Category: bundt cakes

semolina bundt cake with lemon and thyme

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when it comes to bundt cakes, the ones with a pound cake texture are always the easiest to unmold and slice.  if they are scented with lemon and herbs, as this one is, they also seem to be favorites among my fellow garden volunteers.  right now, the herb garden is bursting with thyme in bloom which made adding a few sprigs to this cake the obvious choice.

since i bring a cake whenever i go to the garden, i have to keep it interesting.  that stands to reason for the people eating it as much as it does for me, the person baking it.  while looking through the larder in search of inspiration, i came across my container of semolina flour.  then i stumbled upon the bag of almond flour in the freezer.  semolina flour and almond flour both add to the texture without changing it  visibly.  the color of the semolina and the almond flour after it is toasted accentuate the golden hue of the cake.  freshly grated lemon zest and thyme leaves give it a wonderful aroma as well as flavor and make this a great cake for a picnic.  if you want to go a little crazy, try using slabs of this cake in place of a biscuit or angelfood cake cups for a wonderful shortcake dessert; the cake flavor would blend beautifully with fresh berries.

semolina bundt cake with lemon and thyme
one 10-12 cup bundt serving 12-16
1/2 cup almond flour
1 3/4 cup unbleached all purpose flour
3/4 cup semolina flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1 3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 teaspoons freshly picked thyme leaves
4 eggs
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour the bundt pan and set it aside.  in a small ovenproof dish or pan, spread the almond flour out and bake it until golden, about 5 minutes.  set aside to cool.  place all of the dry ingredients into a bowl and whisk it together to remove any lumps in the flour.  add the cooled almond flour and stir it in.
in a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar, lemon zest and thyme leaves until fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.  add the eggs, one at a time and scrape the bowl as you go.  add the dry ingredients to the bowl and by hand using a spatula or spoon, fold them in a few times.  sprinkle the buttermilk over the mixture and continue folding the batter together by hand until no streaks remain.  scape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a cake tester comes out clean when inserted, about 45-50 minutes.  allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes and then invert it onto a rack to finish cooling.  to serve the cake, give it a light dusting of powdered sugar.  
this cake recipe is very versatile; try substituting different citrus fruits or herbs as well as nut flours.  orange, rosemary, lime, thyme, lavender, basil, pecan meal-you get the idea!  the list goes on and on…and one more thing, have i mentioned how much i love the herb garden?  best kitchen “tool” ever!

guess again cake and the importance of following directions…

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there are few scents as intoxicating as the smell of a spice cake in the oven.  immediately, the house feels warm and inviting.  once it comes out of the oven, very few can resist the urge to grab a knife and slice a thick slab.  just be sure to take it out of the pan first…and speaking of that pan, if the directions call for you to grease and flour it, please, for the love of cake, heed the warning.

sad but true, i did not do as the directions instructed and the results were a lovely cake coated pan.  sigh.
doubly sad since not only do i bake for a living, but that recipe was one of my own; i broke my own rule.  my excuse, i was in a hurry.   even worse, i needed the cake for a meeting and there was no way to hide this.  so, off i went, head hanging low and my lame excuse at the ready for anyone who dared to ask.

funny thing is, no one seemed to think much of it.  sure, they were a little surprised that i could have such a mishap, but none were the least bit shocked.  it was if they knew something i didn’t and had just realized…regardless, i came home with a tray holding just a few small chunks and some crumbs.  apparently, they liked it.

when they learned the cake had a secret ingredient, they went back for a little more.  it was fun making them guess.  spice cakes are easy to hide unusual ingredients in since the spices tend to mask the flavors of the other ingredients.  are you curious about that ingredient?  well, believe it or not, it was a can of crushed tomatoes.  once baked, the tomatoes are not obvious in either appearance or taste.  they do add some wonderful color and lots of moisture.

