LSU Tiger Stripe Bundt Cake with Southern Buttermilk Icing

The LSU fans at your gameday party will be cheering even louder than they do in Death Valley once you slice into this surprising LSU Tiger Striped Bundt Cake.

From the outside it just looks like a simple southern pound cake, but pull out a slice and reveal the purple and gold tiger strips marbling throughout the cake. A tangy southern buttermilk icing (died purple, of course!) will taste almost as sweet as a championship win.

Rooting for another team or want to serve this during a holiday or birthday party? Just swap the colors for any two that you love. (You can also add a third by dividing the batter in threes.) Note that no matter what colors you choose, I recommend you use gel food coloring instead of the liquid kind because the colors are more vibrant and it won't affect the texture of your cake or your icing. You can find gel food coloring at most baking and craft stores, or online on Amazon.

This cake can be made a day or two in advance. Store it at cool room temperature under a cake dome, or wrap loosely with plastic wrap and keep it in the fridge. This cake serves 12 generously, but can also be cut into smaller slices for a larger party or tailgate. 

Pair this cake with my LSU Spiked Blueberry Vodka Lemonade Cocktail!

LSU Tiger Stripe Bundt Cake with Southern Buttermilk Icing

Yields 1 bundt cake (about 12 servings)

Ingredients
For the cake
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup butter, melted
5 large eggs
1 cup cold whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilaa extract
1/8 teaspoon violet gel food coloring (such as Wilton gel colors)
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 teaspoons yellow gel food coloring
1/2 teaspoon orange extract
2 tablespoons fresh orange zest

For the buttermilk icing
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
3-5 tablespoons buttermilk
2 oz cream cheese, softened
violet gel food coloring

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 10-15 cup bundt or tube pan with baking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.

In the base of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, combine sugar, melted butter, and eggs, and whip for five minutes until frothy and pale yellow. Add the milk and vanilla and mix in until incorporated. Add the flour mixture and mix only until fully combined and smooth.

Remove about 1/3 of the batter to a separate bowl. Add the violet food coloring and thee almond extract to this third of batter (thee smaller amount) and mix until the color is even. Set aside.

Repeat with the larger amount of batter, the yellow food coloring, orange extract, and orange zest. Mix until even.

Pour 1/3 of the yellow batter into the prepared bundt pan. Top with dollops of the purple batter. Repeat layering the remaining batter. Do not swirl the batter—it will settle into the tiger pattern during baking.

Bake about 1 hour, or until the cake is fully set, has pulled away from the edges slightly and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cake cool in pan 10 minutes before turning over onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Make the buttermilk icing: Use an electric mixer to whisk together confectioner’s sugar, salt, almond extract, softened cream cheese, and 3 tablespoons of buttermilk. Whisk until smooth, adding more buttermilk a teaspoon or so at a time until it reaches desired consistency. Dye with the violet gel food coloring.

Once cake has cooled, turn over and trim the bottom to make a flat surface, then place onto a serving platter. Drizzle with icing. Let icing set 20 minutes before serving.

Store at room temperature under a cake dome.

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Cinnamon Vanilla Bean Rum Cake

It's no secret that when it comes to cake, rum cake is one of my favorites!

At its heart, this is a simple vanilla rum cake glammed it up with some spicy and super fragrant Vietnamese cinnamon and a decadent, booze, buttery Cinnamon Butter Rum Syrup to pour over the whole thing.

It takes a little patience to let the syrup soak in, but once it does, the resulting cake is absolutely luscious! Seriously SO worth the wait. (And I am not by nature a patient girl!)

I think this is a fantastic cake for the upcoming holiday season; one that most definitely would NOT be unwelcome on your Thanksgiving or Christmas table.

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Loved this recipe? Here are three other cakes you might like:

• Cranberry Orange Chocolate Chip Loaf Cake
• Whole Orange Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze
• Blackberry Saffron Almond Cake

And let's connect so you can find out the next time I post! Follow me on Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest, become a fan on Facebook, or sign up to receive my once-a-week e-mail updates.

