Tag Archives: bundt

baked occasionally ultralemony bundt cake with almond glaze

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We return this week to our regularly-scheduled programming: Baked, Occasionally. The series where Shannon from A Periodic Table and I bake our way through Baked Bakery’s latest cookbook: Baked Occasions. Each month we will bring you a new recipe from the Baked Occasions cookbook. This month’s winner? Ultralemony Bundt Cake with Almond Glaze.

This month’s decision was exceptionally difficult, as we could have made any of the May options in the book and been equally happy with any of them. With options like Strawberry Layer Cake  In fact, we almost made more than one, but then I talked myself back off that ledge and decided that, with Spring in full swing that we would dive face first into the Ultralemony Bundt Cake with Almond Glaze. This cake is filled to the top with slap-you-in-the-face lemon flavor and accented with just a slight hint of almond that works beautifully with its bright, citrusy flavor.

A mixture of all purpose and cake flours gives this cake an extremely tender crumb while still keeping it sturdy enough to move around without problem. I took my to the thinner side and ended up regretting it. So even if you think your glaze might be a bit too thick, so long as it’s still easily pourable just stick with it and it’ll make for a thick, beautiful glaze.

I was also not prepared for how brown the cake would be and almost panicked near the end of baking when I saw the bottom of the cake. Once I cracked open the book, however, their cake is even much browner than mine, so don’t be afraid. If you start to get nervous, just place some aluminum foil over the cake during the final ten minutes or so of baking.

In the book, the Baked guys say that some people complain that this cake is “too lemony” to which I would say… then why are you eating something called “ultralemony cake”?

What I liked:

  • Flavor: This cake has an amazing bright, strong, citrusy flavor that is somehow perfectly accented by the hint of almond in the glaze. That being said, if you have allergies, feel free to skip the almond and sprinkle the cake with some candied lemon peel or just a few sprinkles instead!
  • Ease: Life is hard sometimes and I would be lying if I said the ease of this cake recipe didn’t factor into my choice this month. It’s so easy to make!

What I didn’t:

There’s really nothing that I didn’t like about this cake! If I had to pick something, I guess it would be…

  • Lemon Waste: This cake uses like a million lemons (or 10, I lost count), and I felt bad that a lot of them were going to be wasted. Slice your extra lemons and make some infused water or throw them down the garbage disposal to freshen it up. Also, did you know that if you throw a lemon chunk into your blender with warm soapy water it works wonders for cleaning it? Just some tips…
  • Arm Fatigue: Zesting lemons can be really hard on your arm, so you’ll get a really good work-out but you might have to take a few breaks in between. If you end up short a lemon, your cake will probably survive, but try to stick it through (or enlist some help from a significant other, small child, or neighbor.  If you promise them cake as a reward they may be willing to help!)

ultralemony bundt cake - wee eats

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baked occasionally ultra lemony bundt cake

Ingredients

    For the cake
  • 1 1/2 cups cake flour
  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon koshersalt
  • 2 3/4 cups granulated sugar
  • 10 lemons, zested (about 10 tablespoons)
  • 8 ounces (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 3 tablespoons dark rum
  • 2 tablespoons lemon extract
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3 large egg yolks, room temperature
  • 3/4 cup heavy cream
    • For the lemon syrup
  • 1/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/3 cup lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons dark rum
    • For the glaze
  • 2 to 4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons almond extract
  • 2 1/2to 3 cups confectioners' sugar
  • 1/3 cup slivered almonds, toasted
    • Gear
  • 10-cup bundt pan
  • baking sheet

