Cat Hacks - Tunnel of Tuna Cake, an Homage to Tunnel of Fudge Cake, created by Ella Rita Helfrich, and my lifelong friend JB, who always brought Tunnel of Fudge Cake and lots of love and smiles.

If you have never had the real Tunnel of Fudge Cake, sorry, you never will. One of the key ingredients is simply no longer made. If you have never heard of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, I can't believe it. What are they teaching in school these days?! A friend of mine just asked me what it was. Tunnel of Fudge Cake was a rich, moist chocolate Bundt cake, and running in a circle through the middle was a secret Tunnel of Fudge, baked into the cake, not piped in afterward. 

The following information is from the obituary of the creator of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, Ella Rita Helfrich. She came in second in the 1966 Pilsbury Bake Off for the recipe she created for the Tunnel of Fudge Cake using the new Nordic Ware Bundt pans. After the contest, Pilsbury was flooded with more than 200,000 requests for her recipe. The first place winner was forgotten. 

(From Wikipedia) The epic desire for the new Bundt pans to bake the exciting new Tunnel of Fudge cake boosted the sales of Nordic Ware's Bundt Pan. To date more than 60 million Bundt pans have been sold by Nordic Ware across North America. 

One woman's creativity took America by storm. She won money at the Pilsbury Bake Off, which may have been her goal to help her family. And she was able to implement her intellect and creativity. Unintentionally she became as iconic of the Sixties as the Space Program. Her ingenuity influenced purchasing, manufacturing and an American Life-Style Choice. So you, you creative individuals, you can do it. You've heard "fake it til you make it"? How about Bake it til You Make it?! You can do it. 

So, I was a kid in those exciting years of Space Travel, Viet Nam, Protests, Cultural Changes and yet our Moms and their friends were cooking three meals a day and putting dessert on the table nightly and at special events. My Mom might have made the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, she had a Bundt Pan. But I especially remember her bff, JB, bringing Tunnel of Fudge Cake to some occasions. I don't know what was the occasion, except the TOFC was present and accounted for. Hmmm actually, I guess my Mom did make TOFC. I can remember nibbling at it, never getting enough. Maybe it was JB's specialty, my Mom had so many great dishes and desserts, talking about them is like listing how many ways you can make Bubba Gump Shrimp. I go down memory lane with my taste buds. My Mom had me cooking, before I could read. I was at the kitchen counter, peeling and chopping, and stirring on the stove at 3. I still love to cook. I still like to joke with JB and her daughters, the BG's about TOFC. 

For this blog I asked JB why was it she liked to make the Tunnel of Fudge Cake so much. She answered, "The Tunnel of Fudge Cake lead straight to my heart, made with lots of love. I hope that your Tunnel of Tuna Cake will lead straight to Lucy's heart also." Awwwww... 

Mention of Tunnel of Fudge Cake also made an appearance on a Will and Grace episode. 

Since I have no one at home to cook for, I like to be creative for my kitten. It's her First Birthday. I would have a Kitten Party, but most of my cat friends' cats don't get out much. 

So, in honor of the Tunnel of Fudge Cake, I made her the Tunnel of Tuna Birthday Cake. How awesome is that! Here is the recipe, pics and instructions. As I say in most of my recipes, you can use any brand or style of food that you prefer for your cat's health. When it comes to the rare birthday cake that my kitten is getting, it may not be fancy raw food, but it's probably a lot better for her than when I have high fat, sugary frosting on my own birthday cakes. She will get a little bit of cake for several days, not enough to ruin her kidneys or morals for life. Just a little something special to celebrate my sweet, lil girl's First Birthday. She'd probably rather hunt down a bug or a mouse. But this is fun for both of us. 

Happy Birthday Lucy! Thank you to all of you for joining in online. 