Thanks so much for reading! 

Cinnamon Vanilla Bean Rum Cake


Ingredients
For the cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup light rum
2 vanilla beans, split lengthwise
3/4 cup butter softened
2 eggs, room temperature
1 egg yolk
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed brown sugar

For the butter rum syrup:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
3 cinnamon sticks
1/2 cup rum

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 10-inch bundt pan. Whisk together flour and baking powder. Combine milk, rum, and vanilla bean seeds in a separate small bowl.

Beat butter, granulated sugar and brown sugar with an electric mixer about 10 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add eggs and yolk and beat 1 more minute. Add flour mixture and milk mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed just until combined. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake 45 minutes, or until a tester inserted in center comes out clean.

Remove cake from pan and let cool while you make the syrup.

Make the syrup: In  a large saucepan with high sides, combine butter, water, sugar, salt  and cinnamon sticks. Bring to a rapid boil for one minute, then lower  heat and let simmer until reduced by about 1/3, stirring occasionally  and keeping an eye on it so it doesn't boil over. Remove from heat and  stir in the rum (it will bubble!).
Return the cooled cake to the clean baking pan and pour syrup over the cake. Let it absorb 1-2 hours before turning out and serving.

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Homemade Chocolate Rum Cake Recipe (From Scratch Tortuga Copycat)

Rum Cake has long been my favorite type of Christmas treat. When we were kids, my dad used to pick up a cake from a local health food restaurant to serve with Christmas Eve dinner. I have no idea why the place made totally-not-at-all healthy rum cake, but it did, and it was delicious, and yes...we ate it even though we were kids. (Well, I did--my brother was never a fan.) Incidentally, I was recently working on a project where a little girl mentioned that her favorite type of cake was "rum cake," so I know I'm not the only one.

I first posted my original recipe for Rum Cake from Scratch back in March of 2011. Since then, it's definitely become one of the most popular ones on this site for people looking for a way to recreate that moist, boozy Tortuga-style rum cake without all the funky additions of box mixes.  I decided to revisit it this year with a From Scratch Chocolate Rum Cake Version for your holiday (or any day) pleasure.

The chocolate flavor in this cake comes from a combination of both cocoa powder (use the regular unsweetened, not dutch process kind) and melted chocolate chips. Together they give the cake a rich chocolate flavor and lovely dark color. I also added cocoa to the soaking syrup at the end, for additional deliciousness.
 

I baked some of my batter in tiny little bundt cake molds, for individual treats, and it works just as well either way. They actually came out looking like rum cake donuts. Christmas breakfast idea, perhaps? I've included baking times for both, below.

The first time I made this cake, I had a bundt cake disaster and it wouldn't come out of the mold (happens to the best of us!), so I decided to use that cake to make Chocolate Rum Cake Truffles and I daresay they're even BETTER than the cake itself.

A Few Notes Based on Previous Questions:
    •    Cornstarch is also known as "cornflour" in the UK and other countries.
    •    1 cup DIY pudding mix is equivalent to 1 standard 3.4oz package of boxed mix
    •    Use regular "unsweetened cocoa powder" (such as Hershey's), not Dutch Process
    •    Yes, you can replace Kahlua, for a Kahlua cake.
    •    A spiced rum such as Bacardi Oakheart, Captain Morgan, or Sailor Jerry would be wonderful here.
    •    Dark rum is preferred, but you CAN use white rum if that's what you have.
    •    You can use equal amounts of brewed coffee instead of the rum for a non-alcoholic version.

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Homemade Chocolate Rum Cake Recipe (Totally from scratch! No box mixes.)

