Happy National Bundt Day! The one day each year when we celebrate the beauty that is the bundt cake–a classic, simple form that’s so pretty it doesn’t even need icing!

Since I’m not the biggest icing fan in the world (I know, I know, I love to make big fancy cakes, but I don’t always love eating them), I’ve always been a fan of the minimalist bundt. Because it plays up the best aspect of cake–the cake!

Mary, The Food Librarian, also LOVES the bundt! So much in fact, that this is the THIRD year that she’s celebrated National Bundt Day with a Bundt Marathon–30 bundts in 30 days–to celebrate the day! Mary is pretty much amazing for keeping this feat up! This is also the third year I’ve baked along with Mary, see my previous contributions here, here, and here.

So enjoy the beautiful bundt footage here and pop over to Mary’s site to see her cakes! They’re amazing!

Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt
Adapted from Eating Well

This cake is a super moist chocolate cake with just a hint of pumpkin flavor underneath. Don’t let the flavor combination scare you off, it’s really delicious!

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 cup all-purpose, flour
3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
1 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, (not Dutch-process)
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup nonfat buttermilk
1 15-ounce can unsweetened pumpkin puree
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 large egg white, at room temperature
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Glaze & Garnish:
1/2 cup packed confectioners’ sugar
1 tablespoon nonfat milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Coat a 12-cup Bundt pan with cooking spray. Make sure it’s well coated!

Whisk all-purpose flour, whole-wheat flour, granulated sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, pumpkin pie spice and salt in a medium bowl.

Whisk 1 cup buttermilk, pumpkin puree and brown sugar in a large bowl. Beat in whole egg and egg white. Stir in oil, corn syrup and vanilla. Gradually add the dry ingredients, stirring until just combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.

Bake the cake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out with only a few moist crumbs attached, 60 to 75 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Remove from the pan and let cool completely on the rack, about 2 hours.

To glaze and garnish cake: Combine confectioners’ sugar and 1 tablespoon milk in a small bowl, stirring until completely smooth. Place the cake on a serving plate and drizzle the glaze over the top.

Happy Royal Wedding Day!

Yes I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a royal watcher. I think I’ve been one almost since birth, since my mom and Princess Diana were pregnant at the same time in 1981/82. After I was born, my mom famously said that Diana “must be carrying a boy, because the princess had already been born that year!” Yep, really. I can’t make this stuff up!

I think my royal watching/fascination was only enhanced by my mom’s collection of Franklin Mint dolls, which includuded a set of Charles and Diana dolls (in full bridal attire, of course) along with a couple of Scarlett O’Haras and Rhett Butlers. Maybe I should get mom a Kate doll to complete her collection this Mother’s Day?

I think like most girls my (and William’s age) I had a serious crush on William when I was a teenager. And I was pretty convinced I was going to become the youngest US President and he was going to fall madly in love with me. Oh, teenage dream!

So is it any surprise really that I’m excited about the wedding today? And that I may have risen extra this morning to watch the wedding as I got ready for work. And certainly no surprise that I’m celebrating the occassion with a bit of baking. We’re having a little tea party/breakfast at work this morning, so what better way to celebrate than with the master baker Martha Stewart. Because if I can’t make a cake out of McVite’s Digestive Biscuits, a Martha cake must be the next best thing!

Glazed Lemon Bundt
Adapted from MarthaStewart.com

This cake is rich and tart–just like the royals! And note, these pictures are of a mini bundt I made for Noel. The cake makes enough batter to fill this AND a full size bundt!

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pan
3 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for pan
3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
Zest of 2 lemons, finely grated
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups sugar
5 large eggs
Lemon Glaze

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, with rack in lowest position. Butter and flour two 4 1/2-by-8-inch (6-cup) loaf pans.

In a small bowl (or liquid measuring cup), combine buttermilk with lemon zest and juice. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

With an electric mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three parts alternately with the buttermilk mixture in two, beginning and ending with flour; beat just until smooth (do not overmix).

Divide batter evenly between pans; smooth tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean, 50 to 60 minutes (tent with foil if browning too quickly). Cool 15 minutes in pan. Turn out cakes onto a rack; cool completely before glazing.

Set rack with cakes over a baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Pour glaze over cakes, letting it run down the sides; let dry, about 30 minutes.

A bit of royal wedding humour, courtesy of the New Yorker.

In honor of National Bundt Day and Mary the Food Librarian’s Bundt-a-thon, I want to share with you my new favorite fall cake!