How I made Lucy's Tunnel of Tuna Birthday Bundt Cake

Ingredients:

• 4 Tablespoons or 2 Ounces – Rachel Ray Nutrish Tuna Purrfection

• 4 Tablespoons or 2 Ounces – Rachel Ray Nutrish Paw Lickin’ Chicken & Liver Recipe

• 2 Tablespoons or 1 Ounces - Bubble Bee Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore Tuna Packed in Water

• 3 drops - Vegetable Oil, whatever does not cause a health problem for your particular cat. 

Tools needed: 

• "Miniature Bundt Cake Pan" or mold, I used a Wilton Easy-Flex 4 Cavity Mini Fluted Tube Pan.

• Spatula, Small Rubber Spatula and/or Small Offset

• Fork, mallet, fingers or something to mash and blend food to a pate consistency. I used a wood bar muddler.

• A few small spoons, like tableware tea spoons

• Small Plate for the cake, to turn cake out onto and for presentation 

• Small bowls to smooth the cat food and Tuna Fish consistencies

Optional:

Birthday Candles

Canned Pumpkin Puree in a pastry bag for writing decoration, or other edible writing substance. 

You need a miniature Bundt Pan, or you can MacGyver one. I purchased the Wilton Easy-Flex 4 Cavity Mini Fluted Tube Pan from Walmart online for $8 and some change. I only needed single pan, but got tired of shopping. This will work just fine.  

You are also going to need a small flexible rubber spatula and I like to use a small offset spatula for decorating. 

When I want to write on a cake, I like to craft a makeshift pastry bag for writing from a sandwich sized, zip lock plastic bag, with a tiny hole cut in the corner to squeeze out the writing substance, a contrasting color blended cat food, or pumpkin puree. If you have pastry tips, you can also insert them into the pastry bag, if you want to get really decorative. For this particular cake today, I ended up not writing anything on it. I was running out of time before work to get too fancy, and I made a simple border using some of the extra Tuna Tunnel filling.  














You need small (mixing) bowls for each flavor/color or texture of cat food or canned tuna ingredient you are going to use. Choose flavors that your cat will like regardless. I go for contrasting color. It may or may not be of interest to our feline friends, but I like the visuals. It makes a difference in the textures you are using on how well the "cake" holds together. You want to use or transform your food into a Pâté textured cat food as it will hold the shape the best. You can take a food in sauce or liquid and drain and save the liquid for your kitten to eat another time, or blend in with the other meat to make a Pâté consistency. 

I have done that here with Rachel Ray's Nutrish Paw Lickin' Chicken and Liver Recipe, Tuna Purrfection, and Bumble Bee Very Low Sodium Solid White Albacore in Water. I like the Bumble Bee Tuna for rare, special treats as the only ingredient is Tuna in Water, no salt, nothing added. Too much seafood upsets Lucy's tummy, and the Vet recommended against serving all Tuna in general to the cats, because if they ever developed a health issue where appetite was decreased and the cat won't eat, canned people type Tuna fish and the water from the can are about the best enticement you will find for a cat that won't eat. So she doesn't get to eat fancy Tuna too often, ergo calling it a special treat. I think a Birthday is pretty special! 

With this particular Wilton mold, each cavity holds 4 ounces. If you have a mini Bundt type pan that you want to use for your cake, but don't know how many ounces it holds and you don't have a measuring cup or one marked in ounce, 2 Tablespoons equals 1 fluid ounce. I did use a measuring spoon to measure out how much cat food I was scooping out for this recipe and the miniature Bundt pan. (If you just want to eyeball it, guesstimate, go ahead. If I wasn't trying to write down a recipe for others to go by, I would not measure.

You can apply a thin layer of oil that is appropriate for your kitten's health conditions to the inner surface of the mold. Spray, use a pastry brush or apply the oil with your finger tips. I used my finger tips. 

You need 4 ounces of your cat food, blended to a Pâté consistency. 