Ingredients
1/2 cups walnuts, crushed
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
3 tablespoons + 1/2 cup vegetable oil, divided
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (not dutch process)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup DIY vanilla pudding mix (click for my easy homemade pudding mix recipe; if you prefer, you can use 1 box of packaged instant vanilla or chocolate pudding mix OR substitute 1/3 cup dry milk powder + 1/3 cup cornstarch + 1/3 additional cup sugar and increase vanilla extract by 1 teaspoon)
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup dark rum (substitute half or all Kahlua for a Kahlua Rume Cake!)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
4 large eggs

For the syrup
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup dark rum OR Kahlua

Directions
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour bunt pan, and drop crushed walnuts into the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

In the base of a mixer, cream the sugar and butter for 3 minutes. Mix in the 3 tablespoons oil, flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, and pudding mix.

In a small saucepan, combine the whole milk and chocolate chips and stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted. Set aside and let cool slightly. In a separate bowl, whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup oil, rum, vanilla, and eggs. Stir in the cooled chocolate milk mixture.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry mix and mix until smooth with no lumps. The batter should be very thin and pour easily. Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan and bake 5- to 60 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the cake comes up clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack. Let cool for 20-30 minutes.

While the cake cools, prepare the rum syrup. In a large saucepan with high sides, combine the butter, water, granulated sugar, salt, and cocoa powder. Cook over medium heat until the butter completely melts and the sugar dissolves. Let reduce slightly, keeping an eye on it so it doesn’t boil over. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum (it will bubble).

Wash and dry the bundt pan, then place over the cool cake and invert the cake back into the pan. Pour the hot rum syrup all over the cake and let soak for 8 hours (overnight). In morning, invert the cake back onto a serving platter. Keeps covered for 1 week at room temperature.

Variation: This can also be made in mini bundt pans; bake at the same temp about 17-20 minutes, depending on how mini your pans are.

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Banana Rosemary Baby Bundt Cakes w/ Brown Butter Icing

About a year and a half ago, my wonderful friend Looney brought me a whole bag full of edible goodies from a trip to Nicaragua. Among the many treats in the bag was a bottle of banana vinegar scented with rosemary. I fell in love.

The vinegar was a little bit sweet, with a strong tropical aroma of bananas all underscored by hints of woodsy, piney rosemary. I used it in salad dressing and marinades, and discovered it was the perfect vinegar for baking or for adding a little something special to jams and compotes. Amazed by its many uses, I have nursed this little bottle, prizing each drop like it's made out of gold.

About a week ago, I decided to reorganize my pantry (more about that soon!) and came upon the bottle of vinegar. I opened it up just to take a quick sniff of the syrupy aroma, when an idea suddenly came to me. What if I were to combine the banana and rosemary in a cake?

It took a few days before I could get started on the idea, but I knew it would work. I started with my favorite classic banana bread recipe and lightened it up a bit for a more delicate, cake-like texture. To infuse the cake with rosemary flavor, I browned the melted butter with several sprigs of rosemary, letting them infuse the butter. For another layer of flavor, I made rosemary sugar, blitzing together granulated sugar with fresh rosemary sprigs until smooth.

I baked the cakes in the new mini-bundt pan I bought at the Wilton tent sale on my trip to the Wilton blogger workshop a couple weeks ago, and I was excited when they came out just as I'd imagined--soft, springy, golden, and buttery. The aroma was fragrant and positively intoxicating--sweet banana with the perfect hint of rosemary wafting all throughout our apartment.

To top off the little cakes, I made a browned butter glaze, also infused with more rosemary. Drizzled on top of each one, it was the perfect complement.











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Banana Rosemary Baby Bundt Cakes with Brown Butter Icing 
Print this Recipe For the Cakes
4 ripe medium-sized bananas, mashed with a fork
4 3-inch sprigs of fresh rosemary
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup granulated white sugar
1 large egg, whisked
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

For the icing:
1/2 cup butter
2 3-inch sprigs of fresh rosemary
1 cup confectioners' sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a mini bundt or muffin pan and set aside.

Place the mashed bananas in the base of an electric mixer with the paddle attachment and beat for 2 minutes until smooth.

