Bundt Cake #14 of Bundt Cake Season 3: Orange Yogurt Pound Cake with Orange Glaze

This is a recipe that caught my eye last Bundt Cake Season, but I was stymied by the fact that it called for mandarin orange yogurt, which A) I'm not sure is even made anymore, and B) definitely isn't one of the flavors available from the local purveyor of yogurt I like to buy. It wasn't until the end of BCS2, that I came up with a solution, so this cake had to wait until Bundt Cake Season 3.

The solution I came up with was to simply buy a can of mandarin oranges, chop them up, and add them to the batter, to have the equivalent of mandarin orange yogurt. It worked well enough, though there were very few mandarin orange pieces in the cake (I chopped 'em pretty small), so if I were to make this cake again, I'd definitely use two cans of mandarin oranges. Also, I'm not entirely convinced that what they meant by mandarin orange yogurt wasn't simply orange-flavored yogurt, much like lemon yogurt.

This was a very nice orange-flavored poundcake, and I do love an orange glaze. What put this cake over the top, however, was when I took my friend Resa's advice. Last year, when I was posting about the bundt cakes of BCS2 on Facebook, at some point, Resa posted the following suggestion, "You toast that shit. And you butter it." (These may not have been her exact words, but it's damn close.) When toasted, this cake was transformed into something really delicious. When I gave slices to my friends, I was very clear that to properly enjoy it, they needed to toast it. The toasting tip was especially helpful when the cake was starting to edge toward staleness. I did not actually butter any toasted slices of this poundcake, but I bet it would be tasty.

The recipe is from the Bundt Cookbook:

6 eggs, separated

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

2 cups sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 tablespoon grated orange peel

2 tablespoons orange juice

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup mandarin orange yogurt (or 1 cup plain yogurt and one to two 11-ounce cans of mandarin oranges drained and chopped)

Directions:

Sift together flour, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and 1/2 cup of sugar until very stiff.

In a separate bowl (Or, like me, you can beat the egg whites in your stand mixture, then transfer them to another bowl, and then mix up butter, etc., in the stand mixer bowl), cream butter with remaining 1 1/2 cups of sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks one at a time.

Blend in orange peel and juice.

Add the flour mixture, alternating with the yogurt, to the butter mixture. Mix until smooth and creamy.

Thoroughly fold beaten egg whites into batter.

Bake in a greased and floured (or sprayed with baking spray) 10- or 12-cup bundt pan for 50-55 minutes, or until cake tests done.

Cool in pan for 10-15 minutes; turn out on wire rack or serving plate to complete cooling.

Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar or orange glaze (I definitely recommend the orange glaze).

Orange Glaze

(I usually make just half a batch, but I also seem to like my glaze on the thinner side, so a half batch goes further. Making it thinner means that I also use more orange juice than 1/2 a recipe calls for. Here's the full batch recipe.)

2 cups sifted confectioner's sugar

1 tablespoon soft butter

2-4 tablespoons orange juice

1-2 teaspoons grate orange peel

Directions

In a small bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add orange juice gradually to achieve desired consistency and stir until smooth. Add peel and stir until fully incorporated.

I'm not sure how much you can tell from this picture, but this cake rose pretty high out of the pan. I think it's because I made sure the butter was properly softened and I used the trick I learned from Kiss My Bundt to make sure that the eggs were at room temperature. (Supposedly, eggs are easier to separate when cold, but I didn't really have any problems with these room-temperature eggs.)

Bundt Cake # 10 of Bundt Cake Season 3: Orange/Chocolate Marble Cake

My fourth entry for BCS3 was, sadly, a bit of a disappointment. I was very excited for my first marble bundt, but alas and alack, it was not all I'd hoped for. The marble turned out fine (if somewhat simple, since the recipe did not instruct me to do the swirly knife thing--I'm definitely doing that next time), which was great. But there were a couple of disappointing aspects to the cake. I think there were a couple of reasons for this, which lead me to believe that a second attempt at some time in the future will lead to greater success. See, the main problem was that the cake was a little dense and dry--and not as flavourful as I would like.

I think part of the too-dense issue had to do with the state of the butter. Unfortunately, although I had taken the butter out to soften, I hadn't really taken into consideration the fact that our kitchen tends to be cold, therefore room temperature there is not really what is meant by "room temperature" when dealing with butter. So, when I beat the butter for the cake, I don't think it got light and fluffy enough, which in turn, lead to a denser cake.

