Showing posts with label Bundts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bundts. Show all posts

Thursday, October 15, 2015

Root Beer Float Bundt #BundtBakers

Frosty root beer with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream – that is to say, root beer cake with vanilla ice cream glaze or a root beer float – in Bundt cake form!

You know that feeling your teeth get after drinking Coke, kinda gritty like they are rough as you rub them together? I hated that as a child so I wouldn’t drink Coke. My favorite beverage was root beer, and if it wasn’t on the menu, I’d order Sprite or 7Up. Remember the uncola? My parents divorced when I was nine so every summer my sisters and I would travel to spend time with our father. In the early years he lived in South America – known to some as The Land of No Root Beer. Okay, I’m the only one who called it that. It is a fact though that until just a few years ago, most of the world was The Land of No Root Beer. I guess it’s a typically American thing. Anyway, when we went to visit Daddy, my mom always packed a small bottle or two of root beer extract so that I could make my own libation. Non-bubbly root beer wasn’t quite the same as the bottled stuff but it was way better than a summer without root beer. Truth.

When our host Laura, of Baking in Pyjamas, chose Beverages for this month’s Bundt Baker theme, I thought I was being original in wanting to make a root beer flavored cake, but as often happens when theoretical brilliance strikes, the internet revealed that many people had beat me to it. I also found many recipes for frosting using ice cream, but this may be the first Bundt cake to combine the two, root beer float style. Or not. At some point a person just has to stop searching the web for reassurance and get on with baking.

Ingredients
For the root beer cake batter:
2 cups or 475ml root beer (Do not use diet root beer! You are baking CAKE, after all.)
1 cup or 100g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup or 115g unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups or 250g granulated sugar
1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g dark brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon root beer flavoring or 1 teaspoon root beer extract
2 cups or 250g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs

For the ice cream glaze:
2/3 cup or 156ml melted rich vanilla bean ice cream
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups or 220g powdered sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or 163°C and prepare your 10-inch Bundt pan by spraying it liberally with nonstick cooking spray; alternatively, butter it then dust lightly with cocoa powder and knock out the excess.

Cut your butter into small chunks. In a medium sized pot, heat the root beer, cocoa powder, and butter over medium heat until the butter is melted and you have a nice homogeneous chocolatey sauce.


Add the sugars and whisk until dissolved. Add the root beer flavoring and whisk again. Remove from the heat and leave to cool.



In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. If your whisking arm is tired, take a short break. We've got more whisking coming up and the chocolate mixture needs a little more cooling time anyway. Probably.

In a small bowl, whisk the eggs until just beaten, then whisk them into the cooled cocoa mixture until combined.



Gently fold the flour mixture into the cocoa mixture. A few small lumps may be visible but that’s okay.

Just keep folding. 


Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes. Test for doneness with a wooden skewer. When it comes out clean, your cake is done.


Transfer the pan to a wire rack and leave to cool for about 10 minutes. Gently loosen the sides of the cake from the pan and turn it out onto the rack. Leave to cool completely while you get on with making the glaze.


In a mixing bowl, add the salt to the melted vanilla ice cream along with one cup or 125g of icing sugar. Whisk well to combine. Keep adding the remainder of the sugar a little at a time, stirring well with each addition, until you reach your desired consistency of glaze. I like a thick glaze so I added all of the sugar.



Once the cake is completely cooled, drizzle on the glaze or pour it completely over the Bundt.

Since I had baked in the Nordic Ware Heritage pan and wanted to emphasize its wonderful swirls, I didn’t use all the glaze this recipe makes. Store any leftover glaze in the refrigerator. You can spoon more on when serving the cake, if desired.



Enjoy!



Has your favorite beverage been transformed into a Bundt this month? Check out our link list of 30 drink inspired recipes to see!

BundtBakers

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving Bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest Board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme or ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers can be found on our homepage.



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Posted by at 2:13:00 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Graham Cracker Bundt with Chocolate Ganache and Toasted Marshmallow Frosting #BundtBakers

A s’more in Bundt form: This tender crumb cake is made with crushed graham crackers and chopped pecans, then covered in dark chocolate ganache. And, of course, the final ingredient has got to be marshmallows, so I added marshmallow frosting and toasted it with my handy kitchen torch.

Years ago, when I was a Girl Scout, I liked nothing better than to camp out with my fellow scouts – we were primarily a camping/hiking troop as we grew up and headed into high school – and the highlight of our trips was always the evening campfire, singing camp songs and roasting marshmallows for s’mores. Girl Scouts transformed me from the foreign girl to a friend, gave me my first real job out of college and helped me pass down skills and values to my daughters. But they also gave me a lifelong love and appreciation of campfires and making s’mores as a way of bonding in a group. Take this Bundt cake along to a potluck and see if folks don’t love you too!

