8 - 12 whole walnut or pecan halves
  
• 1/2 cup Heath Bit's Of Brickle (the toffee portion of a Heath bar)

• Don't know what to do with leftover brickle bits? NOSH! ICE CREAM.
  

• 1 cup powdered sugar (see the Brizzle Glaze recipe, below), Cut in half if less glaze is preferred.
  
• 1 oz. Grand Marnier or your favorite after dinner liqueur, such as Kahlua, Irish Cream, Drambuie, Pecan Praline etc. Don't have any? Use orange juice.

Tools

• 10" Bundt or loose bottom cake pan (round or heart shaped as shown). Flour
  by spraying lightly with Pam or baking spray that contains flour, then lightly
  coat sides, bottom and tube with all-purpose flour, shaking out excess. As
  you can see, the tube is the toughest to coat.
  

• Hand-held or stand mixer
• Medium mixing bowl
• Rubber scraper
• Measuring cup (1 cup capacity)
  and 1/2 tsp measuring spoon
  
• Two forks or
  small whisk
• Small mixing bowl
• 6" flexible blade knife, icing spreader or flexible bamboo skewer (to help remove cake from baking pan)
  
• Dinner plate
  
• Covered cake carrier or cake plate
  

The Fun Begins: Mixing and Baking

1. Preheat oven to 350o F. Use the oven's standard Bake setting, not convection
   
2. Empty the cake and pudding mixes into medium
   bowl. Gently hand blend together
   
   
3. Using scraper, form a 5" crater in the middle of the
   bowl. Break the eggs into the crater. Hand scramble
   for a few seconds with the fork to blend yolks and
   whites
   
   
4. Slowly pour in one cup of orange or tropical juice,
   add 1/2 cup cooking oil and 1/2 tsp. Vanilla extract
   
   
   
5. At low speed, use the mixer to thoroughly moisten
   the batter, then beat on medium speed for 2 - 3
   minutes. Use the scraper to coax the batter sticking
   to the side of the bowl into the center. A thick batter
   is the result
   
   
6. Pour three-fourths of the batter into the floured
   baking pan. Shake and bump the pan to distribute
   evenly (be careful -- don't dislodge the bottom of a
   loose bottom pan or batter will leak out)
   
   
7. Distribute the 3/4 cup of walnuts or pecans evenly
   over the top of the batter in the baking pan. No
   need to mix 'em in.
   
   
   
8. To the batter remaining in the mixing bowl, add 3/4 cup of
   chocolate syrup or fudge or maple syrup. Blend on medium
   speed until combined, at least a minute. Use the scraper to
   encourage all of the batter into the blend.
   
   
   
   
9. Pour the chocolate batter as evenly as possible over the top of the walnut- or pecan-topped batter in the baking pan. Don't cut or swirl it in. The magic of baking will accomplish this. Scrape the mixing bowl to get out as much as possible. It helps to have a helper at this point, one to hold the bowl over the baking pan, the other to scrape. Gently shake and bump the pan to distribute. It should look like the photo.
   
   
10. Bake at 350o for 50 - 60 minutes. Check at 45 minutes. The cake is done when a wood toothpick inserted in the center comes out with a few crumbs (moist, not dry). Another test is to press down with a finger. Brizzle cake is done when the center springs back slowly.
    
    
11. Remove from oven and allow to cool about 20 minutes on a rack or on your range
12. Run the knife or icing spreader around the the pan and tube to release the cake. If you are using a fluted bundt pan, select a thin, flexible blade to avoid damaging the cake. A bamboo skewer also works, especially around the tube.
    
    
13. Place a flat dinner plate over the top of the pan, then
    carefully turn the cake upside down. (Careful. The
    bottom of the pan may still be hot). The cake should
    drop onto the plate. Remove the pan and tube, place a
    square of wax paper over the bottom of the cake,
    then use a second plate or cake carrier to flip right
    side up. The wax paper makes it easy to center the
    cake on the plate or carrier.
    
    

Preparing Brizzle Glaze

1. Place 8 - 12 whole walnuts or pecans evenly around the top of the
   warm cake. You'll cut between these when serving the cake.
   
   
   
2. In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar and 15 -
   20 drops of the liqueur. Use a fork to blend until
   thick but a little drippy, adding a few drops at a time.
   It's easy to use too much liqueur, so be careful. The
   glaze blends quickly. Using a full cup of powdered
   sugar yields an abundance of glaze to run down
   the sides of the cake. Yum.
   
   
3. Add 1/2 cup of brickle bits to the glaze, whisking in.
   Thin with drops of liqueur or thicken with more
   powdered sugar as needed. The brickle makes the
   glaze stick together more, so add a few drops of
   liqueur to stay on the drippy side. Look like rice
   krispies in milk.
   
   
   
4. Using the fork or whisk, ice the cake by drizzling drops over the top, encouraging them to drip down the sides. It's all in the wrist! If the glaze thickens, mix in more liqueur, one or two drops at a time. The glaze will harden as the cake fully cools.
   
   
   
5. Brizzle cake is ready to serve! Leftover liqueur is ready to sip! No dummy, you. Strong hot coffee or a glass of Zin -- and good company -- are the perfect pairing.
   

Serving and Keeping

OK, I know you'll ask

• Buy a couple of Heath Bars and either chop 'em up like a TV chef (including the bar's thick chocolate coating); or break pieces into your nut chopper or mini food processor and chop or spin with the sharp blade for a few seconds. You'll have brickle for the recipe with a chocolate bonus. Who doesn't like a chocolate bonus?
  

• No. I'm not sure why but the pudding mix is essential. Leave it out and the cake will not be as moist. However, you MAY substitute instant vanilla pudding mix. I have not tried other flavors. Customize and let us know!

• Yes, but not angel food. The moist "butter batter" white cake mix produces an excellent Brizzle cake, and the pistachio pudding mix tints the main batter pale green.

• I've not tried any of these, so give it a shot and let us know. I imagine that a chocolate mix plus the chocolate or fudge layer would produce a chocoholic or death-by-chocolate kind of cake. The other ingredients fit well. You could use Godiva Liqueur for the glaze to complete the metaphor. Or, use chocolate syrup for the liquid.
  

• Hello! Heck, yeah. Use a prepackaged can of chocolate icing to your heart's content. Either mix in the brickle first, or drizzle brickle all over the iced cake. Double yum.

• It's one of the Beyond items, as in Bed, Bath and Beyond.