The Cake Slice January 2012: Tiramisu Cake

Tiramisu means ‘pick me up’ in Italian which is just what The Cake Slice Bakers and I needed after all the heavy food over the Christmas period. This cake looks creamy, and it is, but it’s also surprisingly light. A hit of strong espresso syrup and a dash of rum help give it a wake-up boost that’s very welcome during this cold and dreary January.

Tiramisu is usually served in a large serving dish with diners being given a scoop, but here it has been made just that little bit daintier by layering light and fluffy genoise sponge with coffee syrup and a velvety smooth mascarpone cream to create a sliceable cake.

It’s a little sweet, a little bitter and a little boozy, making for one satisfying dessert. There are quite a few steps involved but they are all relatively easy and once the components are made, it came be put together in a matter of moments. It also benefits from being made in advance which can be a bonus when you’re trying to organise a meal or get-together and don’t want too much to do last minute.

My only criticism is that I didn’t soak my top layer of sponge in enough espresso syrup, so it stayed pale rather than coffee brown. However, that’s my own fault and it did make the cake a little easier to slice as it wasn’t so soft. It still tasted delicious, so no harm done.

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Tiramisu Cake
(Recipe adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Genoise Sponge
100g plain flour (I used Doves GF flour)
6 eggs
150g caster sugar
½ tsp grated lemon zest
1½ tsp vanilla extract
85g butter, melted and cooled

Espresso Syrup
240ml hot espresso or strong syrup
50g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tbsp dark rum (my addition)

Mascarpone Cream
6 egg yolks
1 tbsp water
450g mascarpone cheese
3 tbsp dark rum (I only used 1½)
1½ tsp powdered gelatine (I didn’t use this)
180ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Genoise Sponge
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the base and sides of two 9inch tins. (I used one tin and cut the cake in half after it was cooked)
In a glass bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar to combine, then set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the eggs are warm. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until the eggs are thick, foaming and tripled in volume, about 8 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.
Sift a third of the flour over the eggs and fold in gently using a spatula or metal spoon. Sift in the remaining flour, in two batches, folding in gently between each addition.
Drizzle the melted butter around the edge of the bowl and fold in gently.
Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden and springy to the touch. (Bake for 25 minutes if using only 1 tin)
Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before removing from the tins and leaving to cool completely.
While the cakes are baking, prepare the cream and syrup.

Espresso Syrup
In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir together until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Mascarpone Cheese
In a glass bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and water. Place the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and becomes hot to the touch, around 5-7 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat, scrape into a small clean bowl and leave to cool.
Beat the mascarpone cheese until creamy and smooth, using an electric whisk. Gradually beat in the cooled egg yolk mixture, mixing until combined.
Place the rum in a small bowl, sprinkle over the gelatine and leave for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in hot water and stir constantly until the gelatine has dissolved. Whisk this mixture into the mascarpone. (I just added the rum without the gelatine and it worked fine).
In a separate bowl, whisk the cream and vanilla together until just starting to form soft peaks. Fold this through the mascarpone mixture and place in the fridge until required.

Assembly

Trim the cake layers until you have removed all the outer rim of the darker crust from the sides. Brush the top side well with the espresso syrup and place, top side down, inside a 9 inch cake ring that has been placed on a serving plate. Brush the other side with more espresso syrup.
Use half the cream to over the top of the soaked cake, allowing it to go down the sides too until completely coated.
Brush the second cake layer with more syrup, place in the ring mould and brush with any remaining syrup.
Cover the cake with the remainder of the cream. Place in the fridge to chill for 4 hours or overnight.

To Serve
Run a knife that has been dipped in hot water around the rim of the cake and carefully remove the ring mould.
Dust the top with cocoa powder and a little grated chocolate before serving.
Store any leftover cake in the fridge.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Overripe bananas are a common occurrence in my house. We always buy lots as everyone likes to eat them at varying degrees of ripeness. I personally prefer them on the slightly firm side, and also when they are fridge cold, added on top of my morning cereal or porridge. However, the inevitable often happens where the odd banana goes too ripe for anyone and rather than be thrown away they get cut up and stashed in the freezer to be used in baking later. Overripe bananas may not be nice to eat but as many of us know, they make for wonderfully sweet banana cake.