The graham cracker cake is slightly adapted from this recipe from The Country Cook.
The marshmallow frosting is adapted from the boiled frosting recipe in Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.

Ingredients
For the cake batter:
2 3/4 cups or 270g graham cracker crumbs (32 squares or two sleeves of the  three that come in a box) Good substitute: McVitie’s Digestive Biscuits
2 tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup or 200g sugar
1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
5 egg yolks (Save two of the whites in a clean bowl for making the marshmallow frosting. Make meringues with the other three.)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup or 240ml milk
1 cup or 120g chopped pecans

For the dark chocolate ganache:
200g dark chocolate
7 oz whipping cream

For the marshmallow frosting:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons water
2 egg whites, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by greasing and flouring it or spraying it with non-stick spray for baking. I used my classic 12-cup Bundt because I knew any pan details would be lost under the ganache and frosting but this would fit in a 10-cup Bundt pan without any problems.

If you are starting with actual graham crackers, pulverize them in a food processor or crush them into crumbs inside a plastic bag using a rolling pin.

Measure your flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into the cracker crumbs and mix well.

Cream the butter and sugar until pale yellow and fluffy.

Add in 1/3 of the graham cracker mix and mix briefly.



Add in 1/3 of the milk and mix again. Continue adding 1/3 of the crumbs and 1/3 of the milk until it’s all mixed in.



Fold in the chopped pecans.



Spoon your thick batter into your prepare Bundt pan and baked for about 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. If you are using a small pan, it may take longer since the resulting cake will be deeper.



Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes before turning the Bundt out onto a wire rack to cool completely.



To make the ganache: Break or cut your chocolate into small pieces. Heat your milk till just at the point of boiling and then remove it from the stove. Tip in the chocolate pieces and give it a stir.

Let the chocolate melt for a few minutes and then stir vigorously to combine. Keep stirring occasionally as the ganache cools and starts to thicken. If you'd like it to cool more quickly, pour it out of the hot pot into a clean bowl.



To make the marshmallow frosting:
Heat your sugar, cream of tartar, salt and water and in a small pot until it begins to boil. Insert a candy thermometer and continue boiling the mixture, without stirring, until it reaches a temperature of 260°F or 127°C.

Remove the pot from the heat. Whisk your egg whites on high in your stand mixer or with electric beaters until soft peaks form.

Still whisking at high speed, pour the hot sugar mixture into the egg whites in a thin but steady stream until all of the mixture is incorporated into the egg whites. Continue whisking until the bowl is no longer warm to the touch.



Finishing up
Once your Bundt is cool and the ganache is a good consistency for pouring – that is to say, still thick enough to spread out a little but not thin enough to drip right off the cake – spoon it over the Bundt cake. You can test this by lifting up a spoonful and dropping back in the bowl. The ganache should not settle right back in but sit in a mound of the top briefly before, once again, becoming one with the greater bowl.


Let the ganache harden up further until it’s fairly well set before piping on the frosting. Use a piping bag and a large hole tip to pipe the frosting onto the top of the Bundt.



Use a kitchen torch to gently toast the marshmallow frosting. This was the best part! It smelled just like marshmallows on a fire!


I honestly had no idea what this layering of toppings would do over time so I am delighted to report that the cake, ganache and frosting and all lasted several days – until it was eaten – just as pretty as day one. Only one word of warning: You cannot cover it with cling film so a cake cover is your best bet for keeping it fresh. I tested a small corner to see and even though the toasted marshmallow frosting feels a bit dry to the touch, cling film will stick to it.



Enjoy!



Many thanks to our host for this Creative S’more Bundt cake challenge from this month’s BundtBakers host, Lauren at From Gate to Plate.

Check out all the creative s’more Bundts we have for you this month!

BundtBakers

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.


Posted by at 2:03:00 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, August 20, 2015

Nutella Bundt with Nutella Glaze #BundtBakers

Nutella Bundt with Nutella Glaze #BundtBakers Fudgy and soft with a subtle nuttiness, this Nutella Bundt cake with Amaretto and ground almonds, topped with slightly warmed Nutella, is a brownie-like confection that every chocolate or Nutella fan will love.
Fudgy and soft with a subtle nuttiness, this Nutella Bundt cake with Amaretto and ground almonds, topped with slightly warmed Nutella, is a brownie-like confection that every chocolate or Nutella fan will love.

