Butterscotch Bundt Cake

Today May 18th 2014 is World Baking Day. The theme is who will you bake for? Baking is a great way to show you care and although I baked this earlier in the week, it's a lovely cake to share on World Baking Day. I'm away for the weekend so I can't actually bake anything today. Have you baked something for World Baking Day and if so what did you bake and for whom?

I saw this recipe ages ago and bookmarked it immediately. I bought some butterscotch chips when I was last in America and finally found an opportunity to bake with it. The cake is absolutely stunning. The bundt tin does all the work so it looks impressive and it tastes absolutely amazing. The glaze is the perfect complement and there wasn't a crumb left even though it's a huge cake! 

I'm sending this to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 brown sugar, flour, sour cream, milk, butter, butterscotch chips, eggs 

 Pour a small amount of batter into the tin

 add a layer of butterscotch chips

 fill with more batter followed by a second layer of butterscotch chips

 I added an extra third layer of butterscotch chips

 ready to go in the oven

 fresh from the oven - you can see the caramelise butterscotch chips 

 with the glaze

Recipe from Food Librarian

For the bundt cake
320 grams light brown sugar
3/4 cup sour cream
170g butter
4 eggs
466 g flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
310mls milk
170 g butterscotch chips

For the glaze
56g butter
50g light brown sugar
2 Tablespoons milk
125g icing sugar
1 Tablespoon vanilla extract 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add eggs one at time, mixing well after each addition.
• Mix in the sour cream.
• In a separate bowl, sift the flour and baking powder. 
• Add 1/3 of the flour mixture followed by 1/2 of the milk and repeat, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. 
• Pour 1/3 of the cake batter into the bundt tin. 
• Sprinkle butterscotch chips in the middle, avoiding the sides of the tin. 
• Repeat this for another 2 layers finishing with a layer of cake batter on top. 
• Bake for about 50-60 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
• Allow to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely.
• Once the cake is cooled, make the glaze by placing the butter, brown sugar and milk in a medium saucepan until it comes to a boil.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the icing sugar and vanilla extract until smooth.
• Pour the hot glaze over the cooled cake. 

Maple Pecan Bundt Cake

Recently I asked J what cake he would like. He wanted something with maple syrup and pecan and I remember bookmarking a Nigella recipe ages ago but have never gotten round to it. It was also a good opportunity to use my lovely bundt tin that I received for Christmas. I love baking bundt cakes as they look impressive with very little effort. 

The cake was moist and the pecan and maple syrup filling was absolutely delicious. It was even better served with ice cream. I did find that there wasn't quite enough cake batter so my cake looked a little flat compared to the picture online. J's comment was that it was very moist and had a distinctive nutty crunch. 

I'm sending this to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

 Half fill with batter 

 add pecan and maple syrup filling

 cover with the remaining batter 

 

Recipe available online

For the filling

75g plain flour
30g soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150g pecans, roughly chopped
125ml maple syrup

For the cake
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
125g soft unsalted butter
150g caster sugar
2 eggs
250ml sour cream

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Make the filling by mixing the flour and butter with a fork until it resembles breadcrumbs. 
• Add in the cinnamon, pecans and maple syrup. 
• Next make the cake by creaming the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
• Add in the eggs, one at a time and then the flour and sour cream. 
• Half fill the bundt tin.
• Place the pecan filling on top of the cake batter but be careful not to go over the edge with it.
• Cover with the remaining cake batter.
• Bake for about 35-40 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
• Allow to cool completely and sprinkle with a generous dusting of icing sugar before serving. 
• 
  

Cranberry, Coconut and Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Isn't this cake beautiful? I love the shape of the cake and the dusting of icing sugar makes it look so inviting. I have to say a huge thank you to John for buying me this cake tin for Christmas. It has been on my wish list for a while now and I'm so pleased that I finally own one. I absolutely love Nordicware tins and have started a small collection of them.  I'm sure he had an ulterior motive buying the cake tin - a cake from the tin! I promised that he would have the first cake out of the tin and I knew I had to choose a good recipe to impress and show my gratitude. 