guess again tomato cake with pecans and raisins
makes 1 (10-12) cup bundt pan serving about 16
3/4 cup golden raisins
3/4 cup pecan pieces
3 cups cake flour
1 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1 can (14.5 ounce) crushed tomatoes-make sure they do not contain things like garlic and herbs!
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour the bundt pan.  place the raisins in a saucepan, cover with water and bring to a gentle boil.  remove from the heat and allow them to cool completely in the water.  drain well.  
toast the pecans on a baking sheet for 5-7 minutes, allow to cool before using.  in a mixing bowl, combine the cake flour, baking soda and the spices.  in a large mixing bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  add the eggs and mix completely, scrape the bowl and mix it in.  place the dry ingredients into a sifter or mesh strainer and sift them over the butter mixture.  fold it a few times by hand.  pour the entire can of tomatoes over the top of the batter and fold it all together.  fold in the raisins and pecans and scrape it into the prepared pan.  bake until a tester comes out clean, about an hour.  cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes.  invert onto a rack and allow it to cool completely.  

sweet potato-cinnamon swirl coffee cake

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if you haven’t already figured it out, i have a thing for bundt cakes.  whether they are chocolate, loaded with spices or chock full of fruit, i love them.  more than likely, i just love the pans.  i don’t eat large quantities of the cakes-just slivers here and there.  but i do love hunting for bundt pans in the thrift stores and i have at least half a dozen different pans to choose from.

bundt cake recipes are generally pretty flexible and if you have one good one, you can easily turn it into a dozen great recipes.  this recipe would easily work with pumpkin or butternut squash.  it would also work with apples or pears that were chopped rather than pureed.  there’s a few to get you started, how many more can you think of?  trust me, i will do more than just think about it.

sweet potato-cinnamon swirl coffee cake
1 (10) cup bundt pan serving 12-16
4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 cup baked and mashed sweet potato-nothing added to it
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3 eggs
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tablespoon baking powder
1teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons pecan pieces, toasted and chopped small
1 teaspoon cinnamon

preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour the pan and set it aside.  in the bowl of a large food processor, combine the butter, sugar, sweet potato, salt and vanilla.  pulse to combine.  with the motor running, add the eggs, one at a time.  be sure to scrape the bowl at least once.  dump this mixture into a large mixing bowl.  place the flour, baking powder and pie spice into a sifter or a mesh strainer and sift it over the batter in the bowl.  fold the flour in a couple times, sprinkle the buttermilk over the surface and fold together until no streaks remain.  scrape 2/3 of the batter into the pan and smooth out the top.  in a small bowl, stir together the dark brown sugar, pecan pieces and the cinnamon.  spread it evenly over the top of the batter.  carefully top the ribbon with the remaining batter, smooth it out and bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.  cool in the pan for about 15-20 minutes and then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

chocolate mashed potato cake

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when you have the responsibility of bringing a cake to a meeting each week, you can run out of ideas.  after all, no matter how great something is, most people like variety.  luckily for me, i have a large file of recipes and a fearless sense of adventure when it comes to baking cakes.

so if you take that sense of adventure and add chocolate to it, chances are you get a good cake.  when i wrote my second book, i included many cake recipes that were considered classics.  cakes such as angel food, hummingbird, blackberry jam, tomato soup and many more.  one of my favorites is a chocolate mashed potato cake.  potatoes are a wonderful addition to cakes and breads.  they add moisture and structure and very little potato flavor.

chocolate mashed potato cake
1 (12 cup) bundt or tube pan serving at least 16
1 large baking potato
2 cups sugar
1 3/4 cup cake flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled slightly
4 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
glaze recipe, follows
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour a large bundt or tube pan and set it aside.  peel the potato and cut it into large cubes.  place in a sauce pot and cover with water.  place over medium high heat, bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender.  drain the water off and using a masher or a mixer, mash the potatoes until no lumps (or very small ones) remain.  measure out 3/4 cup for the recipe.  take the remaining potatoes, season them as you desire and eat them before they get cold.  
in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, place the sugar, cake flour and baking soda and with the mixer on low, allow the mixture to combine, about 1 minute.  add the potatoes, butter, melted chocolate and vanilla and mix on low speed to combine.  raise the speed to medium and allow it to beat until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes.  while this beats, whisk together the eggs and the buttermilk.  slowly add the mixture to the batter.  scrape the bowl well and combine it completely.  scrape the batter into a pan and bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, about an hour.  allow the cake to cool in the pan for 20 minutes and then remove it from the pan to finish cooling on a rack.  prepare the glaze recipe and glaze the cake after it is completely cooled. 
chocolate ganache glaze