Plain banana cake is good, but I’m very much a flavours and textures kind of girl. I like to have each bite tasting a little bit different, which adds excitement and interest. In this instance I added a handful of dark chocolate chips and some cinnamon. Spices really complement the flavour of bananas and I love how using chips of chocolate, rather than simply cocoa powder, result in little pockets of intense chocolate bitterness, the perfect contrast to the sweet cake.

In place of a standard icing or glaze I instead decided on a cinnamon streusel topping. Crisp, crunchy and a little bit crumbly it adds another texture to the cake without being overly sweet.

The cake itself is moist and closely textured from all the banana. The use of the bananas also adds structure to the cake meaning tasters had no idea it was actually gluten free. It would be very easy to make it dairy free too if that was required.

I love it eaten slightly warmed, so they chocolate chips just start to melt and the aroma from the cinnamon and banana becomes more apparent. A great way of using up those over ripe bananas.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake with Cinnamon Streusel Topping

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake
180g butter
40ml sunflower oil
220g light soft brown sugar
3 eggs
275g very ripe banana, mashed (about 3 large)
280g gluten free plain flour (I used Doves Farm)
1½ tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
60g dark chocolate chips

Cinnamon Streusel
50g gluten free plain flour
40g caster sugar
20g butter
½ tsp cinnamon

Cinnamon Streusel Topping
Make sure the butter is soft but not melted. Rub all the ingredients together using the tips to your fingers to form crumbs. Add ½ tbsp water and mix to form a few larger clumps, but you want it mostly fine. Set aside while you make the cake.

Chocolate Chip Banana Cake
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line an 8inch round springform cake tin.
Beat the butter, oil and sugar together until fluffy and pale in colour.
Beat in the eggs and cinnamon.
Add the banana and chocolate chips and mix to combine.
Fold the flour and baking powder gently into the banana mixture using a spatula. Do not over mix.
Transfer the mixture into the prepared tin and sprinkle the top with the streusel topping. Bake for 55mins until lightly golden.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool for 15 minutes before removing from the tin and leaving to cool.
Tastes delicious served warm with custard for a quick dessert.

Fresh Cranberry & Orange Cake

Last weekend was my local coeliac group’s Christmas meal. It’s only the second time I’ve been but I’ve discovered any meeting is always a fun and festive affair. After a three course meal there is a short interlude where we listen to guest speakers and then it’s onto the wonderful English tradition of afternoon tea, which can mean only one thing – CAKE!

I’m very lucky in that my local group seem to be great food lovers (like myself) and whenever we all get together there is always a vast array of cakes, biscuits and buns all baked by fellow members for everyone to share around and enjoy. Not only is it a sugar rush experience of being able to eat everything on the table, but it’s a fantastic way of picking up some new recipes.

I kept changing my mind of what to bake for the occasion but in the end decided on a cranberry and orange cake. Fresh cranberries are finally available in the shops again – hurrah! – so I wanted to make the most of them. Cranberry and orange is a classic and very festive flavour combination so seemed ideal for the event.

I roughly blitzed the cranberries before stirring them through the cake mix as I wanted little speckles of cranberry studded throughout the cake rather than whole berries. This made it look very pretty when sliced, the cranberries all glossy and red like little gems. Topped with a drizzle of orange glaze and a ring of dried cranberries this makes for one simple yet very tasty cake.

There is no photo of a slice as I didn’t want to cut into the cake before I took it to share, but I’m pleased to say it went down well with the munchers. I actually made it dairy free as well as gluten free as I know some members have to avoid both and I wanted to ensure it would be safe for everyone to eat. I’ve come away with a delicious recipe for a super moist carrot drizzle cake, which I’m sure will be making an appearance on this blog at some point in the future.

Fresh Cranberry & Orange Cake

Ingredients
195g gluten free self raising flour
180g unsalted butter or dairy free margarine
180g caster sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
75g fresh cranberries, blitzed into small chunks
Zest of 1 orange
1 tsp ground ginger

Orange Glaze
100g royal icing sugar
2 tbsp fresh orange juice
A few dried cranberries to decorate

Method
Preheat oven to 180C and grease and line the base of an 8inch/20cm springform tin.
Make sure the butter is very soft. Place the butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, ginger and eggs into a bowl. Beat with an electric mixer until smooth and fluffy.
Add the orange and crushed cranberries and mix again to combine.
Spread into the tin and bake for 45 minutes.
Leave to cool for 20 minutes in tin before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
To make the glaze, mix the icing sugar and orange juice together gradually until you have a smooth thick paste.
Spread on top of the cooled cake and decorate with a ring of dried cranberries.