In a medium saucepan over medium heat and combine butter and 2 of the springs of rosemary (reserving the other two sprigs). Heat the butter until it melts and then let continue to cook until the butter turns golden brown and starts to smell a little bit nutty--about 5-7 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool with the rosemary still in the butter.

While the butter cools, place the granulated sugar in a food processor or blender and add the leaves from the two remaining sprigs of rosemary. Be sure to remove the stem--only add the leaves. Pulse in the food processor or blender until smooth.

Remove the rosemary sprigs from the cooled butter and add the butter to the banana puree. Add the rosemary sugar, the egg, and the vanilla, and beat for 2 minutes until all well combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. Stir into the wet ingredients with a light hand only until thoroughly combined.

Spoon the batter about 3/4 of the way in each of the prepared mini bundt molds (or muffin tins). Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes, or until the cakes are golden and spring back when touched. Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before unmolding onto wire racks to let cool completely.

Make the icing:
In a medium saucepan over low heat, melt 1/2 cup of butter and 2 sprigs of rosemary for 5-7 minutes until golden brown and nutty. Pour into a medium bowl through a fine sieve to remove most of the solid bits and rosemary sprigs. Whisk in 1 cup of confectioners' sugar until smooth.

Dip each cooled cake in the icing and return to the rack to let set.

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From Scratch Rum Cake Recipe (Homemade Tortuga Rum Cake Copycat)

My recipe for Homemade Rum Cake started with a shopping spree at TJ Maxx. See...sometime back in November I made the mistake of buying a tiny box of Tortuga rum cake that I saw on sale at our nearby store. It looked tempting, so I brought it home and opened the box for a small taste of cake before dinner.

And it was incredible!

Eugene witnessed my minor freak-out as I raved over the moist, golden rum cake studded with a tiny sprinkle of crushed walnuts. Before I knew it, I had eaten the entire cake and was walking around the room with a happy buzz.

The next day after work, I returned to TJ Maxx and bought two more rum cakes--full-size this time. I proceeded to spend the next few weeks eating rum cake every night, returning to TJ Maxx regularly to replenish my supply. On one visit I finally realized that it would make more sense to just buy every cake they had left in stock (yes, this "made sense" to me)...so I did. I was so excited about the prospect of bringing home all these cakes that it didn't even occur to me to be embarrassed as I walked to the register with a tower of 8 rum cakes balanced in my arms.

"These are really, really good," I told the bemused cashier.

That was at the height of my wedding planning, and I credit a steady diet of nightly rum cake with helping me keep my sanity. (Miraculously, I still managed to lose quite a bit of weight pre-wedding; this may have to do with the fact that I was essentially replacing dinner with cake.)

When I got back in January, the first thing on my agenda was recreating this cake at home. I searched the Internet for recipes, but all the ones I found relied on a combination of boxed cake and pudding mixes.  I wanted to make rum cake from scratch, without bags of powdery substances. I finally found one recipe that was all from scratch except for the pudding mix (this, I’m sure you’ve guessed, is what led me to my recipe for homemade vanilla pudding mix). Not perfect, but definitely a start!

After a few trials and errors, I figured it out; I adjusted the original homemade rum cake recipe slightly, and then replaced the packaged pudding mix called for in the recipe with a cup of my own homemade pudding mix (essentially a combination of powdered milk and cornstarch). I pulled it from the oven, poured on the syrup, and waited anxiously until morning to see if it worked.

The results were brilliant!

The buttery rum syrup soaks evenly throughout the cake and leaves you with a moist, soft, golden cake speckled with flecks of vanilla bean. The texture of the cake is absolutely perfect—soft and springy without being spongy. Since the ingredients are all whole and from scratch, it lacks the artificial flavor undertones of the "semi-homemade" version.

The batter comes together easily, with not that much more effort than a cake mix, but the results are infinitely better.

The rum both in the cake and the syrup can be adjusted according to your tastes. If you’re trying to recreate the Tortuga cake (the one in those hexagonal yellow boxes found in the airports all along the Caribbean—and TJ Maxx), I recommend getting a bottle of Tortuga rum, which can be found in various places online.