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate
1/3 cup half and half

place the ingredients in a small saute pan over low heat.  as it heats, stir to melt the chocolate.  do not let it boil or simmer.  keep stirring until half the chocolate is melted.  remove from the heat and stir to melt the remaining lumps.  use a piping bag or a spoon to drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake.

carrot bundt cake with dried apricots and fresh pineapple

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carrot cake-you either love it or hate it.  personally, i am in the middle on this one.  while i like raisins, i do not like them in a carrot cake.  raisins in the batter-pass!  give me a carrot cake with lots of coconut, walnuts, pineapple chunks and of course, shredded carrots, and i am a happy baker.  so how can you improve on this perfection, besides slathering it with cream cheese frosting?  quite easily, actually.

when i wrote my first book, i was thinking of a carrot cake that i could serve at our holiday festivities with my cousins.  several of them have sensitivities to peanuts and for a while, tree nuts were suspect too.  that had me thinking…carrot cakes almost always have walnuts in them.  so what if i switched over to walnut oil rather than the usual vegetable oils and left the walnuts out.  that way, i could easily make the cake with a vegetable oil if the need arose.  ok, nut issue solved!

but what about the other stuff?  freshly grated carrots-no changes needed here.  shredded coconut; nope, it stays as is.  pineapple???  of course, let’s switch this to fresh, ripe pineapple.  not bad, only about 100 times better than the crushed stuff in cans.  but what about the texture?  now that there aren’t any chewy nuts, it isn’t very exciting.  in stepped a bag of dried apricots and history was made.  chewy, tart and full of apricotty goodness.  now that’s what i’m talkin about!  so, is it possible to improve any further?  you betcha, put it in a bundt pan and you’re golden.  and for the one i made to take to the garden recently, i threw caution to the wind and added some toasted pecan pieces, have mercy on my soul, for i am just a baker with a well stocked larder.  i didn’t mean anything by it…

carrot-apricot bundt cake
1 (10-12) cup bundt cake serving about 16
3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup wild flower honey-the darker ones have more flavor
1 cup oil-can be walnut, hazelnut or any other vegetable oil that is liquid at room temp
2 teaspoons fresh ginger, grated
2 cups shredded carrots
1/2 cup dried apricots, finely diced
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple-drained
1 cup sweetened flake coconut
1/2 cup toasted pecans or walnuts
2 1/3 cup unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour the cake pan.  in a large mixing bowl, combine the eggs, sugar, honey and oil.  whisk it until combined.  add the ginger, carrots, apricots, pineapple, coconut and nuts if you are using them.  whisk to combine.  place the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt into a sifter and sift it over the batter.  using a spatula, fold the batter until it is combined and no streaks remain.  scrape the batter into the prepared pan.  bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, about an hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.  cool in the pan for 15-20 minutes.  invert onto a rack to finish cooling.  give it a little sprinkle of powdered sugar for decoration if you like.  enjoy and may the force be with you. 

meyer lemon syrup cake

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for the last 12 or so weeks, i have been attending as many of the master gardener classes as possible.  each week, a small group of certified members has attended in a sort of welcome wagon capacity.  we also bring refreshments for the break.  they have dubbed me the cake lady because i bring a cake each week.  i suppose they could call me worse things than that…

a recent trip to the store yielded a mesh bag of meyer lemons.  these lemons with orange colored skin, have a flavor that is not quite lemon and not quite orange and it is definitely worth seeking them out when they are in season.

if i am baking with citrus, the zest is the part i use.  i used the juice to make a glaze that i brushed over the cake.