Meet the Applesauce Spice Bundt–a cake that is sure to be the star of my Thanksgiving table, and could be the star of yours too! Because it’s made with applesauce and not chunky pieces of apple, this bundt is a whole new twist on the fall apple cake. It’s less a traditional apple cake and more the moistest spice cake you’ve ever had. I made this for dessert when we met up with my friend (and she should be yours too if you haven’t checked her out…she’s one amazing cook!) and fellow blogger Wendi for dinner, and it was a nice accompaniment to her fantastic dinner.

So wonderful in fact, that we all went back for seconds. And you know when food bloggers go back for seconds, it must be good!

Good thing I only made the baby bundt for dinner and made the rest of the batter into a loaf for Noel to take to work–because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to control myself!

Not only did I discover a new favorite cake in the process, but I also discovered the joy of making applesauce! Who knew it was so easy! Take a few apples past their prime (three apples is about 1 pound) add a quarter cup of water for each pound, and then let the apples simmer for 30 minutes. A quick whirl of the immersion blender later, and you’ve gone from apples past their prime to the best applesauce ever. Really.

Now on to that beautiful bundt footage!

Applesauce Spice Bundt
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

The recipe below will make one full sized (12 cup) bundt. I used about half of the mix to fill a 6 cup bundt, then made a loaf of the rest of the batter. Make sure you spray your bundt pan well, and let the cake cool some before you flip it out, and you’ll have one beautiful cake!

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 stick salted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups unsweetened applesauce

For glaze:
3 ounces cream cheese, softened
splash of vanilla extract
1/8 cup confectioners sugar
1/4 cup half and half
pinch allspice

Preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Spray a bundt pan with baking spray with flour.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices. Beat butter, brown sugar, and vanilla with an electric mixer at high speed until pale and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then beat in applesauce. At low speed, mix in flour mixture until just combined.

Spread batter evenly in pan and bake until golden-brown and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 to 40 minutes. Cool in pan 15 minutes. Gently flip onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

To make glaze: Whip cream cheese, confectioners sugar, and vanilla in a stand mixer until fluffy. Slowly (1 tablespoon at a time) add half and half until the mixture is desired consistency (for me, this was so it would easily plop off a spoon, but wouldn’t be drippy). Add pinch of all spice. Spread on top of the cooled caked, and decorate with more allspice.

Oh I wish this bundt-a-thon came with smell-o-vision. Yumlish.

Did you know that Monday, November 15 is National Bundt Day?

Just like last year, Mary The Food Librarian is celebrating her love of big bundts with a month of bundts leading up to National Bundt Day. 30 is a lot of bundts (makes me think of Love Actually and the classic line “8 is a lot of legs, David”)! And Mary is making them all and doing other baking (like doing the dessert table for a friend’s wedding) which is frankly, AMAZING!

Just like last year, Mary is also hosting a bundt-a-thon where she asks us, the readers at home, to contribute with a bundt of our own. Last year I had a Cranberry Allspice Bundt. This year I have two bundts to share! Today it’s a very fussy BUT worth it Olive Oil Orange Bundt from the Baked Boys. And Monday–well Monday you’ll just have to come back to see what it is!

And if you have time today, whip up a bundt and join in the bundt-a-thon! Because we all like big bundts and we cannot lie! If you join in and let Mary know, she’ll send you a button!

Olive Oil Orange Bundt
Adapted from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented

This is one FUSSY recipe. It’s good, but if you’re not a fan of separating eggs and then fluffing the white and the yolks it’s probably not for you. The results are wonderful, with a light crumb, but be warned before you start, this is not a dump and go cake. Maybe I’m just scarred because I made this on a weeknight and it cut into my Glee time.

Ingredients:

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large eggs, separated
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup plain yogurt (I used 2% Greek yogurt)
3/4 cup good-quality extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly grated zest of 2 oranges
1 teaspoon vanilla paste, or 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used vanilla extract)
1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously spray the inside of a 10-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and flour.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

With a paddle attachment, beat the egg yolks until they are pale and light; slowly pour in the sugar until it is completely incorporated. Add the yogurt and olive oil and mix until thoroughly combined. Add the orange zest and vanilla, and mix until just incorporated.

Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients in two parts, beating after each addition until just combined (about 10 seconds). Scrape down the bowl and beat again for 5 seconds.

In another large bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Scoop 1 cup of the egg whites into the batter. Use a rubber spatula to gently fold them in. After about 30 seconds of folding, add the remaining egg whites and gently fold until they are almost completely combined. Do not rush the folding process!

Pour the batter into pan and bake for 40-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool completely. Just before serving, dust with confectioners sugar.

Sing it with me now–

I like big bundts and I cannot lie…

I have a confession to make. Since I first got into making big beautiful layer cakes about 2 years ago, I’ve really, REALLY wanted to make a wedding cake. A cake that not only looked good, but also tasted fantastic. Call me crazy, but it was my personal equivalent of running a marathon–something I wanted to do at least once, just to prove to myself that I could do it.

