Favourite Milk Chocolate Bar Cake

An old-school Southern bundt cake that turns four Milky Way bars into the headline ingredient. The candy bars melt down with butter in a double boiler, taking the caramel and nougat with them into the chocolate base, which then folds into a buttermilk batter for a cake with serious depth.

Buttermilk does double duty here. The acid activates the small amount of baking soda for lift, and the tang balances out what would otherwise be a one-note sweetness from all that candy. Don’t substitute regular milk or you’ll get a flat, cloying cake.

Chopped pecans folded in at the end give every slice little pockets of toasty crunch against the dense chocolate crumb. The contrast is what keeps you coming back for another piece.

This is a long-baker. A full hour in the bundt pan, and don’t open the oven door before the 45-minute mark or you risk a collapse.

Chef Tips

• Use a heavy double boiler or improvise with a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Direct heat scorches milk chocolate fast.
• Cream the butter and sugar for a full 3 to 5 minutes until pale and fluffy. This builds the structure the cake relies on.
• Grease and flour the bundt pan thoroughly, getting into every crevice. A sticky bundt is a heartbreak.
• Cool exactly 15 minutes in the pan before turning out. Earlier and it falls apart, later and the cake sweats and sticks.

Variations

• Swap Milky Ways for Snickers bars for a peanutty version with more texture.
• Replace pecans with walnuts or omit nuts entirely for a smooth, dense crumb.
• Drizzle the cooled cake with a quick chocolate ganache or caramel glaze for an extra-celebratory finish.