things i missed while i was in england: baking

i needed an excuse to bake a cake (because one can't just bake a cake for no reason...unless you have people to bake for...because otherwise one will have an entire cake to eat all by oneself, and that is not good for the waistline).  this weekend we had a little back to school party at other claire's house and i needed to bring a snack - voila!  excuse to bake a cake!

so i baked this one (i love this blog) AND OHMYGOD IT WAS INCREDIBLE.  reasons why:

1. i got to use my new bundt cake pan that i bought with a gift card one of my students gave me at the end of the school year.  the cake pan is from william-sonoma and it is fancy.
2. it was easy to make - lots of ingredients (though, what the hell is "dutch process cocoa powder"? i did not use that), but no fancy techniques required.
3. the recipe said to cook it for an hour, and after an hour it was PERFECTLY COOKED.  not overcooked.  didn't need to keep it in the oven for extra time.  an hour was perfect.
4. after cooling it slightly, IT SLID OUT OF THE CAKE PAN PERFECTLY, no bits left behind on the pan.  i don't know if this is (a) a good recipe, (b) a good cake pan, (c) a good chef (thankyouverymuch), (d) luck, or (e) all of the above.
5. upon eating it, it was moist and chocolatey, but not TOO sweet, with a thick chocolatey glaze that i could eat by itself (and i am NOT a frosting person).  honestly, i thought to myself: i am amazing and no one can tell me otherwise and i will be baking this cake for every birthday party i go to from now on and if this teaching thing doesn't work out i will open a bakery and this will be the only thing i sell.

in short: make this cake.