You can also use infused or spiced rums such as Bacardi Coco or Captain Morgan’s, but I honestly prefer the simplicity and rich flavor of a good dark aged bottle (like Bacardi Anejo).

Want more Puerto Rican holiday recipes? Check out my eCookbook: The Puerto Rican Christmas Table with 40+ recipes and full-color photos. Click here to learn more!

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New to Always Order Dessert? Consider subscribing to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, or sign up to receive my once-a-week e-mail updates by filling in your address in the box on the right. And if you ever need any entertaining or cooking advice, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks for reading!

From Scratch Rum Cake Recipe (Tortuga Rum Cake Copycat)

Recipe by Alejandra Ramos | AlwaysOrderDessert.com

A recipe for homemade from-scratch rum cake made with no boxed mixes. Similar to Tortuga Rum Cake. The best from-scratch rum cake recipe!

5 stars

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 55 minutes
Total time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: 10 Servings

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup crushed walnuts
• 1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons + 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup DIY Vanilla Pudding Mix (Click here for my easy pudding mix recipe or substitute one 3.4oz box of store bought pudding mix)
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 4 large eggs
• 3/4 cup dark rum
• 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

For the Rum Syrup:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup water
• 3/4 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 cup dark rum 

Directions 
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a bundt pan, and drop crushed walnuts into the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

2. In the base of a mixer, cream the 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar and the 1/2 cup butter. Add the 3 tablespoons oil, flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and kosher salt combining until evenly distributed. (Mixture will look like fine crumbs.) Mix in the pudding mix.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, rum, vanilla extract, and remaining vegetable oil. Add to the dry mixture and mix well until combined. The batter will be smooth, thin, and pour easily.

4. Pour into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes, or until a tester inserted in the cake comes up clean.

5. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a rack. Let cool for 20 to 30 minutes.

6. While the cake cools, prepare the rum syrup: In a large saucepan with high sides, combine the butter, water, granulated sugar, and salt. Cook over medium heat until the butter completely melts and the sugar dissolves. Let reduce slightly, keeping an eye on it so it doesn’t boil over. Remove from the heat and stir in the rum (it will bubble).

7. Wash and dry the bundt pan, then place over the cool cake and invert the cake back into the pan. Pour the hot rum syrup all over the cake and let soak for 8 hours (overnight). In morning, invert the cake back onto a serving platter.

Keeps covered for 1 week at room temperature.

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Whole Orange Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Well, I've done it.  I've gone and fallen in love with a new cake.  The object of my confection is a moist, buttery, orange bundt cake draped with semisweet chocolate ganache that has taken permanent residence in my cake keeper, beckoning everyone who walks by to take just one tiny slice.

Not-too-sweet, and with a hint of bitterness (think marmalade in cake form), the cake pairs beautifully with the thick, rich chocolate coating. Orange and chocolate are perfection together and this cake brings together the best of both worlds.

Beyond the flavor, there is a certain novelty to this cake. With two whole oranges added to the batter (yes, peel, pith, and all), there is that special element of "oh wow...this worked!" It's an old trick, and one that I've wanted to try for a while, but which I never quite had the chance to before.

To make, two whole oranges are quartered and then tossed into the food processor to pulverize into a fairly smooth puree (no worries if there are a few tiny bits of peel left). You should use navel oranges, which don't have seeds, or you can use another kind and simply remove the seeds first. This is added to creamed butter and sugar, eggs, vanilla. The flour is folded in until just combined and the whole thing is baked in a well-oiled bundt. An hour later it comes out of the oven, golden and tender, perfuming the entire house as it cools.

Fruit in my home is a constant point of contention between the two of us. For Eugene, fruit is something in itself: tart, refreshing, sweet. He can eat a grapefruit, for example, and call it dessert. He lusts after the contents of the fruit bowl the way most people lust after chocolate. Were someone able to identify and bottle the gene in him that makes him turn down a piece of cake in favor of a pear, it could be sold as the greatest diet pill ever.

