1 cup cocoa powder, plus more for dusting pan
8 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup very hot coffee (microwaved after brewing to almost a boil)
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 sticks of unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups of light brown sugar, firmly packed
5 eggs, lightly beaten
4 teaspoons of vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups sour cream
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 (4 ounces) bar of Lindt Milk chocolate or Bittersweet chocolate, chopped into 8 sections (or four more ounces of chips)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 325F. Grease a 10 cup Bundt pan very well (chocolate cakes are notorious for sticking) and dust with cocoa powder. Tap out excess.
Place the cocoa and the 8 ounces of semi sweet chocolate chips in a bowl and pour the hot coffee over it. Whisk until it is well mixed and smooth and set aside.
Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
Cream the butter together with the brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, about 4 minutes Slowly add the eggs, scraping the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing. Add the vanilla and mix well. This entire process should take about 6-7 minutes.
Reduce speed to low and add the flour in three additions and alternate with the sour cream. Stop mixer and scrape the entire bowl. Pour in the chocolate mixture and start the mixer again until there are no streaks visible. With a spatula fold in the chocolate chips and give the entire mixture a few scrapes with the spatula to ensure that the cake is well mixed.
Scrape half of the mixture into the prepared bundt pan and then place the chocolate bar pieces (or chips) on the top of that first half (all around the pan) and then top it with the remaining mixture (this creates a wet layer of chocolate which will contribute to the tunnel of fudge). Smooth over. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 45 minutes. Turn oven off and let sit in the oven for another 5 minutes. Remove and let cool on rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto a platter (expect that there may be cracks on the side of the cake because we have underbaked it...don't worry about it...it may even collapsed partially, but again, no worries). Let cool to room temperature and then dust the top with powdered sugar.
Serve at room temperature or chill and serve cold (preferably with a big glass of milk!). This is the perfect cake to put in someone's lunch box. It's almost like a grown up brownie cake, and it is absolutely irresistible. Serves 10.
(I say serves 10, but that is 10 people who have not had dinner....this cake will easily feed 15 with smaller slices, because a smaller slice is all you need of this rich, brownie like cake).
NOTE: If you like, you may bake this cake for the full 65 minutes, and test it with a conventional cake tester. If it only shows a few visible crumbs, it is fully baked and the cake will not have the fudgy center which I described.