I saw this recipe on Jo's Blue Aga and bookmarked it immediately to use with my new bundt tin as it looked and sounded amazing. I'm so glad I did as I made it twice in the same week and have had endless positive comments about the cake. It's a lovely light sponge with coconut and cranberry and a delicious cream cheese filling in the middle. The cake is fragrant and looks stunning especially with a dusting of icing sugar. It would be perfect for Christmas as it has a festive look and feel to it or for any special occasion. 

John's reaction was "Wow- Ros's cake is amazing. One of her best yet!" Other reactions were " Too beautiful to eat", "How did you get that shape?" "Terrifyingly good!" "It's like a hidden treasure puzzle - there's a different taste and texture to every bite" 

I have to admit that I really did enjoy the cake even though I don't like coconut. I'm not just saying that because I baked the cake! It really was that good and I'd recommend you try it for yourself. 

I'm entering this to Bookmarked Recipes hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes. 

I'm also sending it to Tea Time Treats guest hosted by Jane from The HedgeCombers and run by Karen from Lavender and Lovage. The theme this month is eggs, eggs, eggs! This would make a stunning tea time treat.

 my lovely new bundt tin :) 

 

 I love the colours of the cranberries and coconut - reminds me of Christmas! 

 Half fill the tin 

 add a ring of cream cheese - you can just about see it here then fill with remaining batter 

 fresh from the oven 

 looks better with a dusting of icing sugar 

 you can see the cream cheese filling 

Recipe from Jo's Blue Aga

For the cake

270g unsalted butter, softened
250g caster sugar
4 large eggs, beaten
270g self-raising flour
100ml double cream
100g desiccated coconut
100g Dried Cranberries

For The Filling
200g full fat Philadelphia
3 Tbsp Caster sugar
30g Desiccated coconut

• Preheat the oven to 170c
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
• Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl and gradually add it to the creamed butter and sugar mixture. 
• Sift in the flour and mix well. 
• Add the cream and mix again until smooth.
• Stir in the coconut and cranberries. 
• Spoon half the mixture into the prepared tin and spread level using a palette knife. 
• Mix the ingredients for the filling in a small bowl. 
• Place the filling in a ring on the cake batter as shown above.
• Cover with the remaining cake batter. 
• Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely 
• Dust generously with icing sugar. 

SRC: Cream Cheese Pound Cake

It's Secret Recipe Club reveal day again. I was really organised this month and made my entry within a week of receiving my assignment so it feels like I've been waiting forever to share this amazing recipe with you. Just a quick recap in case you are wondering what the secret recipe club is about. The idea is very simple - each blogger is assigned another blogger in secret and you must choose 1 recipe to make and post on the same day of each month. It's always a tough choice choosing just one recipe and this month is no different.

My secret blog is Lynsey Lou's written by Lynsey who started food blogging in June 2008.  She has a passion for food and cooking, loves to entertain, research new recipes, read cookbooks and talk about food.  She grew up in the kitchen which is the heart of her current home. She was surrounded by talented family cooks and likes trying new types and styles of food. 

She has a lot of delicious recipes on her blog, both sweet and savoury. Obviously I went for the sweet stuff but it was really hard to pick one recipe as I wanted to try everything on there! In the end I decided on this Cream Cheese Pound Cake as I had seen this recipe before and bookmarked it but never got round to it. It sounds so simple yet delicious. Sometimes simple is best and this is definitely the case.  The cake was moist and light with a slight lemony tang to it from the lemon zest. Everyone at worked enjoyed it and needless to say there were no leftovers!

Other recipes that I have also bookmarked for future use are brown butter banana muffins with streusel topping, low fat chocolate zucchini muffins, outrageous oreo crunch brownies (how could I resist?) and peanut butter pie.

 flour, sugar, cream cheese, butter, eggs and lemon

 ready to go in the oven  

 I sprinkled lots of icing sugar and served it with fresh strawberries 

 delicious! 