But how do you ask someone to make their wedding cake when you’ve never done one before? Well luckily, someone asked me.

About a month ago, my mom sent me an email asking if I would be interested in making a wedding cake for one of her employees. I agreed to do the cake pretty quickly–and then realized what I had done–I had agreed to make a cake for a reception Saturday, November 28th, the Saturday AFTER Thanksgiving. EEK! A day I had already scheduled a dinner party. DOUBLE EEK!!

As I started a major panic, Noel tried to calm me down by suggesting that I call Eileen. You remember Eileen right? Well we did a couple of baby shower cakes together this past summer, and Eileen is from a long line of wedding cake creators. Not only did she agree to help, but of course being Eileen she had a ton of fantastic ideas about how to put thing together and how to decorate!

After a whole bunch of research and some help from the ladies at the Cake and Wedding Cottage, we embarked on our experiment this past weekend, with the baking of the cakes on Saturday. ALL DAY on Saturday. On the advice of the ladies at the Cake Cottage we decided to do a yellow cake for our 12-inch base tier, with an 8-inch red velvet tier (the bride’s favorite) and a 6-inch cake topper tier. Eileen brought her mixer over and we had dueling mixers going as she put together the red velvet and I worked on the yellow butter cake.

Phew! It was a lot of work! The actual putting together of the cakes wasn’t so hard (even though we ended up making super big batches of each) but the baking itself was pretty time consuming, since we only had one oven and a total of six cakes to bake. Five hours after we started, we had our tiers–perfect, even and level–and ready for the freezer. And we had a bonus baby bundt, a yellow butter and red velvet swirl made with the leftover batter!

Red Velvet Cake
Adapted from Baked

We had been warned by the ladies at the Cake Cottage that red velvet could be notoriously hard to work with. So we decided to use a recipe from my go to source–the Baked cookbook. Their recipe was for a triple layer cake, so I felt comfortable that we should be able to do a double layer cake with it. The recipe below is for a single triple layer version of the cake–we doubled it though to fill our 2 8-inch tiers and 2 6-inch tiers, and had a bit leftover to stir into the bundt above. We also used only butter in this recipe, even though it called for shortening, because I’m scared of Crisco.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup dark unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons red gel food coloring (see note below)
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened, cut into small pieces
• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 2 1/2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter three 8-inch round cake pans, line the bottoms with parchment paper, and butter the parchment. Dust with flour, and knock out the excess flour.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, food coloring, and boiling water. Set aside to cool. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and shortening until smooth. Scrape down the bowl and add the sugar. Beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. Stir the buttermilk and vanilla into the cooled cocoa mixture. Sift the flour and salt together into another medium bowl. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture, alternating with the cocoa mixture, to the egg mixture in three separate additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Beat until incorporated. In a small bowl, combine the vinegar and baking soda and stir until the baking soda dissolves; the mixture will fizz. Add to the batter and stir until just combined.
4. Divide the batter among the prepared pans and smooth the tops. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, about 30 minutes, rotating the pans halfway through the baking time. Transfer the cakes to a wire rack and let cool for 20 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the rack, remove the pans, and let cool completely. Remove the parchment.

Vanilla Buttermilk Cake
Adapted from Sky High

This recipe makes a lot of cake–15 3/4 cups to be exact. The Sky High cookbook has recipes for this cake sized to other sizes–including a 3 6-inch tiers and 3 9-inch tiers. Those recipes are widely available around these interwebs, so I’m going to post the big old monster recipe we used for our cake. This recipe makes so much batter, it has to be mixed by hand and you have to bake each 12 inch layer by itself in the oven. But it is sooo worth it!

Ingredients:

• 6 2/3 cups cake flour
• 4 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 pound, plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 3/4 cups buttermilk
• 9 whole eggs
• 4 egg yolks
• 1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter 12 inch round cake pans. Line the bottom of each pan with a round of parchment paper or waxed paper and butter the paper.
2. Combine the cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a large mixer bowl. With the mixer on low speed, blend for 30 seconds. Add the butter and 2 cups of buttermilk (this will make a mess all over your counter, even if you use your mixer shield!). Mix on low speed briefly to blend; then raise the speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Because this is such a large amount of batter, at this point, you will need to finish the cake by hand.
3. Pour the batter into a very large (10-12 quart) shallow bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the whole eggs, yolks, vanilla, and the remaining 3/4 cup buttermilk until well blended. Pour one-third of mixture into the cake batter and fold in completely with a large rubber or silicone spatula. Repeat this step twice with the remaining egg mixture, folding it completely after each addition. There will be about 15 3/4 cups of batter. Measure out 5 1/4 cups of batter for each of the 3 pans.
4. Bake for about 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool in the pan for 15 minutes.
5. Turn the layers out onto wire racks by placing a rack on top of a pan, inverting it, and lifting the pan. Peel off the paper liners and let cool completely.