Roasted Banana & Pecan Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze

Today is National Bundt Cake day! Any baked good with a day dedicated to it is a winner in my books. Mary of the Food Librarian blog loves Bundt cakes so much that she has done a 30 day count-down to today, baking and blogging a different Bundt cake recipe each day! Wow what an undertaking. Incredibly this is also the 3rd year she has done this.

Spurred on by her many delicious looking Bundt cake recipes I wanted to join in the fun and bake my own. I first tasted this cake recipe a couple of weeks back, when it was baked by a coeliac friend of mine for a get-together. It was the moistest, most intensely banana flavoured cake I had ever had. I begged her for the recipe and have been looking for an occasion to bake it ever since. The cake is meant to be baked in a large loaf tin, but I felt sure it would be equally as good baked in a Bundt tin instead.

I think the secret behind this cake is that it uses a lot of bananas which are first roasted in the oven, in their skins, in order to intensify their wonderful banana-iness (if that’s not a word, it should be). I have never encountered this in a recipe before and was a little sceptical about how much flavour this would actually impart to the cake, but the end results speak for themselves. It’s fantastic.

The cake is also studded with a few crushed nuts for added texture and flavour and I also added just a smidgen of mixed spice. The cake is kept extra moist by the use of oil and sour cream in place of butter in the recipe. The cake is quite dense but in a good way, similar to a pound cake rather than feeling heavy and solid.

I love the look of each slice; the speckles of banana make it look so pretty and appealing. As if the cake itself wasn’t delicious enough, it is also topped with a drizzle of maple glaze to add just that extra touch of sweetness. I’m not usually a fan of maple flavoured things, but it really complimented the banana flavour well.

The great thing about Bundt cakes is that they look impressive with very little effort. They are also generally studded with exciting flavours or chunks of chocolate or nuts, relaying on these for flavour rather than mountains of frosting. This was a divine cake and one that the rest of family couldn’t believe was also gluten free. I think its going to be my new ‘go-to’ banana cake recipe. Even if you already have a favourite banana recipe, I urge you to try roasted them for a few minutes first, it really makes a difference!

Mary wants everyone to share her love of Bundt cakes and so is encouraging everyone to bake and blog a Bundt cake recipe from now until 24th November. If you submit a photo to her before this date then she’ll send you a Bundt badge for baking along. Click here for details. This is of course my entry.

Roasted Banana & Pecan Bundt Cake with Maple Glaze
(Recipe adapted from Gluten Free Baking by Phil Vickery)

Ingredients
450g ripe bananas with skin on (about 3½)
150g light soft brown sugar
125ml sunflower oil
1 tsp glycerine (I used golden syrup)
3 eggs
225g gluten free flour (I used Doves flour mix)
½ tsp xanthan gum
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp gluten free baking powder
2 tbsp crème fraiche (I used sour cream)
50g roughly chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
½ tsp mixed spice (My own addition)

Maple Glaze
3 tbsp maple syrup (I only used 2tbsp)
75g icing sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Make a couple of slits in the skins of the bananas and lay them on a baking tray. Bake the bananas, in their skins, for 10 minutes (they will go black). Then remove them from the oven and leave them to cool slightly. Reduce the oven to 180C.
Oil a 9-10inch wide Bundt tin and set to one side.
Whisk the sugar, oil and glycerine together, adding the eggs one by one, until well combined.
Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder, xanthan gum and spice. Peel the skin off the bananas and weigh out 250g of the flesh. Add the mushy banana to the rest of the mix along with the crème fraiche.
Beat everything together until combined and no large chunks of banana remain.
Stir through the chopped nuts and pour the mixture into the prepared Bundt tin.
Bake for 45 minutes until risen, golden brown and a skewer inserted in the top comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 30minutes in the tin before inverting onto a serving plate. It should release from the tin if you give it a firm shake.
Leave to cool completely before icing with the glaze.