meyer lemon syrup cake
1 (10-12) cup bundt cake serving about 16
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of 2 meyer lemons
4 eggs
4 cups unbleached all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups buttermilk
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed juice from the zested lemons
3 tablespoons sugar
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour a bundt pan and set it aside.  place the butter into a mixing bowl with the sugar, salt and zest and on low speed, mix to combine.  turn the mixer up to medium and allow the mixture to cream until light and fluffy.  add the eggs, one at a time and mix to combine.  scrape the bowl as you go. from here on, it is best to mix by hand so if you are not using a wide shallow bowl, transfer the batter to different bowl that will make folding the batter by hand a little easier.  place the flour and baking powder into a sifter and sift it over the batter.  fold this a couple times.  sprinkle the buttermilk over the batter and gently fold until no streaks remain.  scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour and 10 minutes.  
make the glaze by combining the juice and the sugar along with 2 tablespoons of water in a small pan.  bring to a gentle boil and let it cook for a minute or two.  be sure to do this over low heat or you will evaporate most of the glaze and be left with either a thick syrup or a burned pan…brush a little of this over the cake while it is still in the pan.  after it has cooled in the pan for about 10-15 minutes, invert the cake onto a rack, pierce it with a fork a few times and brush the remaining glaze over the top and the sides of the cake.  allow it to cool completely before cutting.

coconut tea cake

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 each week, i bake a cake to take to the new group of students attending the master gardener’s classes.  this week, i had to do a bit of foraging in the cupboards-i hadn’t gone to the grocery store and my options were few.  for some reason, which i cannot explain, i found 5 cans of coconut milk in the closet.  then, while searching for some shredded coconut, i came across a package of fresh-frozen coconut from birdseye.  it is finely shredded and barely sweetened but most importantly, it tastes pretty close to fresh coconut and it doesn’t involve the hassle of opening a coconut and removing the flesh.

since there are at least 50 students in the class, i made a big 10″ (12 cup) tube shaped cake.

after the cake cooled, i dressed it up with a simple glaze and sprinkled some toasted coconut over the top.

coconut tea cake
1 (12) cup cake serving 16-20
7 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup finely grated fresh coconut (or the frozen shredded, thawed)
1 can coconut milk, whisked smooth if lumpy
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons of half and half (or coconut milk if you have some extra)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted (or not if you prefer)
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour a large tube or bundt cake pan and set aside.  place the butter, sugar, salt and 2 teaspoons of the vanilla into the bowl of a food processor.  pulse to combine.  with the machine running, add the eggs, one at a time and allow to mix in.  scrape the mixture into a large mixing bowl since the rest of the ingredients will be folded in by hand.  place a mesh strainer or a sifter into a bowl.  place the flour and baking powder into the strainer/sifter and set aside.  stir the shredded coconut into the mixture-make sure there aren’t any hard lumps of coconut in the batter by breaking them up with your fingers.  sift the dry ingredients over the batter.  fold the mixture a few times and then pour the coconut milk over the batter.  carefully fold together until no streaks remain.  scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until a pick comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.  allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes.  remove the cake from the pan and allow it to cool on a rack.
when the cake is completely cool, whisk the powdered sugar with 3 tablespoons of half and half and the vanilla.  add additional half and half as needed until you have a thick glaze.  using a spoon, drizzle the glaze over the top of the cake.  decorate with a little toasted coconut.
enjoy!

cinnamon swirl coffeecake

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as always, when i head out to the demonstration garden, i go with a cake in hand to share with my fellow volunteers.  a simple vanilla cake with a ribbon of cinnamon sugar, nuts and chocolate chips is a pretty typical choice.

to make it look pretty, first choose an interesting pan.  i have many tube pans in my collection and some are plain while others like the one i used, have patterns.

