Chocolate Espresso Bundt Cake

Chocolate Espresso Bundt Cake

Chocolate + Espresso + Amazing Crown Bundt Pan = Simply Delicious!

You know that "Japanese Clutter" book (The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo)? Well, she tells you to hold up every single item you own and ask, "Does this bring me joy?" If not, you toss it without regret because you only want to surround yourself with things that make you happy.

Therefore, I just want to tell you... I want to surround myself with this new Nordic Ware Bundt pan (and its cousins, all my other Bundt pans). This Crown Bundt is the diva of my Bundt world - totally cool and layered in gold.

(As an aside, I found the book interesting although sometimes crazy, but she has revolutionized my drawers so I now "stand up my folded clothes" and it saves so much space. Really.)

I'm excited to show you the new 70th Anniversary Nordic Ware Crown Bundt pan. Isn't it pretty? It's amazing that family-owned Nordic Ware has been making bakeware for 70 years! Most of their pans are made in America too.

As I've said for years on this blog, the best Bundt pans are made by Nordic Ware. And as you've seen over the years, I only have Nordic Ware in my kitchen!

Inside the Nordic Ware Crown Bundt. I really appreciate Nordic Ware's crisp lines in all their pans. The humps in the traditional bundts are well-defined and the designs really hold in the finished cake.

This design was made specifically for the 70th Anniversary Celebration and honor Nordic Ware’s Scandinavian roots. It's a great 10 cup Bundt pan to add to your collection. And look at it!!! It's gold! For the first time ever, it has a limited edition sparkling gold-metallic finish. They have two other Bundts in the collection that have gold finishes too.

Hey, it's an Olympic year, so you deserve a Gold Bundt in your collection.

Here's a side view of the cake. This was a big hit at work. It's a perfect Bundt for a meeting or brunch - goes nicely with coffee or tea.


For this recipe, I was inspired by my favorite Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt, but switched up the flavors. I added some instant espresso powder to highlight the chocolate flavor, and used butter and coconut oil. It's super easy to make - you just need to melt some ingredients and mix. No KitchenAid mixer is needed.


If this new Crown Bundt pan doesn't spark joy in your life, then you are doing it wrong :)
Get the pan from Nordic Ware!

Disclosures: The nice folks at Nordic Ware gifted me the Crown Bundt product. Opinions are my own. Also, I'm in the Amazon Affiliate program and make a few cents if you click on some product links. 

Recipe: Chocolate Espresso Bundt Cake

1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1/2 cup coconut oil (it was solid when I measured it)

1 teaspoon instant espresso powder

5 T cocoa powder (I use 30 grams of Hershey's cocoa)

1 cup water (it goes faster if you use hot water)

2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour

1 3/4 cups (350 grams) granulated sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream

Instructions:

Prepare 10-cup or 12-cup Bundt pan (I prefer to use a baking spray (with flour) but you can also butter and flour the pan). Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. In a large bowl, whisk together: flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.

2. Place water, coconut oil, butter, instant espresso powder and cocoa in a small pot and heat until melted, whisking to combine together. Remove from heat.

3. Add the chocolate mixture to the flour mixture, and whisk by hand until combined.

4. In a small bowl, lightly beat together the eggs and vanilla. Add to the batter and combine.
5. Add the sour cream and combine with the whisk.

6. Pour batter into prepared Bundt pan. It will be a runny batter.

7. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-50 minutes (depending on your oven and pan), until a wooden skewer comes out clean.

8. Remove from oven and let sit on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Invert onto wire rack and let cool completely.

9. Eat plain or dust with powdered sugar and enjoy.

Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake in the Party Bundt

Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze and Strawberries

I should just call this post, "THE PARTY BUNDT IS AN INSTANT PARTY." NordicWare brought back the Party Bundt. I didn't even know about this awesome bundt pan until my friend East Coast Mary aka ECM (yes, I'm West Coast Mary) sent me a link. When I said, "OMG. This is the greatest!!!" Then, being the sweetheart she is, she promptly wrote back, "Don't get it!"