Maple Glaze

Sift the icing sugar into a small bowl. Add the maple syrup to the strength you like it, mixing it into the sugar with a small spoon. Add a smidgen of water if you need in order to create a pourable yet thick glaze.
Spoon/drizzle the glaze over the top of the cool cake and leave to set for 20 minutes before serving.

The Cake Slice October 2011: Apple Cake with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

It’s been an exciting month for the Cake Slice Bakers. We’ve chosen a new cake book, welcomed new members and baked our first cake from the new book. I can now reveal that our new cake book for the next 12 months is… The Cake Book by Tish Boyle and our debut cake was Apple Cake with Maple Frosting. I’m thrilled to say this cake was fabulous and if it’s a marker of cakes to come, then this book looks like being a winner!

Each month the Cake Slice Bakers all vote on which cake they want to bake next month – we’re very diplomatic like that :) The recipes in The Cake Book are set out into 8 chapters, with the first 4 being more of your traditional style cake – Angel & Sponge cakes, Pound & Coffee cakes, Butter & Oil cakes and Fruit Based cakes. The last 4 chapters are more dessert styles cakes – Flourless cakes, Cheesecakes, Mousse & Ice Cream cakes and Meringue cakes. In order to get a good mix of all different styles of cake throughout the year one month we will bake a cake from one of the 4 traditional style cakes and then the following month one of the 4 dessert style cakes. This months apple cake came from the traditional cakes, fruit based cakes selection.

This cake looks a little plain and dare I say, ordinary on first glance, but don’t let its humble appearance fool you. It’s packed full of baked apple chunks and bursting with spices with a scattering of walnuts thrown in for good measure. It’s then served with a creamy spiced cream cheese frosting, the perfect autumnal cake.

Cinnamon, cloves, ginger and brown sugar are added to the cake batter to give it its spicy warming flavour which goes perfectly with the soft sweet apple chunks, baked inside. I also added a little ground star anise, as I love its liquorice aniseed flavour. I used buckwheat flour to make it gluten free and found its nutty grassy overtones to be the ideal base for this spiced fruity nutty cake.

The accompanying cream cheese frosting was meant to be flavoured with maple, but I’m not a big fan of maple and find it often overpowers other flavours. I wanted the spices to be the star of the show and so left out the maple and added a little extra spice instead. I also chose to serve the frosting on the side of each slice, so cake eaters could add their own amount of frosting - everyone in my house like different amounts of icing on their cake.

The frosting itself was divine and I even spread the leftovers on some crackers after we’d polished off the cake. It was rich and creamy, wonderfully spiced and not too sweet. It also kept its smooth spreadable consistency rather than turning sloppy as I’ve had happen to me in the past. It’s now my go-to cream cheese frosting recipe.

Apple and spices are two of my favourite flavours (see blog title!) so this cake definitely got the thumbs up from me. I loved its unfussy appearance, keeping secret its wonderful flavours until you’ve taken that first bite. It kept moist for several days too. I can’t wait to see what next month dessert style cake is!

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Apple Cake with Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

(Recipe adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Apple Cake

180g buckwheat flour (or plain flour)

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp xanthan gum (if making GF)

1 tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp ground star anise (optional)

½ tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

100g butter, softened

150g light soft brown sugar (recipe stated 215g)

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

160ml buttermilk

120g peeled and chopped cooking apple or sharp eating apple

50g walnuts, chopped

Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

170g full fat cream cheese

40g butter, softened

½ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground ginger

Pinch of nutmeg

115g icing sugar

1/8 tsp maple flavouring (I left this out)

Apple Cake

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease the base and sides of a 9inch square baking tin. Dust with flour and set aside.

In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, spices and xanthan gum (if using) and set aside.

Peel, core and chop the apple into 1-2cm chunks and roughly chop the walnuts.

In a separate bowl, beat the butter until soft and creamy. Add the sugar, a little at a time, beating well to combine.

Add the vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each one.

Scatter over a third of the flour mixture, followed by half the buttermilk and mix well. Add another third of the flour, the rest of the buttermilk and mix again, finally adding the remaining flour mixture.