Recipe from Lynsey Lou's - the only change I made was to reduce the amount of sugar

375g flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

340g butter

225g cream cheese

400g sugar

6 eggs

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

zest of 1 lemon

• Preheat oven to 180C.
• Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl and set aside.
• Cream the butter and cream cheese until smooth and creamy.
• Add the sugar, a little at a time and continue mixing until light and fluffy. 
• Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
• Add the vanilla and lemon zest.
• Finally, add the flour mixture and mix until just mixed. Be sure not to over mix the batter.
• Pour into a large bundt tin and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes until the cake is golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 
• Place the cake on a cooling rack and allow to cool for 20 minutes in the pan before inverting onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely. 
• Sprinkle liberally with icing sugar and serve with slices of strawberries.

Secret Recipe Club: Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

Firstly, huge apologies to my fellow Secret Recipe Club members for this late posting. It's been a busy, stressful month with work and travel and I just completely forgot although I did make this recipe quite early on in the month as I knew I would not have time later.

This month, I was assigned Oh! You Cook! which is a lovely blog written by Dena who is a librarian by day and a recipe blogger by night. Her recipes have step by step photos which I love and also publish on my posts. She has a vast array of recipes which are helpfully indexed and of course I headed straight for the dessert section. I spotted this recipe - chocolate sour cream bundt cake in the pies &  cake section and knew I had to make it. It sounded simple yet delicious and it was a definite hit at work. I didn't make the glaze in the end as the cake was good enough on its own. The sour cream made the cake really moist and I'll definitely be making this again.

Other delicious recipes that I've bookmarked to try are blueberry  banana bread, no bake mini chocolate puddings, strawberry shortcake and decadent chocolate mousse.

  melt butter,chocolate, cocoa powder and water 

 whisk the chocolate mixture into the flour mixture

 add the eggs, one at a time

 add sour cream and vanilla extract

 ready to go in the oven - my silicone tin does not require flouring but if yours does then use a mixture of 1 tablespoon plain flour and 1 tablespoon cocoa powder to coat 

 yum! 

Recipe adapted  from Oh! You Cook!
(I added chocolate pieces, reduced the amount of cocoa powder and sugar)

250g plain four
45g cocoa powder
60g dark chocolate pieces
225g butter
1 cup water
300g sugar
2 eggs
1.5 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup water
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Place the butter, cocoa powder, chocolate and water to cook over a medium heat.
• In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, bicarbonate of soda and sugar together.
• Carefully add half the melted chocolate mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk. 
• Add the eggs one at a time and continue whisking. 
• Then add the sour cream and vanilla extract.
• Pour into a bundt tin and bake for 45-50 minutes or until the cake has pulled away from the edges and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. 

Peanut Butter Chip Bundt Cake

I've been on a bit of an American baking spree lately. Probably due to the fact that I unpacked my box which contained all the goodies that I brought back from America last year. I decided to make a simple peanut butter chip bundt cake as I wanted to use my peanut butter topping as a drizzle. I have been patiently waiting for the right moment to open this bottle of peanut butter goodness. If you've not tasted it before, you really have to get yours hands on one as it's divine. Its basically like smooth, melted peanut butter. It worked really well as a topping to the cake. I had extra on my slice :) The cake itself was light and tasty and the peanut butter chips gave the cake a 'sweet and salty' taste which everyone enjoyed.

  amazing peanut butter sauce

 adding peanut butter chips

 ready to go in the oven

 fresh from the oven

 with peanut butter topping

 a slice of heaven

250g butter

230g caster sugar

250g self raising flour

4 eggs

2 tablespoons yoghurt

150g peanut butter chips

peanut butter topping

• Preheat the oven to 180C.
• Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
• Add in the eggs, one at time and mix well.
• Add in the flour.
• Finally stir in the peanut butter chips.
• Pour into a bundt tin and bake for 45 - 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
• Allow to cool completely before adding drizzle.