Luckily, my birthday is in December and so is Christmas! Thanks so much ECM for my December Birthmas gift of the Party Bundt. I will use it all the time and think of you!

Look at those humps! It makes it so easy to cut perfect sized slices!

NordicWare Party Bundt (Amazon) or Nordic Ware or King Arthur Flour 

I received the pan and knew I had to use it for an upcoming dinner party. When I asked my friends for their favorite desserts, they both said Vanilla. Thus, the Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze and Strawberries by Matt Lewis, Renato Poliafito that appeared in Bon Appetit! I made this Bundt during I Like Big Bundts celebration, and it was time to make it again.

OMG. Look all those humps. Those lovely bundt cake humps! Whenever I bring a Bundt to work, I precut it into many slices (moderation and all that). But you have to cut in-between the humps of a regular bundt pan...but with this Party Bundt, everyone gets a hump (be careful not to say "Gets To..." instead of "Gets A...").

 

This recipe is called Vanilla Bean Bundt...but I didn't have any Vanilla Beans. Besides, they are so expensive. So I used the next best thing: Vanilla PASTE. It has all the micro vanilla bean seeds and it is much more economical. Look for Nielsen-Massey Vanillas 4-oz. Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste at your local cooking store or Amazon.

This cake has a nice crumb. It's hardy enough to take strawberries...and a side of ice cream if you wish. It keeps for a few days too...if it lasts that long.

I Like Big Bundts with Lots of Humps! :)

Recipe:
Vanilla Bean Bundt Cake with Vanilla Glaze and Strawberries
Adapted from Bon Appetit magazine

1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 sticks butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
1/4 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste (original recipe calls for 1 teaspoon bourbon and 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise with the seeds removed)
1/2 cup buttermilk

Vanilla Glaze
2/3 cup powdered sugar
4 teaspoons (or more) whole milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used Nielsen-Massey Vanilla Bean Paste)

Strawberries Topping
1 1/2 pounds strawberries, hulled, sliced
3 tablespoons sugar

Cake
1. Preheat oven to 325°F. Prepare the bundt pan (I use    spray)
2. In a medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together.
3. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy (5 minutes or so).
4. Add eggs and egg yolks one at a time, beating until combined after each edition.
5. Add vanilla paste.
6. Add the flour mixture in two additions, alternating with the buttermilk until just blended.
7. Pour batter into pan and smooth out the top.
8. Bake until a skewer comes out clean. Check at 45 minutes (recipe calls for 55 minutes, but mine only took 45 minutes).
9. Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes and then invert on the rack and cool completely before applying glaze.

Glaze

1. Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla in a bowl. If it's too thick, add a little more milk.
2. Drizzle over cooled cake. Let stand for 15 minutes before eating.

Strawberries

Toss strawberries and sugar in medium bowl. Let stand at room temperature until juices form, tossing occasionally, 20-30 minutes. Serve with the cake and enjoy!

   

Brown Sugar Cookies with Nordic Ware Cookie Stamps

Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies with Nordic Ware Cookie Stamps

Jazz up your cookies with these Nordic Ware Geo Cookie Stamps!

I'm not much of a decorator and don't have a passion to decorate my cookies or cakes. Hence, my love of the ultra easy Bundt cake! Well, Nordic Ware has created a great way to easily decorate cookies with these awesome Geo Cookie Stamps and they sent me a set to try!

Making these cookies is almost too easy. Make the dough, chill, roll out golf ball size balls...and press! These were made with a brown sugar, sugar cookie dough.


It's important to place these on an ungreased cookie sheet! I'm so accustomed to laying out a piece of parchment (I buy it in cases of 1,000 sheets so I have lots of parchment on hand) that I tried it with parchment. Well, believe me when I say that wasn't the best idea as I had to peel the dough off the cookie stamp. When I tried it without the parchment, it worked like a charm! The cookie stuck to the pan so I could easily peel off the cookie stamp.

