Monday, September 29, 2008

Citron Bundt


Sometime earlier this year, hubby came across this bakery near where he was working then called CakeLove. As the name would suggest the speciality here was cakes, particularly to die for are their cupcakes. All sorts of combinations but my favorite is the simple yellow cake with coffee buttercream...yummm. When I found out that owner Warren Brown was coming out with his own cake bible, I knew I HAD to get it.


Warren's instructions are very thorough and actually quite stern, theres just something about the tone of his writing that actually made me (although measure-averse) go out and buy a measuring scale. As for his actual method, once you are done measuring and setting everything out on the counter, it goes really quick. Basically cream butter and sugar and then alternate wet and dry ingredients within about a minute and pour into a prepared baking pan, unmould and stare at the outcome. This particular pound cake was my first try of his recipes and it was super delicious (if I do say so myself!), moist, slightly crumbly, slightly tangy with warm creamy cardamom...mmmmm. You can frost it too if you like, but I chose to keep ours a bit calorie friendly.




Citron Bundt


Dry Ingredients

13.5 oz sifted unbleached all purpose flour (2 1/2 cups +3 tbsps)
1 tbsp potato starch
5-7 cardamom pods (depodded and powdered)
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda


Liquid Ingredients

8 oz sour cream (1 cup)
1 orange
1 lemon
1/2 red grapefruit
2 tbsp whole milk
1 tsp vanilla extract


Creaming ingredients

2 sticks unsalted butter
21 oz granulated sugar (2 1/2 cups +2 tbsps)
2 tbsp citrus zest (from lemon and orange in liquid ingredients)
5 large eggs
1 large egg yolk


To prepare citrus:

Segment lemon, orange and grapefruit in a heavy bottomed saucepan and cover with 1/2 cup sugar. Dont stir. Bring to a gentle simmer over low-medium heat, then remove from heat. Immediately strain syrup from segments and reserve segments.


For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare baking pan using baking spray.

Measure dry ingredients into a bowl. Measure sour cream, milk and vanilla into a seperate bowl and gently fold cooked citrus segments and set aside.

Cream butter, citrus zest and sugar together. Add eggs (and yolk) one by one till each is completely incorporated. Add dry ingredients alternately with wet ingredients (sour cream mixture). Try to make it within 3-5 additions. Make sure to scrape out batter from the bottom of the bowl. Beat batter on medium speed for about 15-20 seconds. Spoon batter into prepared pan and place in oven for about 50-55 minutes or till the top doesnt jiggle anymore.

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