Since our wedding isn’t until NEXT weekend, we put each of our cakes on its own foil wrapped piece of cardboard, then triple wrapped them all individually for freezing. Yeah, I know you would think freezing a cake would degrade it’s taste, but our experience with the baby shower cakes was that as long as the time in the freezer is relatively short (less than a week) you can’t even tell it was frozen, and it makes handling the layers a lot easier. Which we will definitely need, since stacking this cake up is going to be one enormous challenge for next Friday. So we better not eat too much turkey on Thursday, cause we gotta be sharp on Friday!

Come back next weekend to see how this all stacks up!

Happy National Bundt Day everyone!

Did you really expect me to let this holiday pass without some kind of celebration? I need only the smallest excuse to bake these days (some might even call me addicted), and National Bundt Day, along with my need to pick a Thanksgiving cake, led me to spend an early Saturday evening trying out a bundt recipe I had my eye on for a while from Dorie Greenspan.

Why this recipe? One word–cranberries. I simply love them. So much, that I eat them dried almost everyday. And this recipe uses TWO types of cranberries–dried and fresh. And as a bonus, this recipe uses a TON of spices. In my book, most recipes don’t have enough spices, so the sheer number in this recipe is exciting.

I also thought this recipe seemed like it would be just perfect for Thanksgiving, because of the combination of cranberries and spice. And it’s something completely out of the ordinary in the on the Thanksgiving dessert table–no pumpkins, no pecan, not even an apple in site. And I’m looking for different in what ever I decide to bring for dinner this year; since I’m not hosting, I want to make sure my contribution really pops.

But let’s get back to the real reason I’m sharing this with you today–National Bundt Day! Where would we be without Nordic Ware and the Bundt? I’m not sure, but I know I love these little round cakes with the hole (why is there a hole?) and they always seem to make my day a little sunnier.

So without further ado…let’s roll this beautiful Bundt footage!

Want to make a Bundt, just not this one? Other Bundt recipes on 990 Square:
Pumpkin Spice Bundt | Mom’s Apple Cake

Cranberry All Spice Bundt
Adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s recipe, originally published in Bon Appetit

As I’ve already mentioned, I went a little crazy when I first saw this recipe, because it seemed like something I would love so much. I made a few changes to what was otherwise perfection–I didn’t make it to HMart to get 5 spice powder, so I used all spice, I just used Stoneyfield low fat plain yogurt since I inadvertently ate the end of my Greek yogurt Friday (I blame it on the stress of jury duty), and I totally changed the glaze. Also, I halved the whole thing to fit in my 6 cup bundt, but if you make the whole recipe you will end up with a much larger cake!

INGREDIENTS:

CAKE

• 1 cups all purpose flour
• 3/8 cup almond flour or almond meal
• 1 1/4 teaspoons Chinese five-spice powder**
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup plain reduced-fat (2%) Greek-style yogurt
• 1/2 cup halved fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw)
• 1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries

ICING

• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 4 teaspoons (about) buttermilk
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice

Directions:

CAKE
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour or generously spray with Pam for Baking (this is what I use) a 6 cup Bundt (if you are doing the half recipe above) or a 12-cup Bundt if you’re doing the full recipe. Whisk first 8 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Add both sugars and beat until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating 1 minute after each addition. Beat in vanilla extract, then yogurt. Add dry ingredients; beat just until blended. Fold in all cranberries. Transfer batter to prepared Bundt pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 45 minutes for 6 cup Bundt or 1 hour 10 minutes for full size recipe. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto rack and cool completely.

ICING
Stir powdered sugar and 2 teaspoons buttermilk in small bowl until sugar dissolves. Mix in more buttermilk by 1/2 teaspoonfuls to reach consistency of heavy cream. Stir in allspice. Spoon icing over cake, allowing it to drip down sides. Let stand until icing sets, at least 30 minutes. DO AHEAD Can be made 3 days ahead. Cover with cake dome and store at room temperature.

Really this cake is fantastic. The tartness of the cranberries balances the sweetness of the cake, and it’s super moist.

But let’s get back to the important stuff–Bundt Day celebration. Go bake a Bundt, or enjoy a piece of Bundt with a friend! And enjoy this picture, inspired by the hayday of the Bundt–the 1960s!