Nordic Ware sent me this Big Sheet baking tray too. If your oven is wide, this will make baking much easier as it fits more cookies! Professional made aluminum pans are the way to go when baking cookies, and these baking sheets give you evenly browned cookies.


The cookie stamps are made with heavy cast aluminum and have wooden handles. Aren't they pretty?! You should lightly grease, oil with a brush, or spray the cookie stamp before starting to press. I gave them a quick spray with baking spray.


I can see kids having a really good time making these cookies with the family. You could make a batch of peanut butter and sugar cookie doughs and let them go to town. I put a few sprinkles on some of the cookies, and left some plain. The design on the stamps are just so pretty that leaving them plain really showed off the ridges.

These are the Geo Cookie Stamps set of three. Nordic Ware also sells the All Season Cookie Stamp set and the Holiday Cookie Stamp set. I've seen the Holiday set for sale at Target too. I imagine those make very festive cookies without having to break out to royal icing. Win!

You can decorate the cookies with sprinkles, colorful nonpareils, colored sugar, or silver dragees (dragees aren't sold in California...friends from the East Coast ship them to me).


Thanks Nordic Ware Nordic Ware for sending me these Cookie Stamps! They make decorating cookies super easy. I'm looking forward to making peanut butter cookies - forget the boring fork cross-hatch, these will look so much better!

Recipe: Brown Sugar Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
2 sticks (1 cup) butter at room temperature
1 cup (200 grams) light brown sugar
1 egg at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 2/3 cup (372 grams) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Sprinkles, colored sugar, or other decorations

Directions:
1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.
2. Using a stand mixer with paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla, and beat until combined.
3. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture and mix until incorporated.
4. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours or overnight.
5. When you are ready to bake...
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
7. Make golf ball size balls of dough and place on ungreased cookie sheet.
8. Stamp with the Nordic Ware Cookie Stamp. Decorate with sprinkles, if desired.
9. Bake until golden brown, about 10-12 minutes. Cool on a cookie rack.

Disclosure: The family-owned Nordic Ware company, located in Minneapolis, provided me with the Cookie Stamps and Baking Sheet. Opinions about the products are my own. And, as you know by my Bundt pan obsession, I mean collection, I'm a super fan of Nordic Ware!

I Like Big Bundts 2013 - Orange Marmalade Jubilee Bundt Cake

Orange Marmalade Jubilee Bundt Cake

I Like Big Bundts 2013 (the lite edition)

It's that special time of year.

Days are shorter.

Leaves change color and fall off trees in some parts of the country.
Pumpkin Spice Lattes are poured at Starbucks.

And you start thinking about Thanksgiving.

But for me, it's Bundt season.

Because I cannot lie, I Like Big Bundts!

National Bundt Day is November 15th (I don't know who made up this food holiday, but I thank them for it) and I like to celebrate. In 2009, 2010, and 2011, I posted 30 days of Bundts to get you in the mood. I had to take last year off, and this year I'm going to try to do a "light" version with 15 days of Bundts leading up to the awesome National Bundt Day on November 15, 2013.

So much has changed since my first I LIKE BIG BUNDTS celebration (as always, thanks to my good friend JustJenn for coming up with the name and all the great graphics - you can purchase notecards and buttons here)... Bundts are everywhere now! Back in the day (boy, do I sound old), I wanted to promote the bundt as the best cake substance on the planet. Now I see Bundts on blogs, books, and in the best bakeries. Bundt love is awesometown. While Bundt love is now widespread, I still want to share with you my life-long love affair with the Bundt as the perfect baked good - little or no frosting, lots of cake, and perfect to share with friends and co-workers.

Just so you know, I'm highly disorganized this year. I usually have a bunch of lists, recipes and cookbooks all ready to go. This year...frazzled is the best way to describe things. So, I hope I can pull it off, but you'll forgive me if life (and a huge work project) gets in the way, right? 

