New Bundt Shape (or, Another Promise Broken)

I was at the Mall of America (or, as my husband likes to call it, the Maul of America) last week, and of course I HAD to stop in at every food and/or cookware store I could find. Unfortunately there aren't many, although perhaps it's a good thing because I didn't blow too much money. I was on the lookout for a kitchen timer since my old one finally bit the dust. I guess there is a limit on how many times you can drop it on the floor and then accidentally kick it against the fridge while scrambling to pick it back up. At least it didn't suffer the same fate as the last one, which was dropped into a pan of boiling water and boiled alive. Oops. Perhaps I should just revert to an old-fashioned mechanical model, but I really like the feature that begins counting up when the timer goes off, so you can tell just how long you have overbaked your goodies since you had Cake (what else, when you are baking?) cranking on the stereo and couldn't hear the beeping.

So there I was in Williams Sonoma (which one of my friends has aptly renamed "Wellborn Senoras"), gazing at the lovely Apilco and shiny All-Clad that I really don't need (I have Mauviel 2.5mm copper pans, so I mean it when I say I don't need AC), when the new Bundt shape caught my eye. When Nordicware started coming out with all of the specialty shapes in Bundt pans I went crazy and bought each and every new shape they made, despite the fact that some of the shapes really didn't look good or perform well. I ended up giving my least favorite shapes away, stopped buying the new ones, and limited myself strictly (strictly!) to my six favorite specialty shapes, plus the original Bundt pan I started with. Well, since I hadn't bought anything for the kitchen since we moved in December (that has to be some kind of record), I splurged on this new pan. I did, however, avoid buying some cute little cupcake pans and popover pans, so all was not lost. Still, I broke my promise to myself. I think I will just quit making promises and save myself a step and some guilt.

This pan is one of the better specialty shapes. It released pretty cleanly, with only one little sticky spot, which I was able to "glue" back together with icing. The shape is gorgeous, notwithstanding that my photograph above is dizzying with its odd perspective.

I used my most reliable non-chocolate Bundt pan recipe in this. It came with one of the Martha Stewart Bundt shapes, although I forget now which one that was. I think it was the Star pan, which was one of my least favorites and was given away. No amount of greasing, flouring, praying and voodoo priestesses could keep that pan from having chunks of cake sticking to it. 

The recipe I used above is Lavender-Lemon Cake, and it's a great recipe. I usually grind the lavender flowers in my mortar and pestle before adding them to the cake batter, because those cute little lavender petals look a lot like dead pantry moths once they are baked into a cake. Ewww.

The glaze is simply confectioner's sugar and lemon juice. Easy yet tasty. Since I can no longer find the cake recipe on Martha's website, I am going to reproduce it below. It includes a couple of my tweaks, so if it doesn't turn out don't blame poor Martha. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Lavender Lemon Cake   

3 cups (12 oz) cake flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda    

1/4 tsp salt   

2 sticks unsalted butter   

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

2 tsp to 1 tbsp dried lavender flowers, crushed

1 1/2 cups (10.5 oz) sugar  

4 large eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 tsp lemon extract  

1/2 tsp vanilla 

1 cup plain yogurt    

 

Have all ingredients at room temperature. Position rack in lower third of oven and preheat to 325. Butter and flour a bundt pan; tap out excess flour. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt onto a sheet of waxed paper; set aside. In bowl of electric mixer, beat butter on medium speed until creamy and smooth, about 30 seconds. Add sugar, lemon zest and lavender and beat until light and fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes; stop and scrape bowl occasionally. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; add lemon and vanilla extracts. On very low speed, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with yogurt and ending with flour; blend each addition until just incorporated. Fold in lemon zest. Spoon batter into pan and spread so that outside edge is about 1 inch higher than inside edge. Bake until cake springs back when touched, about 1 hour (start checking after 45 minutes). Transfer to a cooling rack and cool in pan for about 15 minutes. Turn cake out onto a wire rack, cool to room temperature, and glaze as desired.

Comments

[Meghan]

The dead pantry moth comment made me laugh out loud. I can just picture your guest exchanging worried glancing while coking down your cake, then feeling very relieved when you clued them in. Good idea grinding it.