Fold in the apple and walnuts.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth out the top until level.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until lightly golden and springy. It won’t rise that much due to all the apple.

Leave to cool in the tin before spreading with the cream cheese frosting and serving in generous squares.

Store any leftover frosted cake in the fridge. Alternatively, simply frost each square of cake before you eat it – leaving the cake at room temperature in an airtight container and the frosting in the fridge.

Spiced Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat butter and cream cheese together until well combined and smooth. Add the vanilla, spiced and maple flavouring (if using) and beat again.

Slowly add the icing sugar, mixing as you go.

Beat until fluffy, then store in the fridge until required.

The Cake Slice September 2011: Chocolate Gingerbread

This month was extra special for the Cake Slice Bakers as it marks the end of our year baking from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. As of next month, we will now be baking from a new cake book for the upcoming year! Each month the cakes are chosen by a member vote, but as this was to be our last cake from our current book, we were all allowed to select which cake we would like to bake. As the weather had been dull, cold and wet I felt in the need for something spicy and warming and settled on a recipe for Chocolate Gingerbread.

I’d never tried a chocolate gingerbread before, but was intrigued by the idea of adding a chocolaty note to this spicy cake. It sounded wonderfully warming and autumnal.

The cake was also a little different to other gingerbreads I’ve made as along with the usual spices it also contained chocolate chips, ground black pepper and espresso powder. I decided to leave the espresso out but loved the addition of the chocolate chips. I forgot to add mine into the batter and so ended up sprinkling them on top instead which created little pools of molted chocolate which were delicious.

The cake had a very strong flavour of molasses and that paired with the cocoa powder made for one very dark, rich smelling cake. I loved the colour but found the flavour of the molasses to be too overpowering. I didn’t really get much of a cocoa flavour, apart from when I hit a chunk of chocolate, and found the spices were sort of lost against the strong treacle molasses flavour. It was definitely a spicy tasting cake, but I would have trouble knowing it was a ginger cake. Next time I’d reduce the black treacle and increase the amount of ginger I used.

The cake itself was light and moist with a lovely sticky surface. It had a soft, slightly damp texture which gave it a pudding feel. It tasted fabulous warmed with a little custard, the perfect thing to tuck into on a cold evening.

Strangely enough, after a couple of days the cake went a little dry instead of going even sticker like traditional gingerbread. All in all it was a very nice cake, but I feel with a few alternations it could become something really special

Click here to see what other cakes the Cake Slice Bakers selected.

Now for some exciting news! As this was our last cake from our current cake book, we are now opening up group to fellow cake baking enthusiasts who wish to bake with us for the upcoming year. Places are limited and you will need to buy a copy of the new cake book to participate, so dedicated bakers only please.
Anyone wishing to join us can email me at (appleandspice[AT]hotmail.co.uk) along with their name, blog name, blog URL and email address for details. Please put ‘New Cake Slice Member’ in the subject box.

Chocolate Gingerbread
(Recipe from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Ingredients
120g black treacle or molasses
120g plain flour (I used 100g white teff flour & 20g brown rice flour)
170ml hot water
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
50g butter
110g light soft brown sugar
1 egg yolk
50g dark chocolate chips
½ tsp espresso powder (I left this out)

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and flour an 8inch/20cm square baking tin.
Stir together the hot water and black treacle and set aside to cool.
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, espresso and all the spices into a bowl and set aside.
Combine the butter and sugar in a separate large mixing bowl and beat together until fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the egg yolk and beat until incorporated. Pour in half the molasses mixture and carefully whisk until combined. Scatter over half the flour mixture and whisk again, followed by the rest of the molasses mixture and finishing with the rest of the flour.
Fold in the dark chocolate chips and pour the mixture into the tin.
Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes until firm and springy to the touch. Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out onto a rack and leaving to cool.
Cut into squares and serve.
Makes one 8inch/20cm cake. Best eaten within 2 days.

Notes:
I baked my cake in a 9inch tin and got a thinner cake. It took 20 minutes to bake.
I would reduce the molasses to 80g, as I found the flavour very overpowering
I would double the ground ginger stated in the recipe as it was quite subtle.
I’d also line the tin as well as greasing it, as some of my cake stuck to the base when I tried to turn it out.