cinnamon swirl coffeecake
1 (12 cup) cake serving 12 to 16
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
2 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
4 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups buttermilk
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar (or 1/3 cup sugar mixed with 2 teaspoons cinnamon)
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts
preheat the oven to 350.  grease and flour the cake pan and set aside.  place the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla into the bowl of a food processor.  pulse to combine.  add the eggs, one at a time and pulse to combine.  scrape the mixture into a large mixing bowl.  place the flour and the baking powder into a sifter or a mesh strainer and sift it over the batter in the bowl.  fold the batter a few times, add the buttermilk and mix until no streaks remain.  carefully spoon 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan.  sprinkle half of the cinnamon sugar over the batter and then top it off with half of the chocolate chips and nuts.  carefully top this with half of the remaining batter and carefully spread it into an even layer.  sprinkle the remaining cinnamon sugar, chocolate chips and nuts over the batter and then top it off with the remaining cake batter.  spread the top of the batter so that it is even and touches the sides and middle core of the pan.  bake until a pick inserted comes out clean, about 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.  allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a rack to cool completely.  when the cake is cool, sift a little powdered sugar over the top.  cut with a serrated knife.  leftovers, if there are any, will freeze nicely.  just wrap slices well and freeze for a month or two.  to defrost, let the slices sit out at room temperature with the plastic still on them.

gingerbread beer bundt cake; a winner!

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it’s a winner alright.  like everyone else, i love a good contest.  especially when i know i have the winning recipe.  isn’t it funny how that winning recipe never wins anything?  maybe not so funny, but it doesn’t stop me from trying.  and try i did when food52.com ran a best recipe with beer contest this month.  i knew i had the winning entry-who else would bake a cake with beer?  apparently, several entrants had the same idea.  but in the end, mine was the winner.  honestly, mind=blown.  one of the perks of the win, my cake got a glamour shot and a slide show which you can view on food52.com.

one of my favorite ingredients goes into this cake; sorghum.  for those in the know, they understand why.  it is all the flavor of molasses without any of the bitter or the black color.  the syrup pressed from fresh sorghum canes is cooked slowly to reduce, clarify and concentrate the sugar as well as the flavor.   it is also a less refined product and is frequently made in amish and mennonite communities which can make it hard to find.  unless you live in the south, it is still pretty common here and we don’t have to look very hard to find it.  try looking in amish or mennonite stores, farmer’s markets or if you are lucky, the whole foods supermarket near you may carry it-they do in nashville.  
the syrup starts out as a bright green juice but by the time it is cooked, it is a rich amber shade.  it is never so dark that light cannot shine through it.  so my apologies to the folks at food52.com-that looks a lot like molasses in your photos!  looks like i am going to have to send you some southern love in the form of sorghum.

with my large collection of bundt pans, the hard part was choosing one.  

 spice cake with mustard, dos perros pale ale, chocolate glaze; nothing else needed exept a fork…
 the marbleized interior of the cake

for the complete recipe, visit food52.com.  

gingerbread baby bundt cake; twd

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when did they turn on the holiday season?  i could swear that it was summer yesterday and now, it is december.  wow…well, since it is tuesday, it must be time to bake with julia.  this week, our hostess, karen of karen’s kitchen stories is proud to bring us gingerbread baby cakes.  luckily, it is a simple recipe that did not require much work.  since i have so much going on this month-pr event, a daughter graduating, a trip to san francisco for said graduation and oh yeah, the guy in the red suit comes this month too, doesn’t he?  anyway, no time to spare and i will most likely be absent for the next roundup.  did i mention that i am trying to put together not 1 but 2 books???

so here it goes.  let’s start with the obvious.  baby cakes are small cakes; these are supposed to be 4″ rounds.  the husband is out of town for the week and i did not need a group of 4″ cakes for just me.  i made half the recipe and baked it in a fluted pan.  the recipe calls for dark brown sugar, i only had light.  the recipe also called for espresso powder.  i only use whole beans to make espresso, i opted to add more cocoa powder and keep moving.  then i realized that i was out of molasses.  what the hell kind of baker is out of molasses in december????  apparently, this one right here.  i used beet sugar syrup.

okay, it is interesting in a strange, chocolatey, fruity kind of way.  and moving right along, visit karen’s blog page for the recipe and all that.  visit the tuesdays with dorie page to see the hijinks of all the other bakers-most of whom probably had the proper ingredients and what not.  me, i’m pouring another glass of wine and plopping down on the couch with the cat.  i’ve had enough baking for today…

 (actually, it looks so chocolatey because i cut the recipe in half on everything but the cocoa powder-rrrrgggg!!!  but i think it works well)