When they were growing up and still at home, I would occasionally find an empty Nutella jar in one of my daughter’s bedrooms - most often the elder, if truth be told - scraped clean of sticky hazelnut chocolate and abandoned under the bed. They spread it on toast, rolled it up in crepes and, as just mentioned, ate it with a spoon. They come by Nutella love naturally, a tale you can read about here, along with a recipe for my Nutella Swirl Muffins. When they went off to university in Providence, no stores near them seemed to carry the creamy delight of our young lives. One year I even sent them jars ordered on Amazon as a special treat, in celebration World Nutella Day. When they were coming home for Christmas last year, I bought a very large jar of Nutella in anticipation (750g or 1.7 lbs by weight) and stashed it in the cupboard. It was opened, a little Nutella was eaten and then, the holidays over, they left. That big jar has been languishing there for eight months now, mocking me each time I opened the cupboard door, threatening to turn rancid, as old things with oil will ever do. I began to scour the internet for recipes with Nutella and finally settled on this one from Nigella Lawson’s site.

I had to adapt it slightly for lack of all the ingredients, but this is essentially Nigella’s cake, fudgy, soft and brownie-like in texture. The additional Nutella warmed and poured on top is mine though. I had to get through that jar, folks!

Without further ado, here’s my contribution to this month’s Bundt Bakers Sprinkles theme, hosted by Terri of Love and Confections. August is Terri’s birthday month and what better way to celebrate than with Bundts with sprinkles. Hope your birthday was the best, Terri!

Ingredients
For the cake:
6 large eggs
1/2 cup or 120g unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups or 400g Nutella or whatever hazelnut chocolate spread you have on hand
1 tablespoon Amaretto liqueur
1 cup (spooned in, not tightly packed) or 100g ground almonds
3 1/2 oz or 100g dark chocolate
1 pinch salt

For the glaze:
1/2 cup or 135g Nutella

To decorate:
Some sprinkles, of course, to fit our theme

Method
Preheat the oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your Bundt pan by buttering and flouring it, or use the baking spray that already has flour in it. That's what I usually do.

Carefully separate your eggs into whites and yolks. Melt the chocolate for your batter in a microwaveable bowl using a few short zaps and stirring well in between. Set aside to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, use your electric beaters or stand mixer to beat the butter and Nutella together and then add the Amaretto, egg yolks and ground almonds. Beat well.



Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate.



In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites with the pinch of salt until soft peaks form.

Add a large dollop of the fluffy whites into the chocolate bowl and stir with a spatula or spoon to loosen the chocolate batter.

Now add the rest of the egg whites, a dollop at a time, folding gently to combine the whites with the chocolate batter with each addition. You are trying to keep it light so this is not the time to mix vigorously. Just gently fold.



Spoon your batter into the prepared Bundt pan, making sure to fill all the curves and crevices. I used my Nordic Ware heart pan (<Amazon affiliate link) with a 10-cup capacity.


Bake on the center rack of your preheated oven for about 40-50 minutes or until it is all puffed up and springs back when touched.

It was even higher when I first took it out but it didn't seem to appreciate my big oven mitt thumb on the tip of the heart. 

It starts to deflate when you take it out of the oven, but don’t be alarmed. This is just concentrating the fudgy-ness inside. Cool for 10 minutes then turn the cake out of the Bundt pan onto a wire cooling rack.



Allow to cool completely before attempting to decorate.

When the cake is cool, warm the Nutella gently in a microwaveable vessel until it can just pour. If it gets too hot and runny, let it cool until it is just pourable but won’t run down the sides of your cake too quickly. Scoop a little up with a spoon and drizzle it back into the vessel to test the consistency.

Pour the warmed Nutella onto your cake and decorate with the sprinkles of your choice, or perhaps some chopped nuts.



Enjoy!



Here are this month's "Sprinkles" Bundts:



BundtBakers


#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.




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Posted by at 4:41:00 AM 0 comments
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Thursday, May 21, 2015

Culture Confusion Rocky Road Bundt #BundtBakers

This Bundt is a riot of cultural influences and flavors and colors that somehow come together to create one of the richest Bundts I’ve ever baked: Turkish delight, dried apricots, syrupy stem ginger, pistachios, dried cranberries and date molasses, in a Jamaican ginger batter, finished off with a decorative flourish of American marshmallow fluff.
This is the TCK or third culture kid of cakes, feeling the pull of the Far East, Middle East, Jamaica by way of the British Isles and the United States as well. This month our Bundt Baker host, Laura of Baking in Pyjamas, challenged us to bake a Bundt with the flavors and ingredients of Rocky Road. For those unfamiliar, rocky road is an unbaked confection that usually contains nuts, fruit, chocolate and marshmallows, sometimes cookies, but a little research soon revealed that the combinations depend greatly on where one lives.  I was intrigued by a recipe on Taste.com.au for a Turkish Delight Rocky Road and decided to use those basic ingredients, but baked in cake batter. (And substituting a North American ingredient, cranberries, for the glacé cherries because glacé cherries? Just no.)