I, on the other hand, think of fruit as an ingredient. Orange for marmalade. Apples for pie. Strawberries for ice cream.  Fruit to me is a snack, not a dessert.  I remember one evening a few years ago, when Eugene brought me to his parents home for dinner. After the meal was served, his grandfather brought out a half of a watermelon and a knife, cutting it into perfect triangles. Everyone but me reached over and grabbed one. They ate, and I sat waiting, thinking how cool it was that they were serving a palate cleanser before dessert. I waited and waited, and then Eugene said "OK, we should be heading out now." The plates were being cleared, people were putting on their coats. I finally realized there would be no cake.

But in my home and in my kitchen, there is always cake. So when Eugene came home a few days ago with a large bag of plump, lush winter oranges, I knew it was time. He was bummed that I took two of *his* oranges to make this cake. (Four, actually, since I had to test the recipe again.) But he forgave me when the results came out of the oven. Fragrant, sweet, heavenly cake. The perfect winter dessert.

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New to Always Order Dessert? Consider subscribing to my RSS feed, follow me on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook, or sign up to receive my once-a-week e-mail updates by filling in your address in the box on the right. And if you ever need any entertaining or cooking advice, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks for reading!

Whole Orange Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Ingredients
2 whole oranges (preferably seedless navel), scrubbed and washed well
3 sticks of butter (3/4 pound), softened
2 cups granulated white sugar
3 large eggs, room temperature
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon Kosher salt


Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously grease and flour a Bundt pan and set aside.

Quarter the oranges, remove any seeds if not using navel, and put in food processor to puree. Set aside.

While the oranges are pureeing, cream the butter and sugar together in the base of an electric mixer for 5 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting until each is fully combined.  Add the orange puree and vanilla extract and mix until combined.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients gently, just until fully combined.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared Bundt pan, spreading so that it is evenly distributed. Bake at 350 for about 60 minutes or until a tester inserted in the cake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool. When completely cool, pour on the chocolate ganache glaze (below) and let set for at least 1 hour before serving. Will keep for 3-5 days under a cake dome or plastic wrap

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

Ingredients
1 cup heavy cream
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (such as nestle)

Heat the heavy cream over medium heat just until small bubbles begin to form. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate chips and whisk gently until fully melted and combined. Let cool for 10 minutes before glazing cake. May be prepared in advance and gently reheated in a moderate microwave.

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Saffron Walnut Bundt Cake

There is a certain kind of magic that seems unique to the Bundt cake. As frequently as I bake, I admit that I still gasp a little bit each time I pull up an inverted Bundt pan to reveal a perfectly--and beautifully--formed cake below. In fact, there are few other cakes that inspire me more.

For the past couple months, I've been recovering from a back injury (a "bulging disc") that has made going about my day a little bit more difficult that usual. The simplest movements--leaning over to brush my teeth, opening the oven, even putting on my shoes--have become an exercise in creativity and (at times) contortionism.

The first couple weeks after my "episode" I was in much too much pain to really do any serious cooking, let alone baking. Dinner became a bit of a slapped-together affair featuring a variety of sandwiches and salads and the occasional delivery from the nearby Italian restaurant that does dinner well, but dessert not so much.

After a couple weeks of this,  I'd had enough. I missed baking! I missed creaming together softened butter and sugar until it reaches that light and fluffy point. I missed sifting together a cloud of flour and baking powder and salt. I missed the familiar flow of running a spatula gently through the batter to combine the dry and wet ingredients. Most of all, I missed that moment, just a few minutes before the timer rings, when the scent of freshly baked cake seems to suddenly fill every nook in my home alerting anyone who is paying attention that it. is. ready.

I was still in quite a bit of pain, but I couldn't resist, and so one Monday afternoon, Eugene came home from the gym to find me cracking eggs in the kitchen. "What's going on here? Are you baking again?"

"I'm trying," I replied, moderating my response so as to not get his hopes up.

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