Instructions

    For the cake
  1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Generously spray the inside of a 10 cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray. Make sure all of the nooks and crannies are thoroughly coated.
  2. Sift the flours, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
  3. Place the sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add lemon zest and rub the zest into the sugar with your hands until it is fragrant and yellow.
  4. Pour melted butter and oil into the lemon sugar and beat on medium speed until well-combined. Add the rum, lemon extract, eggs, and egg yolks. Beat until combined.
  5. Add flour and cream alternately, beginning and ending with flour. (flour-cream-flour-cream-flour)
  6. Scrape down the bowl and mix on low speed for a few more seconds.
  7. Pour mixture into the prepared pan and place pan on a large baking sheet or sheet pan - This will help to catch any cake batter that may overflow.
  8. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick entered into the center comes out clean, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time.
  9. Transfer pan to a wire rack and cool for 30 minutes, place wire rack over half sheet pan lined with parchment paper.
    10. For lemon syrup
  10. Whisk sugar lemon juice, and rum in a small saucepan over low heat until the sugar melts.
  11. Increase heat to medium-high and bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until sugar is dissolved, stirring. Set aside until slightly cooled
  12. Gently loosen the sides of the somewhat cooled cake from the pan and turn it out onto the wire rack.
  13. Using a toothpick or skewer (something thin) poke several holes into the cake on the crown and sides. Use a pastry brush to gently brush the top and the sides of the cake with syrup, allowing the syrup to soak into the cake in between batches.
  14. Let cake cool completely.
    15. For the almond glaze
  15. Whisk together 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and almond extract together in a medium bowl. Add 1/2 cups of the confections' sugar and whisk until the mixture in pourable, but still fairly thick. If it is too thick, add a few more teaspoons of lemon juice to thin it out. If you thin it out too much, add some more confectioners' sugar.
  16. Pour glaze in large thick ribbons over the top of the bundt cake. Sprinkle almonds over the glaze and allow to set before serving, about 20 minutes.
  17. Cake will keep in an airtight container at room temperature up to 3 days.

Notes

* The rum, which I expected to taste and not like, basically disappears into this cake somehow. If you don't have rum or don't want to use rum, you can replace it with equal part lemon juice in the cake, or just omit it all together from the syrup.

* For optimal visual impact - keep your glaze on the thicker side (unlike me). You want it to be pourable but very thick.

https://wee-eats.com/2016/05/03/baked-occasionally-ultralemony-bundt-cake-with-almond-glaze/

[ Get the book – Baked Occasions ]
[ Check out Shannon’s post on A Periodic Table ]

monkey bread

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monkey bread instagram

Hey guys, remember this thing from my Christmas brunch?

Allow me to refresh your memory: it involves soft, pillowy dough, lots of cinnamon and sugar, and a warm, gooey, butterscotch glaze.  Is that jogging your memory at all?

Good.

You know those dishes that just instantly transport you back to your childhood?  You smell it cooking and suddenly you’re eight again at grandma’s house rolling pieces of dough around?

This is one of those dishes.

I know we all love to do all the things and make things from scratch, but sometimes it’s nice to just take it easy, ya know?

When I was little, monkey bread started with cans of biscuit dough and cinnamon sugar, then over the years taking bits and pieces from other family traditions the biscuits evolved into bread dough and the cinnamon sugar got amped up with pudding mix.

I know what you’re thinking, because I thought it at first too.  Pudding mix?!?

Yeah, wipe that skeptical look of your face.  It works, and it’s not only “good” but it’s like, irresistibly good.

So good that your fiance may have an intense internal debate on Christmas morning about which is more important: eating monkey bread or your relationship.

photo

He may then stare at you in still in his pajamas, lured out of bed by the smell of baking cinnamon,  like you’re the meanest person in the world for telling him that he has to wait for company to arrive before he can eat it.

This may force you to remind him that the only way he will have monkey bread in his future is if you’re still around to make it.

All theoretical, of course.

Oh, and the best part about this delicious magical breakfast bread?  You can assemble it the night before and then just bake it in the morning.  Doesn’t that just beat the crap out of getting up at the buttcrack of dawn to make some fresh cinnamon rolls or pull-apart bread?

Yeah, I thought so too.  I mean, I love my family, but we all have our limits.

So make this and it can be your “easy” dish, or your only dish, no one will care how long it took (or didn’t take) you to make it because it’s so gosh darn delicious.

FH and I were still eating it like five days later and IT WAS JUST AS SOFT AS THE FIRST DAY.  I swear this stuff is magic.