Ah, but which cake batter? Sure, I could have done a plain cake but if you’ve been reading along here a while you know that I don’t often take the easy way out. I like a challenge. So I started looking for a cake recipe with Turkish delight and came across this moist and beautiful ginger loaf baked with fond memories of her English childhood, from my fellow UAE blogger, Sally of My Custard Pie. Now Sally’s ginger cake was already loaded with flavor and the only thing Turkish delight about it ended up being a gorgeous pink rose flavored icing. But I could already taste all of my added flavors baked in that fabulous batter. It’s a gift.

To finish it off Rocky Road style, I piped on some marshmallow fluff. Only after it was baked did I realize that, with so much going on, I forgot chocolate. Sorry, Laura!


Ingredients
For the cake batter:
1/2 cup or 90g dried apricots
1 cup or 150g unsalted pistachios, divided
1/2 cup or 85g dried cranberries
 3 1/2 oz or 100g Turkish Delight
1 knob of stem ginger
2 cups or 250g flour plus a little extra for flouring Bundt pan
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground (powdered) ginger
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g brown sugar
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter
1/2 cup or 120ml golden syrup
1/3 cup or 80ml date molasses (Normal molasses can be substituted.)
1 generous tablespoon syrup from jar of stem ginger
1 large egg
2/3 cup or 155 ml milk

To decorate:
1/2 cup marshmallow creme or fluff or use a thick glaze of your choosing
Cranberries and pistachios, amounts as per the instructions below

Method
Finely chop about one quarter of your pistachios in a food processor. You are looking for a lot of pistachios dust, very fine crumbs and some small pieces.



Roughly chop the rest of your pistachios with a knife and set aside about one quarter of them to decorate the Bundt after baking.

Cut your cranberries, apricots and Turkish delight into small pieces.  Using scissors is easier than the knife. Mince your stem ginger.  Set aside about one quarter of the cranberry pieces for decorating the cake after baking.


Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and liberally butter and lightly flour your 10-cup Bundt pan. In case you are curious, mine is the Nordic Ware Fleur de Lis.  <affiliate link

Now sprinkle the finely chopped pistachios around the side and middle of the Bundt pan. The bigger pieces will not stick and will fall into the deep grooves of the pan. This is a good thing.



Sift the flour for the cake into a large mixing bowl and add in the baking powder, ginger, baking soda and salt. Mix well.

Add the cut apricots, Turkish delight and the bigger pile of cranberries to the flour mixture and use your hands to make sure they are all well coated and not sticking together.



In a large saucepan, gently warm the golden syrup, date molasses and the ginger syrup with the brown sugar and butter till the butter is just melted and the sugar has dissolved. Set aside.



Measure your milk into a measuring jug, add in the egg and whisk well with a fork.

Pour your barely warm molasses mixture into the flour bowl then add the milk with egg and the minced stem ginger. Mix lightly.



Fold in the larger pile of chopped pistachios.



Pour the batter into your prepared Bundt pan.



Bake on the middle shelf in your preheated oven for 40-45 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean. The cake should be pulling away from the sides slightly.



Allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then use your wooden skewer to loosen any bits of cake adhering to the sides or middle of the Bundt pan, before turning the cake out.



Allow to cool completely before decorating.

To decorate, put your marshmallow fluff in a piping bag and follow the contours of your cake. My initial plan was for fuller coverage but the diamonds that appeared on top because of the pistachios were too cool to hide, so I ended up not using all the marshmallow fluff. If you have a traditional Bundt pan, just pipe that sticky stuff all over.



Poke bits of cranberry and pistachio all over the cake until you think there’s enough or you run out. Over the past 20 years I’ve had a couple of good friends who have baked and decorated with me and they will tell you that I often need to be stopped when contemplating the addition of just one more thing. But more is more, I say.



A note on marshmallow fluff: It’s not the best medium to stick stuff to a cake, even a cold cake, because it starts to slide. If you aren’t trying to mimic rocky road ingredients, feel free to substitute your favorite glaze. Perhaps even Sally’s pretty in pink Turkish Delight one or her alternate option, flavored with fresh lemongrass.



Many thanks to Laura from Baking in Pyjamas for this great theme. I know you all are going to enjoy the variety of flavors and cakes we have for you today! Remember, just because it's called Rocky Road, doesn't mean it's all the same inside!


BundtBakers


#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.


Aaaaand, if you happen to have extra marshmallow fluff and a willing pooch (and by willing I mean he sits patiently waiting for a taste whenever I fill a green piping bag - he knows!) then by all means, give him a mustache and let him lick it off.  Hey, it's his 8th birthday on Saturday. Special treat.

















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