Gollum's Chocolate Cheesecake Bundt

Chocolate, bundt AND cheesecake?  Aw yeahs, the Holy Trinity of Desserts.  Now this is how you celebrate National Bundt Day.  I'm not gonna let that potato bundt of doom get me down.  No sirree.  Gotta get right back on the horse. I found this gem of a recipe for chocolate cheesecake tunnel cake over at Barbara Bakes.

The whole time I was making this cake I kept thinking about Gollum talking to himself/Smeagol in the movie Lord of the Rings:Two Towers. You know, the part where he says "Up, up, up, up the stairs we go. And then we come to the tunnel."  But he says the word "tunnel" in this creepy crazy voice. 

You know that I couldn't stop saying "And then...a tunnel" as I was pouring the cheesecake batter over the chocolatey goodness of the cake batter.  My husband may or may not have had to tell me "to shut up already"...more than once.

Here is the finished product:

And then...the tunnel.  Hehehe.  Sorry.  Couldn't help myself.

Anyhow, back to the cake. This was the first time I used the zip bag technique for drizzling chocolate. I've been too lazy to do it in the past. I mean it's messy work pouring the chocolate into the bag. I thought, "Why do all that work when you can just drizzle it on with a fork?" Well, let me tell you. Because even if it is messy to get the chocolate into the zip bag, it is loads less messy drizzing the chocolate when it's in that bag.  AND the finished product looks so much nicer.  So don't be lazy like me.  Use the zip bag and have a perty cake.

Oh! So how did the bundt taste?  Fantastic.  The cake base was made with a mix, but the sour cream and extra eggs make the cake so moist and light.  The ratio of cheesecake to chocolate cake was just right. Even Mrblocko and Blockette who really don't care for cheesecake thought the dessert was scrumptious.

One final note:  The regular sized chips didn't get very evenly distributed within the cheesecake tunnel.  I'm sure that this problem can be solved easily by using mini chips though.

Chocolate Cheesecake Tunnel Cake from Barbara Bakes
For the cake:
1 Chocolate Fudge cake mix with pudding in the mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
4 large eggs

For the filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 egg
1/3 c. sugar
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

For the glaze:
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 T. milk

Preheat oven to 350 F.

For the cake: Place cake mix, sour cream, water, oil and eggs in a large mixing bowl. Blend with  electric mixer on low for 1 min. Stop machine and scrape down sides of bowl. Beat 2-3 min til combined. Pour 2/3 batter in a greased and floured 12 c bundt pan. Mix filling ingredients. Spread filling over batter and top with remaining batter. Bake 45-55 min til cake springs back when lightly pressed and is starting to pull away from sides of pan.  Cool on wire rack for 20 min, invert it onto a rack and cool 20 min more.

For the glaze: combine chocolate chips and milk in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until  chocolate melted and mix has thickened slightly, 1-2 min.

Place cake on a serving platter and drizzle warm glaze over it. Melt chips with milk in microwave, put glaze in a Ziploc, cut corner and drizzle it over cake.