Orange & Cardamon Bundt Cake

Up until today I’ve had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Bundt tins. Sometimes they turn out perfectly but the last few times half the cake stuck to the tin, not the best look when you’ve been asked by guests to make one specially!!

Well folks, I think I may have found the perfect tin and the perfect preparation method to create the perfect Bundt cake. I invested in a NordicWare Bundt tin recently and decided to try it out today having drooled over others cakes on the ole Instagram. I’m hoping it’s not beginners luck, but how amazing is that cake? The shape, the curves, the angles, the colour!! Seriously, until it came out of the tin I was a bag of nerves wondering if we were going to have the usual sticking disaster.

So, what’s the trick? I think there are a few.

One, use a good quality heavy bundt tin and never use abbrasive cleaners on it. Warm soapy water and a cloth should be enough to clean it between uses.

Secondly, I think this could be the MOST important step. Brush the inside of the tin all over with melted butter and dust with flour, tapping out any excess. THEN leave it in the fridge while you make the cake batter. I’m going to try this prep method again just to be sure but I’m convinced it really made the difference. (see image below)

Orange and Cardamon Bundt Cake

This is the sort of Bundt recipe that can be easily adapted to suit ingredients you have or fancy using. I was hoping to be able to get Blood Oranges for this recipe but had to use regular juicy naval oranges instead. I added in the crushed seeds of 20 cardamon pods to give it a lovely zesty spice but you could easily swap these out for lemon zest and poppy seeds instead. Equally you could just make it with vanilla extract then decorate with a flavored icing or ganache.

Ingredients:

• 345g plain flour
• 2 ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 170g butter or Stork margarine, room temperature
• 350g caster sugar
• Ground seeds from approx. 20 cardamon pods
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• Grated zest of an orange or lemon
• 3 large free range eggs
• 180 ml milk
• 115g sour cream

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C fan, 180C regular.

2. Melt a tsp butter and brush all over the inside of the tin. Dust with flour, shaking off the excess. Refrigerate the tin while you prepare the batter.

3. Sift flour and baking powder into a bowl and leave to side. Mix the milk and sour cream together in a jug and also leave to side.

4. In a large bowl beat the butter or margarine with an electric mixer until light and creamy then slowly add in the sugar, beating well between each addition. When all added, beat well for another 2 minutes.

5. Add eggs to the butter/sugar mix one at a time, beating well after each addition, and then beat again for another 2 minutes.

6. Add cardamom, vanilla and chosen zest to the batter.

7. Start with a large spoonful of the flour mix, beat in then alternate between adding the milk/sour cream mix, then flour, then milk/sour cream until all have been beaten into a smooth batter.

8. Pour batter into prepared pan, spreading evenly.

9. Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean. 40 minutes worked with my tin but other shaped tins may vary so keep an eye on it.

10. Remove cake from oven and leave to cool in the tin 5-10 minutes. Carefully turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

11. Mix 150g sifted icing sugar with some orange, lemon or pink grapefruit juice until if comes to a smooth consistency. Mix in a teaspoon of melted butter before drizzling over the top of the cake. You can also dust with just icing sugar or pour over a ganache. The pink raspberry ganache from our Valentines brownies would be excellent on this.