Mini Bundts, Mighty Taste

It looks like I’m only putting out a post per week lately, this is not good. I can do better. It’s not like I don’t have stuff to post, I made this cake a couple weeks ago and am only writing about it now. Argh. Anyways, this month’s Foodtv.ca Cooking Club recipe is Christine Cushing’s Light Swirl Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze and it was a great opportunity for me to use my mini bundt pan. See, I love molded pans but they’re not nearly as useful as regular pans. The mini bundts are adorable, but not overly practical. They’re larger than one serving, but it looks silly to cut them in two. Clearly I just eat one all to myself, but if you’re trying to serve them at a dinner party it’s awkward. Who am I fooling though? I don’t host dinner parties. I’d like to, but I don’t. It’s a tough thing to do when you don’t have a dining room table, or a dining room.

I brought a few of these mini cakes over to a friend’s house and when I said it was a coffee cake one of the girls was sad as she replied “oh, I don’t like coffee”. I reassured her that coffee cake does not necessarily contain coffee but is typically served with coffee or tea, hence the name. She happily had a piece after that. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t get to try the coffee cake with a big smear of Blake Makes Peanut Butter Dulche de Leche, (PBDDL) that was just for me. If PPDDL sounds intriguing, it should! It’s a wonderful example of the line of thought that if two things are good on their own, they should be great together. This doesn’t always work out, (kittens are good and roasted marshmallows are good, the two together are a mess) but in this case it’s awesome. The only downside to my experience with PBDDL was that Blake sent me some in minuscule jars that weren’t even big enough for me to stick my spoon in to eat it by the scoop. I eventually discovered that if I simply turned my spoon upside down I could quite easily eat PBDDL from the jar, and I did and that was the reason that I was the only person that got any. You might be wondering how it is that I got Blake (of Blake Makes) to send me some of this gooey goodness and the answer is simple: I joined Soopz and became a Sooper Hero. Buhwah?? Allow me to quote directly from Blake to explain:

“Soopz is basically another name for the Blake Makes family. It’s a network of bloggers (mostly food bloggers) that read this blog and like to blog themselves (again, mostly about food).

The idea is that Blake Makes (eventually Soopz.com) will feature food products (both made in Blakeville and from outside food companies), and Soopz members (we’re calling them Sooper Heroes) will receive free food to blog about.”

Free food? I’m so in. If you want in on this amazing deal too, head over to Blake Makes and sign yourself up. It’s easy to do and the community is quickly growing with more companies signing on all the time. I wasn’t the only lucky person to receive some PBDDL, to see what others have done with theirs, check out one of Blake’s PPDDL roundups.

Light Swirl Coffee Cake with Maple Glaze

2 cups sifted, cake flour (500 ml)

1 tsp baking powder (5 ml)

1 tsp baking soda (5 ml)

1/4 tsp salt (1ml)

1/2 tsp cinnamon (2 ml)

3/4 cup white sugar (175 ml)

2/3 cup unsalted butter at room temperature (150 ml)

1 cup full fat yogurt (250 ml), divided

3 x large eggs

1 tsp vanilla (5 ml)

1 tbsp lemon juice (15 ml)

3 Tbsps apple butter (45 ml) ***I used applesauce, I was lazy and didn’t want to make the accompanying apple butter recipe. I suggest you do though, cause it’s from Michael Smith and he’s awesome.

2 Tbsps cocoa powder, sifted (25 ml)

Maple Glaze

1/4 cup maple syrup( 50 ml)

1 tbsp corn syrup (15 ml)

1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a bundt or tube pan. Tap away excess flour. Set aside.

In the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment , sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon . Stir in sugar. Add the soft butter and ½ the yogurt and mix on low speed for about 2 minutes, just until mixture starts to come together.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, lemon juice, apple butter and rest of yogurt. Add this mixture to the flour mixture in three batches, beating in between additions. Scrape down the sides and beat for 1 minute on medium speed, until batter is smooth.

Transfer half the batter to another small bowl. Add the cocoa powder to one batch and stir with rubber spatula to combine thoroughly. Pour chocolate batter carefully into other half and fold just twice to create swirl. Pour batter into prepared pan, gently.

Bake on the middle rack of oven for 45 to 55 minutes. Cake is done when a knife inserted in the center comes out clean and top is golden. Leave cake in pan and cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, make glaze by combining all ingredients in small saucepan , until it comes to a boil.

Remove cake from pan, flip upside down and drizzle with glaze. Cool completely.