A Fancy Bundt

I received a fancy bundt cake pan for Christmas. Have you ever just wondered what the heck a “bundt” is? Whenever I hear the word bundt I’m reminded of the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding. There’s a scene where the anglo American parents come to meet the Greek girl’s parents PLUS her huge extended family which they weren’t expecting to meet for dinner. The non-Greek mom brought a bundt cake for dinner. The Greek mom is staring at it like “What the heck is this?” and she eventually asks what it is. The other mom says “It’s a bundt.” Confusion, jumbled pronunciations (“boont?”), and eventually a gracious thanks is extended. As the Greek mom turns to bring the cake to the house, she says to her sister “there’s a hole in this cake.” So funny. I love that movie. I should watch it later.

But yeah, a bundt cake is essentially a cake with a hole in the center. It’s a variation of a flute plan. The word bundt is of German origin. I found a few definition variations. One says that it’s from the word bund which means turban. I guess you could say that is referencing the shape of the cake. Another site says it’s short for the German word Bundkuchen (Bund for “tied together” and Kuchen for “cake.” Whatever the case, they are usually delicious cakes and I wanted to bake one especially since I got the fancy pan and hadn’t used it yet. And, since I was going to visit the very people who gave me the pan, I thought it fitting that they be the recipient of the first cake I baked in it. It’s a really pretty pan. The design is named “blossom.”

I wanted to try a red velvet cake so I found a recipe online that looked decent enough and also didn’t require any sour cream because I didn’t have any. I did have cream cheese so I also looked for a recipe with a cream cheese center. I made the batter and almost added more eggs than it required simply because I lost track of what I was doing. I even had everything “mise en place” but I still managed to use eggs from the carton rather than from where I had previously placed them. Baking is not for the forgetful I will tell you that. I saw my two eggs sitting there and panicked that I didn’t add the eggs. I cracked one open and put it in my stirred batter only to then notice the two empty egg shells sitting by the mixer. Argh! I immediately scooped out the egg yolk and then poured the egg white off the batter. Whew. Close one. (In retrospect, one additional egg might have helped with moisture because the finished cake had dry edges. Maybe next time.) When I added the red dye, I snapped this picture. Doesn’t it look like blood?

I slathered shortening inside the bundt cake pan and prayed the cake would release. I should have floured it, too. Oh well. Most of it came out. I baked it a little too long because the middle didn’t seem quite finished, but in doing so dried out the sides. Thankfully most of the cake released and the small bit that was stuck came out in one chunk. I just pushed it back onto the cake like it were a puzzle piece fitting into its place. You can see in this image where I did that. It didn’t look bad overall though so that was a relief.

While the cake was cooling, I made a glaze with faux white chocolate (candy melt). It looked so pretty after I poured that onto the cake.

Now that I’ve had time to think about this cake, I don’t know that I would make the same recipe. It was good just not great and I think that’s because a red velvet cake really needs more than oil to make it moist. It needs yogurt or sour cream to really add that extra oomph. The cheesecake type center though was really yummy and I think I would add that again the next time I make a red velvet.

My brother wants me to make a chocolate macaroon bundt cake. We used to have those as kids. There was an actual box mix my mom would use and this is what my brother remembers fondly. I should make him one from scratch and ship him the fancy cake with a hole in it. Opa!