The other issue was the chocolate flavor in the chocolate part of the marble. It wasn't really chocolate-y enough. (And after that delicious Chocolate Stout Bundt Cake, I had high standards.) At the time, I only had Hershey's cocoa, which is not as awesome as the fancy Dutch processed cocoa I now own (thanks to my friend, Katie). This less-than-fabulous cocoa, was also an issue when I made the chocolate glaze for the cake.

So, the moral of this story is: I think it would probably be tasty with properly softened butter and good quality cocoa.

The recipe is from the Bundt Cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

4 eggs separated

2 1/2 cups sifted flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

2/3 cup milk

1/4 tsp grated orange peel***

1/4 orange extract*

1/4 cup cocoa**

1/4 cup water

* Since I didn't have orange extract, I used Grand Marnier instead--so feel free to use the orange liqueur of your choice, if, you too, do not have orange extract.

** As noted above, I recommend springing for the Dutch processed cocoa.

*** I think I may have added more orange peel than this, so that the batter had the level of orange flavor I was looking for.

Directions:

Cream butter; add sugar gradually, beating until fluffy.

Beat in egg yolks, one at a time, until light and fluffy.

Add sifted flour, baking powder, and salt, a third at a time, alternating with milk, until blended.

Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites.

Spoon half the batter into a second bowl; stir in orange peel and orange extract (or orange liqueur).

Blend cocoa and water in a cup: fold into batter in first bowl.

Spoon batters, alternating layers of chocolate and orange, at least two times into a greased and floured 10 0r 12 cup bundt pan. (This is where you might want to get fancy and swirl the layers together using a knife.)

Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes or until cake tests done.

Cool in pan 10-15 minutes.

Turn out on wire rack or serving plate to complete cooling.

Top with Chocolate or Orange Glaze

As you can see, the directions call for topping with *either* Chocolate or Orange glaze, but I thought that was silly, when you could top it with both glazes and have two delicious flavors! I made a half batch of each, and drizzled the cake with first the orange glaze and then the chocolate glaze (giving the orange glaze a little time to "set" while I made the chocolate one).

Orange Glaze:

(this is a half recipe, since I was using two glazes)

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 tbsp soft butter

2-4 tbsp orange juice

1-2 tsp grated orange peel

In a small bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add orange juice gradually to achieve desired consistency, and stir until smooth.

Chocolate Glaze:

(again, this is a half recipe, since I was using two glazes)

1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar

1/2 tbsp soft butter

1/4 tsp vanilla

2-4 tbsp milk

1 tbsp cocoa powder

In a small bowl, combine sugar, cocoa, and butter. Add vanilla. Add milk gradually to achieve desired consistency, and stir until smooth.

Bundt Cake #4 of Bundt Cake Season 3 - Chocolate Ribbon Pound Cake

For her inaugural bundt cake, my friend, Maren, made the Chocolate Ribbon Pound Cake from Bundt Cake Season 2. And here's what she had to say about it.

I think that melting the chocolate and mixing it with the milk and orange zest might make an improved filling. The cake has chips, not a swirl. I omitted the nuts because I loathe them. Also, when it came out of the oven it was very high, tall, and looked almost like an angel food cake, as it cooled, it sank into dense pound-cake-type cake. Anyway, it tastes awesome and we really like it.

Here's the recipe:

From Bundt Cookbook (put out by Nordic Ware, the maker of fine bundt pans everywhere)

Ingredients
3/4 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream

Filling
1 6 oz. pkg. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk
2 tbsp. grated orange peel

Glaze
1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
1 tsp soft butter
2-4 tbsp. orange juice
1-2 tsp. grated orange peel

Directions
In small bowl, combine all Filling ingredients; set aside.

In large bowl, cream butter, sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture with sour cream and blend until moistened; beat 3 minutes at medium speed. Spoon 1/2 of batter into greased and lightly floured 10 or 12 cup bundt pan; spoon filling in center of batter, not touching sides of pan. Spoon remaining batter into pan to cover filling. Bake at 350 degrees for 65-80 minutes or until the cake tests done. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes; turn out on wire rack or serving plate to complete cooling. Top with a thin orange glaze.

To make the glaze:
In a small bowl, combine sugar and butter. Add orange juice gradually until you reach desired consistency. Add orange peel to taste.

Looking at Maren's picture, and given that my chips, when I made this cake last year, also ended up at the top of the cake, I'd recommend using mini-chocolate chips (I read that somewhere as a recommendation for bundt cakes in general) or you could try Maren's suggestion of melting the chocolate.