Makes 12 to 24 portions  This is an especially moist and luscious dark chocolate cake, generously flavored with bourbon and coffee. Sensational! It is made in a fancy pan and is served without icing. I have made this at demonstrations all around the country. It is one of my favorite cakes to teach because people can’t wait to make it. Excerpted from HAPPINESS IS BAKING Copyright © 2019 by Maida Heatter. Used with permission of Little, Brown and Company, New York. All rights reserved.

Adjust rack one-third up from bottom of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees. You will need a 9-inch Bundt pan (this is the smaller size; it is called a mini Bundt pan) or any other fancy tube pan with a 10-cup capacity. Butter the pan (even if it is a nonstick pan) and dust the whole inside of the pan with fine, dry bread crumbs. Invert over a piece of paper and tap lightly to shake out excess crumbs. Set the pan aside.

Place the chocolate in the top of a small double boiler over warm water on low heat. Cover and cook only until melted; then remove the top of the double boiler and set it aside, uncovered, to cool slightly.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a 2-cup glass measuring cup, dissolve the coffee in a bit of boiling water. Add cold water to the 1½-cup line. Add the bourbon. Set aside.

Cream the butter in the large bowl of an electric mixer. Add the vanilla and sugar and beat to mix well. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until smooth after each addition. Add the chocolate and beat until smooth.

Then, on low speed, alternately add the sifted dry ingredients in three additions and the coffee mixture in two additions, adding the liquid very gradually to avoid splashing, and scraping the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Be sure to beat until smooth after each addition, especially after the last. It will be a thin mixture.

Pour into the prepared pan. Rotate the pan a bit briskly, first in one direction, then in the other, to level the top. (In a mini Bundt pan the batter will almost reach the top of the pan, but it is OK — it will not run over, and you will have a beautifully high cake.)

Bake for 1 hour and 10 or 15 minutes. Test by inserting a cake tester into the middle of the cake and bake only until the tester comes out clean and dry. Cool in the pan for about 15 minutes. Then cover with a rack and invert. Remove the pan, sprinkle the cake with a bit of optional bourbon, and leave the cake upside down on the rack to cool.

Before serving, if you wish, sprinkle the top with confectioners’ sugar through a fine strainer.

This is a simple, no-icing cake, wonderful as is. Or with a spoonful of vanilla- or bourbon-flavored whipped cream.