Lucy loves to work on Projects, especially when she can supervise

I used one container of the Rachel Ray's Nutrish Paw Lickin' Chicken and Liver Recipe and the Tuna Purrfection each, straining off the creamy liquid. I used a small strainer and smushed the catfood through with the back of a plastic spoon, collecting the delectable juices in a small glass mixing bowl. I saved some of the liquid to mix with the Tuna for the Tunnel. 

 

     

I muddled and blended together the Chicken & Liver and the Tuna Cat Foods in a small glass mixing bowl. Next, fill the mold half way. 

Freeze it til firm.  I froze mine til firm, about 1 hour, probably a little less time. It doesn't need to be rock hard, just firm enough for supporting the Tuna Tunnel layer.

While you are waiting for first layer of your cake to set, cover and place the rest of the "cake batter" aka the blended cat food in the fridge. You can make another pastry bag from another zip lock sandwich bag or you can use a spoon or fingers to apply the Tunnel of Tuna Filling. You can blend your Tuna Filling. 

I used 1 ounces or 2 Tablespoons of Bumble Bee Very Low Sodium White
Albacore packed in Water. I pressed the water from the Tuna meat, and left in the opened can. I used my muddler to smush, smooth and blend the tuna to a Pate texture. I blended in some of the liquid strained from the canned cat food. 


(If you use a Pate style cat food, you won't have to do much blending, just smooth the cat food to a workable texture.) 

Now that you have your blended Tuna for the Tunnel of Tuna, retrieve your mold from the freezer. Your cat food should be firm to the touch by now. I made a small cylinder shape with the Tuna Tunnel Filling and laid it on top of the first layer of cat food in the center of one side of the "donut" shape of the tube pan. 



Just keep going around and around until you complete a circle of Tuna filling. You will pop the pan back in the freezer again until it is firm to the touch. I think I had mine in the freezer less than a half an hour. I was busy putting things away, cleaning up after myself and playing with the Birthday Girl. If you have some tuna filling left over, save that for a garnish/decoration for the cake. 

Is it ready yet Mom? Hurry Up! I'm not getting any younger!

 

When the Tuna filling layer is firm to the touch, take your mold out of the freezer and you will spread on top of that layer the rest of the cat food cake batter. And pop the mold back into the freezer for a final time, until the last layer of cat food is firm to the touch. 

My mold generally looks frosty and you can easily peel the sides of the mold away from your frozen cat food cake. 

Loosen the edges of the mold. Lay a small plate upside down, or the serving side against the exposed side of the cake still in the mold. Press one hand down on top of the back side of the plate and flip the whole mold over with your other hand. The cake will flip out on to the little presentation plate. You can use this method with most of your human desserts as well. 

Now you have successfully made your first Tunnel of Tuna Cake! 

You can garnish or decorate it with some of the extra Tuna Tunnel Filling. Or in any other way you see fit for you and your feline babies. Sometimes I write on Lucy's cake with pureed pumpkin, see how to do that in an earlier blog. 

Here are a couple of pics to see the Tunnel of Tuna running through the cake. It was probably too bright in the kitchen for there to be enough contrast in the pics. You can see the Tuna ring to the right hand side of the sliced out portion. If you want to cut your cake so that you can see the Tunnel or rings in a mostly whole cake or in slices on a plate, I suggest you hard freeze the cake and then cut it with a warmed, sharp, thin knife. The birthday girl was wanting some cake before I went to work that day, and was less interested in my perfect photos than in a snack and a nap. 

Your cat is probably going to be more interested in the yummy tastes of the cake, than whether or not it won the Meow Bake Off of 2017.

Lot's of love makes everything taste better, and life - oh so much sweeter. 

Happy One Year Birthday Lucy! Love you Always!
Lucy is smartly wary of fire. Good Girl!

You can follow Lucy on Instagram at and YouTube . 

Lucy was bred at the Love Branch Cattery in Toney, Alabama. You can also visit the LoveBranchCattery on Facebook.