Print
monkey bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 13 hours, 45 minutes

Yield: 1 bundt cake

Ingredients

  • 22 frozen dinner rolls, I use Rhodes
  • 1 small package cook-and-serve butterscotch pudding
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. Set out rolls to thaw slightly - I laid mine on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap and then covered the tops with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out. It took about 45 min to 1 hour for them to thaw.
  2. Grease and flour a bundt pan. Melt butter in microwave and then stir in brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and vanilla extract; let cool slightly to room temperature.
  3. Cut rolls in half and toss into bundt pan.
  4. Once half the rolls are in the pan, sprinkle with half of the pudding mix and pour half the butter mixture. Repeat with remaining rolls, brown sugar mixture, and butter.
  5. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.
  6. The next morning, preheat the oven to 350F and set bundt pan on the counter about 30 minutes to warm to room temperature (I actually set mine on top of the oven while it was preheating to try to get more lift out of it).
  7. Once ready to bake, place bundt pan on a sheet pan and remove the plastic wrap. Bake 30 to 40 minutes until golden brown and cooked through, covering with foil after 20 minutes.
  8. Remove from oven and let cool 10 minutes. Invert onto a rimmed serving dish (this is important, because there will be goo oozing everywhere).

Notes

*If you don't want to wait overnight, place your covered bundt cake on the counter and let rise until doubled in size (about 2 hours) and then follow baking instructions. The speed of the rise will depend on how warm your kitchen is.

*If you can't find (or don't want to use) frozen dinner rolls, you could definitely use homemade rolls - I recommend sticking with either white bread or brioche dough.

https://wee-eats.com/2014/01/27/monkey-bread/

 

monkey-bread-pin

reeses cup bundt cake

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By the time you read this, I should be on my way to California… on VACATIONNNNN!!!

So, since this will be the last post for awhile, and the last March (cake) Madness post, it is only fitting that I would combine two of my favorite things: chocolate and peanut butter.  And Reese’s cups, to make it more redundant.  And more delicious.

This cake was arguably the first “recipe” I ever made.  Once upon a time ago, when I was a little girl baking with my momma, we needed to make a dessert for our neighborhood block party (remember those?).  Mom asked what we should bring and of course my brain immediately went to my then (and still) favorite candy, Reese’s Cups.  In cake form.

reeses-cake-8545-large

Of course back then it was just a box cake mix and a bajillion chopped up Reese’s cups.  Mixed into the cake, adorning the top, dumped into the hole in the middle… I even halved them and made a little Reese’s border along the outside of the cake.

I didn’t have enough mini Reese’s to do that this time.

reeses cake 1-1

I didn’t really miss them.  (Ok, maybe I missed them a little bit)

This cake was so good, as soon as I took a bite I was immediately upset, because I knew that it was suddenly a choice between cake and dinner… No one should ever need to make that choice.

Especially when ganache and Reese’s are involved.

It was even better the next day, in case yours lasts that long.

 

Reese’s Cup Bundt Cake

Makes 1 bundt cake

Printable Recipe

For the cake:

  • 1 cup unsalted butter

  • ⅓ cup dutch processed cocoa powder

  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt (unless your peanut butter is really salty)

  • ⅓  cup creamy peanut butter (I always use Jif)

  • 1 cup water

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan

  • 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar

  • 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda

  • 2 large room temperature eggs, lightly beaten

  • ½ cup sour cream; room temperature

  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

  • 10 reeses cups, roughly chopped (usually easier to chop if they’re chilled)

  • Mini reeses, for decorating (optional)

For the chocolate glaze:

  • ½ cup chocolate chips (or 4 ounces chopped chocolate)

  • ½ cup heavy cream

  • 2 Tablespoons light corn syrup

1.  Heat butter, peanut butter, and water over medium heat in a small saucepan until butter and peanut butter are just melted.  Stir in cocoa powder and set aside to cool to room temperature.  To ensure my impatience didn’t get in my way, I decided to wait to preheat the oven until this point and didn’t let myself mix anything until the oven beeped.

2.  Preheat oven to 350˚F and prep a bundt pan with butter and flour or with Pam for Baking

3.  In a large bowl, sift or whisk together flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda until well mixed.

4.  Slowly whisk or beat in the melted butter mixture until combined, making sure to scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl.  Add eggs and vanilla and whisk to incorporate.  Stir in sour cream until combined.

5.  Option 1: Pour half of batter into prepared pan, sprinkle with chopped peanut butter cups, and pour remaining half of batter over the Reese’s.

 Option 2:  Stir peanut butter cups  into batter and pour into prepared pan.

6.  Bake 40 to 45 minutes until done.  Cool 15 minutes in the pan, then invert onto a wire rack and remove pan to finish cooling completely.

7.  Once your cake is cooled, make your ganache by heating your cream just until it starts to bubble.  I usually do that by heating it in a 2-cup measuring cup in the microwave, but you can use a saucepan on the stove if you like.