As in the past, if you'd like to celebrate National Bundt Day on November 15th with me, I ask that you send along a photo of your Bundt and I'll post a round-up of the delicious bundts. Logistics of submission will be posted soon. [Update: Submission info here!]

To start this off, I want to show off my new Jubilee Bundt Pan from Nordic Ware. My BFF Dulcey tweeted me when she visited the Nordic Ware factory store in Minnesota. I knew I had to buy it. Isn't it pretty? By the way, I don't work for Nordic Ware but do recommend their pans (some of my pans can be found in this post).

Orange Marmalade Jubilee Bundt Cake

This recipe is from the wrapper off the Jubilee Bundt pan! It's an orange pound cake with lots of zest and topped with a glaze of orange juice and orange marmalade.

I used the Dorie Greenspan technique of rubbing the zest and sugar together to bring out the zest's oils and flavor. I used 4 oranges for the cake and glaze (you'll need to zest a couple of the oranges, and squeeze out a total of 3/4 cup of orange juice for the cake & glaze - I needed 4 small-medium, not too juicy oranges to get that yield). It's easy to make. The Jubilee pan has a 10-cup capacity and the batter rises to the top, but didn't go over.

As always, bake your bundt directly on the oven rack and never place a cookie sheet under it (air should flow through the hole in the center).

When I bought the Jubilee Bundt Pan, I also purchased Nordic Ware's cool Cake Lifter. It's this massive spatula to lift your Bundts. How did I live this long without one!??!?! It's fantastic. In the summer months, you can use it to fan yourself too. :)

Look at that great pattern! It's very pretty, no?


Here's a close up of the pattern. It looks good at all angles. Besides the original Bundt pan (12-cup capacity), I like the Heritage Pan (10-cup capacity) too. But now I think the Jubilee Bundt Pan (10 cup) might be moving up on the Heritage!

The crumb was very pound-cakey...tight with little bright orange zest throughout.

Do you include Bundt cakes in your regular baking rotation? I hope so! Come back tomorrow for another Bundt! - mary

Recipe: Orange Marmalade Jubilee Bundt Cake
Adapted from the package of the Nordic Ware "Orange Jubilee Cake"

3 cups (420 grams) all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 (500 grams) cups sugar
Zest of 2 oranges, finely grated
4 large eggs
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, strained with no pulp*

Glaze:
1/2 cup orange marmalade (I used Trader Joe's Seville Marmalade)
1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, strained with no pulp*

*Depending on the size of your oranges, you may need 3-4 oranges to get this much juice. I needed 4 oranges total for this recipe.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Prepare a 10 or 12-cup Bundt pan by spraying it with Pam with Flour, or brushing it with melted butter and dusting it with flour. I used the beautiful Jubilee Bundt pan by Nordic Ware.
3. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. In a small bowl, combine the sugar and orange zest. Rub the zest and sugar together to infuse the flavor into the sugar - the sugar will be a little damp.
5. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream butter with sugar & zest until light and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.
6. Add eggs one at a time, beating 30-60 seconds after each addition. Scrap down the bowl and beat until it is light and fluffy, another 3-4 minutes.
7. Combine the buttermilk and orange juice in a measuring cup.
8. On slow speed, add 1/3 of the dry ingredients and alternate with the 1/2 the liquid. Start and end with the dry ingredients. Scrap down sides of the bowl.
9. Spoon batter into the Bundt pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

Glaze: Combine marmalade and orange juice in a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, reduce heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally until syrupy, about 3 minutes. Strain into a bowl, discarding the solids. Pour over or brush onto the cooled cake. Wait at least 10 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

 
Disclosure: No, I don't work for Nordic Ware - just a huge fan. However, if you buy things from the Amazon links, then I get a few cents as part of their affiliate program - thanks if you buy anything from the Amazon link!