The frosting did not turn out perfectly, but it sure was yummy.

We are in need of some cake in this house. Not a fussy double or triple layered cake with many components, but an easy no brainer of a cake that won’t have me in the kitchen for hours making, baking, frosting, and finishing off. Leafing through BAKED New Frontiers in Baking I found our soon to be treat. The Root Beer Bundt Cake is on page 87. During my last shopping excursion to Whole Foods, I purchased a 6 pack of root beer just for this occasion. My boys love root beer. Whether it is warm out of the pantry, in a glass with some ice or chilling in a tall glass with some vanilla ice cream, this sweetened, carbonated soft drink is one of their favorites. For me, this flavor ranks right up there with the candy Whoppers. I don’t really like it, not even with vanilla ice cream. I am not a big soda drinker anyway, but when I do have a soda with my Zingerman’s sandwich, it is not a root beer that I choose. This cake isn’t just for me though, but my whole family so I am willing to give this bundt cake a try. I had a little helper in the kitchen with me while assembling the batter for this cake. My 4 year old son, William, cut up the butter, poured the measured root beer into the pan, put the measured sugars into a small bowl and ate milk chocolate chips. ( the chocolate chips are not for this recipe, he just needed a few hits of sugar to get him through until the cake is finished ) I love it when one of my children helps me in the kitchen. They are so eager to help and follow directions and are very proud of themselves that they contributed to the final project. He must have washed his hands a dozen times in the twenty minutes we were actually in the kitchen. I am starting to think that maybe that is why he likes helping me so much, he gets to wash ( play ) in the sink with water. Huh, I am finally onto him….Back to the cake. The batter was really easy to assemble and it tasted pretty good. Yes, I had one finger tip full of the batter once the bundt pan was full. While it was in the oven baking the cake smelled delicious. Fully baked, out of the oven onto the cooling rack to cool for a little while then out of the pan to fully cool before frosting. I had my little helper again for the frosting. He really likes to be in charge of the pulse button on the food processor. Here is where I am going to make a confession. The frosting, while absolutely delicious was the consistency of modeling clay. I am assuming I made a mistake with the melting of the chocolate and/or I didn’t let it cool enough before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. It is a problem I will investigate further at a later time and share with you. All in all, the boys loved the cake. My oldest son, Nicholas claimed it was the best cake I have ever made. Although, I do appreciate the sentiment, I am hesitant to believe him because he says that about most of the new recipes that I make. The cake was extremely moist with a hint of root beer and it had a nice crumb. Combined with the fudgy frosting, it was scrumptious. Another recipe from BAKED that gets two thumbs up from this family.