I baked a quite delicious maple and pecan bunt cake from the Nigella 'Kitchen' book. It was insanely good when warm (I sliced some pieces off the underside when I first turned it out, to make it sit flat) and still pretty yummy once it cooled! It also looked so pretty - I do love a bunt-tin-icing-sugar combo, as it makes a cake look so much fancier with no extra effort.
The tin I used was a Nordic Ware Fleur-de-Lis tin. I would say that this cake would serve 8 - 16 depending on the size of the slices - because it looks best if each slice is a whole or half portion of each 'flower' segment.
Maple Pecan Bundt
Ingredients
For the maple pecan filling
75g plain flour
30g soft unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
150g pecans or walnuts, 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 or creme fraiche
icing sugar for decoration
neutral oil (such as canola) for greasing
Method
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Using the flavourless oil, grease the bundt tin, then leave upside down on a sheet of newspaper or paper towel to allow excess oil to drain out.
To make the filling, mix together the flour and bitter with a fork, then mix in the cinnamon, nuts and maple syrup to form a sticky, bumpy paste.
For the cake, sift the flour with the bicarb and baking powder into a bowl.
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, then beat in a tablespoon of the flour mixture, then an egg, then another tablespoon of the flour mixture followed by the second egg.
Add the rest of the flour, beating as you do, then finally the sour cream or creme fraiche. You will have a fairly firm cake batter.
Now spoon a bit more than half of the batter into the bundt pan. Spread the mixture up the sides and centre funnel a bit, to create a sort of 'trough' circle - you don't want the filling leaking out to the sides of the tin.
Carefully dollop the maple filling into the trough of the cake batter, then cover with the remaining batter. Smooth the top, and bake for around 40 minutes, although start checking from 30 minutes.
Once cooked, let the cake cool in its tin sitting on a wire rack for 15 minutes or so, then carefully loosen the edges with a small knife or spatula, including the middle funnel, and turn the cake out onto the rack. When the cake has cooled, dust with icing sugar through a tea strainer.
I stored the cake on the bench on a platter under a glass cake dome for a couple of days, no problems. Being a bundt, it is a relatively dry cake to begin with, so best served with tea or coffee.
I feel like I don't have much to post, cooking and food related, because I'm in a strange sort of pregnancy rut where I feel compelled to cook the same (comforting) foods over and over again, at the moment. So we're eating lots of rice pudding, roast chicken, cookies, blueberry muffins, marinated chicken dishes, lots of chicken and rice sort of things.
Soon, though, I will start cooking and freezing in preparation for the baby's arrival, so I can post some big-batch recipes. And, you know, not too many more weeks until I have some photos of a beautiful new fresh baby to share!
Now if only we could come up with a name for the little boy...
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