The Cake Slice April 2012: Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Bundt Pound Cake

This months cake was a simple yet delicious Bundt cake. I was pleased about this as sometimes I just fancy a nice slice of cake, delicately flavoured and not piled high with mountains of icing. This was a simple pound cake, lightly flavoured with spices with just a hint of orange zest, and a middle layer of cinnamon and cardamom spiced streusel crumbs.

Although my Bundt cake didn’t come out of the pan cleanly – it broke in the middle where all the yummy streusel crumbs were (I blame it being gluten free which made it more delicate to handle) - it was undoubtedly delicious.

In the original recipe the cake contained a little orange and cardamom, while the streusel contained cinnamon. As I adore spices I used both cardamom and cinnamon in the cake and streusel, which made for a lovely spice combination. The spices were still quite subtle as only ¼ teaspoon is used of each. I was pleasantly surprised how well the orange zest came though, as it was only a tiny amount, and how well it complimented the spices. It ended up giving the cake quite a Middle Eastern flavour.

The cake was also very soft and moist with quite a close textured crumb, thanks to the buttermilk. I didn’t need a big cake this month and so only made half the recipe and baked it in a slightly smaller Bundt pan. I was disappointed the top part of my cake got stuck in the pan, making for a slightly ‘crumbling castle’ look of a cake, but the taste more than made up for its appearance. Note to self, always grease your Bundt tin thoroughly!

My favourite part was the spiced streusel layer, but it was a wonderful cake all round. I think I might try baking it in a traditional round cake tin next time, and maybe adding an extra layer of the streusel crumbs on top. Yum!

Click here to see the blogroll to see how my fellow Cake Slice Bakers cakes turned out

Cinnamon Swirl Buttermilk Bundt Pound Cake
(Recipe adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Spiced Streusel
60g gluten free plain flour
70g light soft brown sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
40g butter

Buttermilk Pound Cake
290g gluten free plain flour
225g butter
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp xanthan gum
¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
400g caster sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp finely grated orange zest
240ml buttermilk

Method – Streusel
In a small bowl, mix together the flour, sugar and spices. Melt the butter and pour over the flour. Mix together with a small spoon until you create small clumps of crumble-like topping. Set aside for later.

Method – Cake
Heat the oven to 170C. Thoroughly grease and flour a 10inch Bundt pan.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, xanthan gum, salt and spices into a bowl and set aside.
In another bowl, beat the butter until soft and creamy. Gradually add in the sugar, continuing to beat until well combined. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well. Mix in the vanilla and orange zest.
Add a third of flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk. Repeat the process until you have used all the flour and buttermilk, mixing well between each addition.
Spread half of the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth out. Scatter over the cinnamon streusel crumbs and top with remaining cake batter.
Bake for 65-75 minutes, until light and springy to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes, before flipping over the removing from the tin.
Allow to cool completely before dusting with icing sugar and serving.

Note: I halved this recipe and baked it in a 6½ inch Bundt pan for 55 minutes