The Cake Slice August 2011: Hungarian Coffee Cake a.k.a Monkey Bread

I was really excited when this cake won this months vote. I’d never heard of Hungarian Coffee Cake before, but apparently it is also known as Monkey Bread which I have been seeing for years popping up on various blogs. Its something I’ve always longed to try, yet never got round to, so now was my chance.

The idea behind the strange name of Monkey Bread is that the cake is made up of balls of dough, which are rolled in cinnamon sugar, before being stacked into a Bundt tin and baked. The rounds of cinnamon crusted dough can then be pulled off in their ball shapes, like a sort of tear and share bread. I assume the logic behind the name is that you can pick at it with your fingers, like a monkey. Click here, here and here to see some great examples.

I had high hopes for this cake but I ended up being quite disappointed. I’m not sure if it was a bad recipe or if I did a bad job at adapting it to be gluten free but it ended up more scone-like in texture than doughy balls of cake/bread. Looking at the recipe, I strongly suspect it’s the recipes fault. The cake part itself contains no eggs and no sugar. The dough is rolled in a cinnamon sugar and topped with a sugar/butter sauce, but the balls of dough were a little bland, making them appear even more scone-like. I’m sure its meant to also contain yeast.

Once baked, the cake was very crumbly, causing it to break and collapse slightly when I released it from the tin. It also disintegrated when I tried to take a bite, meaning I had to eat it with a fork and spoon rather than my fingers. The ball shaped pieces of dough also expanded and merged together, meaning it was impossible for me to break off a clean piece, it sort of fell how it wanted, crumbling away like an old ruined castle.

Despite its crumbly texture and poor appearance, the actual flavour of the cake was delicious. I used dried cranberries and sultanas in place of the raisins which added bright little dots of ruby colour throughout the dough and provided a lovely tangy bite against the sweet caramel topping. By mistake I also used salted butter instead of unsalted in the caramel topping, which meant every bite was a mix of sweet and salty, which worked brilliantly. I think this was one of the best bits about the cake.

The cake itself had a dense textured crumb, but was very moist with a slightly grassy flavour due to my use of Teff flour. I enjoyed it and its scone-like texture which made a change to the usual soft and light cakes. I actually ended up devouring over half of it myself in only 2 days! It was just so easy to keep picking at it, especially as chunks kept falling off, just waiting to be picked up.

So this months cake had mixed success. In terms of Monkey Bread it was a complete failure, but it did however produce a….mountainous giant scone thingy…that I enjoyed eating so all was not lost. I wouldn’t recommend this recipe as it stand though.

Click here to see what the other Cake Slice Bakers thought.

Hungarian Coffee Cake – a.k.a Monkey Bread
(Recipe from KeeCakeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman)

Topping
100g butter, melted and cooled
170g light brown sugar

Cinnamon Dusting
110g caster sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon

Cake
100g butter, cold
360g plain flour (I used 200g white teff flour & 160g brown rice flour)
1 tbsp gluten free baking powder
¾ tsp baking soda
(1 tsp xanthan gum – if GF)
255ml buttermilk
50g walnuts (I used pecans)
70g raisins (I used mix of cranberries & sultanas)

Method – Topping
Whisk together the melted butter and light brown sugar. Set aside.

Method – Cinnamon Dusting
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease a nonstick 12cup/8inch Bundt pan and dust with flour.
Combine the caster sugar and cinnamon in a zipper top bag or small bowl and set aside.

Method – Cake
Cut the butter into 1/2cm dice. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the chilled butter pieces and, with an electric mixer mix on low speed until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Stir in the buttermilk until the mixture just comes together, adding an extra tablespoon or two if the mixture is too dry.
Use a small ice cream scoop or spoon to scoop up balls of dough and transfer them to the zipper top bag. Shake the bag to coat the balls with the cinnamon sugar.
Place the coated balls of dough in the prepared pan, sprinkling the walnuts and raisins over them as you go. Pour the melted butter brown sugar mixture over the cake. Bake until the cake is firm and well risen and the caramel is melted, about 35-40 minutes. Let the cake cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Invert onto a serving platter and serve immediately.
Store uneaten cake in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for 1 day.
Makes one 12 cup/8 inch Bundt cake