Bonkers for Bundt cakes this Christmas!
- 6 years ago
- Views : 1561
- Ellen Ripa
Christmas is all about overindulging in sweet treats. We all love a sugar fix, and getting festive also means having a go at baking ourselves. Bundt tins are perfect for creating a beautifully shaped cake stress-free. And what’s more, they make a huge statement on the table at a Christmas meal! There are plenty of tins in a festive shape available, try Skandihome’s Gingerbread house tin or a more traditionally shaped Blossom bundt tin.
A Scandinavian favourite for cake at Christmas is the ‘Mjuk pepparkaka’ or soft ginger cake. We had a go at creating our own in IKEA’s Dalahorse baking tins, and the result was delicious! Just the smell of the gingerbread made us feel Christmassy. There is also a lovely recipe here that combines the Swedish lingonberry and frosting to make a Christmassy treat in a traditional round bundt shape.
If frosting isn’t your thing, then a simple dusting of icing sugar does the trick nicely, and makes for a beautiful snowy effect. Nigella’s ‘Spruced up Vanilla cake’ looks like a wintry forest – and a yummy wintry forest at that! Find her recipe below.
Ingredients
Makes: about 12 slices
Metric Cups
- 225 grams soft butter (plus more for greasing)
- 300 grams caster sugar
- 6 large eggs
- 350 grams plain flour
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 250 grams plain fat-free yoghurt
- 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons icing sugar
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/350ºF and put a baking sheet in at the same time. Butter or oil your large, regular or fir-tree shaped bundt tin (2.5 litres capacity / 2½ quart capacity) very, very thoroughly. (I use oil-sodden kitchen paper.)
- Either put all the ingredients except the icing sugar into the processor and blitz together; or mix by hand or in a freestanding mixer as follows:– Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy.– Add the eggs one at a time, whisking each one in with a tablespoon of flour.– Fold in the rest of the flour, and add the bicarbonate of soda, the yogurt and vanilla extract.
- Pour and spoon the mixture into your greased tin and spread about evenly.
- Place the tin on the preheated baking sheet in the oven and cook for 45–60 minutes until well risen and golden. After 45 minutes, push a skewer into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, the cake is cooked. Let it sit out of the oven for 15 minutes.
- Gently pull away the edges of the cake from the tin with your fingers, then turn out the cake, hoping for the best.
- Once cool, dust with the icing sugar pushed through a small sieve, to decorate: think fresh snowfall on the alps.