The cake was called a "Tunnel of Fudge Cake" and it was a Pillsbury Bake-Off winner many years ago (1966). Here's the recipe from the Pillsbury website:

TUNNEL OF FUDGE CAKE

Don't scrimp on the nuts, or it won't work!

16 servings

INGREDIENTS

Cake

1 3/4 cups sugar
1 3/4 cups margarine or butter, softened
6 eggs
2 cups powdered sugar
2 1/4 cups Pillsbury BEST® All Purpose or Unbleached Flour
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups chopped walnuts*

Glaze

3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
4 to 6 teaspoons milk

DIRECTIONS

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour 12-cup fluted tube cake pan or 10-inch tube pan. In large bowl, combine sugar and margarine; beat until light and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Gradually add 2 cups powdered sugar; blend well. By hand, stir in flour and remaining cake ingredients until well blended. Spoon batter into greased and floured pan; spread evenly.

2. Bake at 350°F. for 45 to 50 minutes or until top is set and edges are beginning to pull away from sides of pan.** Cool upright in pan on wire rack 1 1/2 hours. Invert onto serving plate; cool at least 2 hours.

3. In small bowl, combine all glaze ingredients, adding enough milk for desired drizzling consistency. Spoon over top of cake, allowing some to run down sides. Store tightly covered.

High Altitude (3500-6500 ft) Increase flour to 2 1/4 cups plus 3 tablespoons. Bake as directed above.

I love Bundt cakes. I have LOTS of recipes for them.
Joe

Thanks Joe! The last recipe for this that I saw, which claimed to be the original, had ingredients that are no longer available. I used to love this cake too.

Awesome! Now did they used to make this in box form? I thought i remembered a few different tunnel cakes that were in boxes but i could be imagining things haha i am going to try this and question? what does the nuts do to make it work? I'm guessing they bind the cake together somehow.

The original recipe (which my Mother made often as it was a favorite in our house) called for a box of chocolate frosting mix. When Pillsbury stopped producing that they came up with the adjusted recipe.

I do remember that they used to sell boxed mixes for bundt cakes and Tunnel of Fudge was no doubt one of them. For some reason, bundt cakes have lost popularity so I'm sure that's why they quit selling the mixes. I still have my mother's bundt pan and make cakes in it occasionally. You can find lots of recipes by googling "bundt cake recipes". Probably better making it from scratch instead of using a boxed mix anyway.

I'm sure scratch would be way better even though i have yet to make a delish cake from scratch. too dense, spongy or not sweet.. try try try again i suppose : ) actually im not a huge cake fan i am a fan of pudding/custard cake combos. my favorite is boston cream pie so you can see i like that cool pudding with my cake so thats why the bundt recipe. they had one boxed version my mom made that was white pudding/custard in the middle and maybe a cherry glaze almost a black forest type cake with the tunnel of cream. it was my fave growing up and i can't figure out how to get custard inside the cake without ruining it.

If you like moist, rich, almost-custardy, almost-black foresty chocolatey cakes with cherries, here's a winner:

CHOCOLATE-CHERRY MASCARPONE BUNDT CAKE

Serves 16

Ingredients

2 sticks butter
1/2 cup cocoa
3/4 cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1 Tbs vanilla extract
2 large eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 can cherry pie filling

Glaze

3/4 cup chocolate chips
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup good dark brewed coffee
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

Grease and flour a 10-12 cup Bundt pan.

Heat oven to 350°F.

Melt butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat.

Add cocoa, stirring until smooth.

Whisk in the water and remove from heat.

To the warm cocoa mixture, add the sugar, mascarpone, vanilla and eggs.
Whisk until smooth.

In another bowl combine the flour, soda and salt.

Add all at once to the first mixture, whisking until well blended.

Stir in one can of cherry pie filling.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 1 hour, or until it feels firm to the touch and has slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan.

Cool in pan on a rack for 20 minutes.

Carefully loosen the cake with a knife and invert onto a large plate.

While it is cooling, warm the milk/cream, coffee and corn syrup on medium heat until it boils. Remove from heat.

Add vanilla.

Pour over chocolate chips and let sit until chocolate melts. Whisk until smooth.

Let cool to room temperature and then spoon over the cooled cake.

If too thick, thin with a little more cream.

Joe

Thank you that looks and sounds super yummy! i might have to make it this weekend just to make sure its as yum as it sounds : )

I've made this one many times. Very good. See link

Here is a link that might be useful: Banana Crunch Cake

Snolady, I have made that Banana Crunch Cake and it is very good. I've gotten into the habit of making Banana Nut Bread whenever I have ripe bananas......might be time for a change.
Thanks for the reminder.
RL~

That recipe, while I'm sure delicious, is NOT what the poster described. She was describing the Black Forest Pudding Cake from Pillsbury I believe, which was a Black Forest Cake with a tunnel of vanilla custard in the middle, and a cherry pour-over glaze. Everything you needed came in the box.... and for some reason it seems a bundt pan was maybe also available with it? (That part is hazy). It was my favorite boxed cake before they discontinued it. I've been searching for a replacement recipe ever since. Would love to find one that duplicates this cake.

Bela 67. I emailed Pillsbury about the Bundt cakes mixes and they sent me the recipe for black forest cherry cake. It calls for whipped topping but the Bundt cake mixes had a white creamy filling that was not whipped topping. It had the consistency of egg white icing but did not taste like it. Maybe it was their white chocolate mousse. I loved the chocolate mousse Bundt cake also. It was just topped with sprinkled powdered sugar with a chocolate mousse filling. I used to make them in jr. High when Mom needed something fancy to take to a potluck.

YESSS!!! That’s IT!

FYI there are a ton of recipes for Bundt cakes on the Nordic Ware website. Nordic Ware recipes