Add chocolate and corn syrup and whisk to combine (if you used a pan for your cream, pour the cream over the chocolate instead).  At first it will look like it’s going well, then it will look like it’s going very poorly, then if you just keep whisking you’ll be relieved when it all comes back together again.

 

cinnamon pumpkin bundt cake

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pumpkin bundt 2

You may have noticed a few changes around here… if not, you might want to take a look around. Turns out that changing your site layout is harder than it seems… a bunch of my older posts are now, well let’s just say they are in need of some extra TLC. Moving things around a little bit, so I guess I apologize in the mean time until I get it all straightened out, or when I get tired and just switch back to the old format. Either one is equally likely, really.

pumpkin bundt 3

In the mean time, I’ve been needing pumpkin like woah. So I made this pumpkin bundt cake. I put cinnamon chips in half of the cake (I wasn’t sure if the BF would want them in there). So, I should say I put cinnamon chips in my half of the cake… I won’t tell you if I ate an entire half. AND YOU CAN’T MAKE ME!

What I will tell you is to please enjoy this cake with freshly-whipped cream … coffee-flavored whipped cream is especially delicious.

The cinnamon chip amount in the recipe is if you want to put them in the whole cake. Oh, and ignore that finger mark in the powdered sugar. It’s not really there. You’re just seeing things.

Cinnamon Pumpkin Bundt Cake

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 stick butter, softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup pumpkin puree
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup cinnamon chips (optional, chocolate chips would also be delicious)
  • whipped cream, for serving
  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Prepare your bundt pan with spray or butter (I like PAM for baking)
  3. In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and pumpkin pie spice.
  4. In a separate mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.
  5. Add the eggs, one at a time, and continue to mix until smooth.
  6. Turn the mixer to low and gradually add the pumpkin puree, scraping down the sides as necessary.
  7. Gradually add half of the flour mixture into the pumpkin mixture until just incorporated.
  8. Slowly pour in the milk and mixing on low until incorporated, then add in the rest of the flour mixture.
  9. Beat until fully mixed, scraping down the sides and making sure to get any flour that might be stuck at the bottom of the bowl and stir in cinnamon chips.
  10. Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan, smooth the top, then bake the cake for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. This is exceptionally delicious when served with whipped cream.

breakfast greatness

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monkey bread cream cheese

Easy enough for kids to make, this cinnamon-sugar treat is just as appropriate for breakfast as it is for dessert. The traditional monkey bread is made my quartering refrigerated biscuits, rolling them in cinnamon-sugar, and popping them into a bundt cake pan (at least, that’s how it was made at grandma’s house).

This is a slightly modified version of that recipe, and while you can’t pick off bite-size gems of caramelized sugar goodness, it’s just as delicious (if not moreso) as the original. This recipe adds cream cheese to the mixture, giving it a sweet and tangy cinnamon swirl filling.

Most of the cream cheese is absorbed somehow into the dough leaving a tunnel of sweet, creamy cinnamon bliss running through the middle of your monkey bread. Meanwhile, the cinnamon sugar and melted butter all drip to the bottom of the pan (which is now the top of your bundt cake) to make a crunchy, caramelized, cinnamon-sugar glaze topping.

Since the pieces are a bit too big to be “bite size”, I served this in slices, but you could rip off pieces just as well. Make sure you invert your cake pan while it’s still warm so that you don’t lose the top half of your cake when the sugar cools and hardens.

Cream Cheese Monkey Bread

[ Printable Recipe ]

  • 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • Two 12-ounce tubes refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
  • One 8-ounce package cream cheese, cut into 20 cubes
  • ¾ cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 12-cup bundt pan with cooking spray; set aside. In a medium bowl, combine the sugars and cinnamon; set aside.

2. Slice 10 discs of dough from each tube of biscuits. Set discs on a flat surface and set one cube of cream cheese in the center of each piece of dough. Wrap edges of dough up and around the cheese so all that is visible is the top side of cream cheese cube.

3. Place 10 dough-wrapped cheese cubes, cheese-side-up, in bottom of prepared pan. Top with half of the sugar mixture and half of the butter. Top with the remaining dough-wrapped cheese cubes, cheese-side-down, the remaining sugar and remaining butter.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve.

[ Another winner from Pinterest ]