Archive for: bundt
Bananas are a staple in my house and they are one of the best selling fruits in the US, so I know that I am not the only one out there that ends up with a lot of overripe bananas in the kitchen from time to time. Sometimes I tell myself that I’ll just buy fewer bananas, but the truth is that I love baking with bananas and don’t mind giving myself the opportunity to bake with them regularly. Banana bread and muffins are easy ways to go, but sometimes I want to have my bananas for dessert instead of for brunch. This Ultra-Moist Banana Bundt Cake is a versatile recipe that is a great way to use up a few bananas in a delicious and easy to make dessert.
The cake is very moist and tender, with a dense and almost pound cake-like texture to it. The secret to its moistness comes in two parts. First, there is a lot of banana in the batter. Second, the cake uses Greek yogurt where other cakes might use milk or buttermilk. The yogurt, like the mashed banana, keeps moisture in the cake and it adds a subtle tang to it that highlights the sweetness of the bananas and makes the cake taste just a little bit fresher. Banana is definitely the star in this cake and, although cinnamon and nutmeg are commonly used with banana, I didn’t add any spices to the cake to cover up the flavor of the fruit. I did, however, add in a generous amount of vanilla extract and that is the perfect match in this cake.
The cake will stay fresh for several days after baking when it is stored in an airtight container, so you can bake it in advance for a party, or you can bake one for yourself and nibble it over the course of a week. It is good when served plain, but a little drizzle of vanilla icing or cream cheese frosting will really dress it up and add in a little extra sweetness. To take it over the top, use a slice as a base for an ice cream sundae with vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce, whipped cream and chopped, toasted nuts.
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One of my favorite bundt pans in my collection is my Nordicware Heritage Bundt Pan, which features a lovely spiral design with deep ridges that bakes very dramatic cakes. Like other Nordicware pans, this one is made of heavy duty cast aluminum and features a nonstick finish inside that helps the cake pop out easily every time you bake with it. It makes a wonderful addition to any baker’s kitchen, so I’ve decided to give away a Nordicware Heritage Bundt Pan to one lucky reader!
To enter the contest, just leave a comment below and tell me your favorite bundt cake, whether it is a simple pound cake or an over-the-top tunnel of fudge cake. The contest ends Sunday, May 6th at midnight and the winner will be randomly selected from the entries. The pan will ship out asap, and should get to the winner before Mother’s Day. Don’t forget to fill in your e-mail on the comment form (it will not be public), as that is how I will contact the winner, and good luck!
Here are a few bundt cakes to inspire you:
Update: This contest is now closed. Thanks to everyone for entering! The winner will be announced shortly.
Citrus is in season and the trees – here in Southern California, at least – are bursting with oranges, lemons, grapefruits, limes and other sweet, tangy citrus. Not only do I squeeze oranges to make juice for breakfast, but I find myself making lemonade and lemon bars, generously squeezing limes onto homemade tacos and into all manner of baked goods. The zest from these fruits also makes a regular appearance in my recipes. This Citrus Lover’s Bundt Cake is a cake for anyone who also loves all kinds of citrus fruits because it uses orange, lemon and lime all in one delicious dessert.
Lemon, lime and orange juice are all incorporated into this cake, as well as the zest of all three fruits. They blend together and give the cake an overall citrus flavor, without one fruit dominating the rest. The result is a cake that is tasty and surprisingly complex. The cake has a moist, soft texture and a fluffy crumb, so it’s not too heavy and is a great snacking cake to keep around the kitchen – although it is elegant enough to serve at a brunch or dinner party, as well. The fancier your bundt pan is, the fancier your cake will be. I used my Heritage Bundt Pan for this particular cake.
Freshly squeezed fruit juice is the key to a great cake with this recipe. You’re going to get the most vibrant flavors in both the cake and the glaze with fresh lemons, limes and oranges. You can, in a pinch, use pre-squeezed juice, but try to get the freshest you can and get at least a few fruits for the zest, as that will really punch up the flavor in the cake. I used orange and lemon zest in the cake, where I wanted to make sure that their flavors stood out, but saved the zestier lime zest for the glaze, where it added a little extra brightness without dominating the other flavors. If you want to highlight one fruit over the others, use only that fruit’s juice in the glaze (just orange or lime, for instance), as that will add a nice overlay of that flavor to the whole cake.
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I usually recommend cake carriers as great places to store cakes of all kinds because they provide an airtight environment that will help keep your cake fresher and they make it easy to transport a cake. But we don’t always share our cakes and often bake them just for keeping around the kitchen, not just for taking out to dinner parties and family gatherings, and there are other options for keeping your cakes that are a little more aesthetically pleasing than an ordinary cake carrier. One of these options is Nordic Ware’s Bundt Cake Keeper. This cake keeper is designed especially for bundt cakes, with a design that mimics that of a classic bundt cake, including a depression on the top of the container that mirrors the hole in the center of the cake. It is lightweight and made of plastic, with a lid that locks into place to keep things airtight. It is not difficult to move around, although it doesn’t have convenient carrying handles, either. That said, it really flatters a bundt cake in a way that a regular cake carrier won’t, and it will fit up to a 10 1/2-inch cake with ease. It doesn’t collapse for storage, so you will need some extra room in the kitchen, but at least you cane use it for storing bundt pans themselves when neither are in use!
Since I first saw Nordicware’s Heritage Bundt Pan at a Williams-Sonoma store over two years ago, I’ve wanted one. I don’t have an extensive collection of bundt pans – although I wouldn’t mind it – just because they’re fairly large and I generally try to wait until I have a bit of extra storage space before adding a new one to my kitchen. I made a little room in my pantry, and went out to pick up my very own Heritage Bundt just a few weeks ago.
This pan is gorgeous, with deep ridges and a swirling design. It is made of heavy cast aluminum and has a nonstick interior. I wanted to whip up a Tiramisu Bundt Cake for a New Year’s party, so I made the batter and poured it straight into the pan – no greasing, no flouring – for a trial run. I usually grease and flour my bundt pans to ensure that the cake comes out cleanly, whether they’re nonstick or not. Nonstick coatings don’t last indefinitely, so this is a great safeguard for older pans, as well as a means to prevent chocolate chips, nuts or other mix-ins from sticking to the bundt pan and leaving gaps in your finished cake. I expected a brand new nonstick pan to give me no problems and it met my expectations. The cake easily slid out of the pan and was, to put it mildly, stunning to look at. The ridges looked just as good on the cake as they did on the pan. I originally planned to glaze the cake, but it was so pretty that I simply served it plain – to a very appreciative audience.
I’ll be getting a lot of use out of this pan in the future and am glad that I finally added it to the collection!
