Cinnamon Bun Slices

I am back from my US book tour and am in that place where I am very happy to be home, exhausted from all the travel, but also kind of wishing I was still on the road. Firstly, I cannot tell you how amazing it was to spend the last three weeks flying around the states and doing a whole bunch of events in celebration of my new book Small Batch Bakes. We had a launch party at Ovenly in NYC, events at Williams Sonoma stores in Minneapolis and LA, and book store events in Seattle, SF and LA. The absolute best part was meeting so many of you along the way. I cant tell you how amazing it is to hear your stories of baking, the recipes of mine you my make and how they’ve become regulars in your kitchen. It still blows my mind that my baking reaches all that way and that it gives you the same pleasure it gives me. If you want to see more behind the scenes moments from the tour and, more importantly, read all about the bakeries I visited whilst on the tour make sure you are subscribed to my Substack newsletter. The newsletter has tons of free content and will also be home to lots of exclusive content and recipes just for paid subscribers.

Now that I am back in London it is, of course, pouring down with rain and cold so I was in the mood for a delicious cinnamon bun, something warming to counteract the miserable weather. But after the tour, making something yeasted that involves kneading sounds like far too much work. Instead let’s make the Cinnamon Bun Slices from Small Batch Bakes, a super simple recipe that gives you all the warming toasty goodness of a homemade cinnamon bun but without any of the work. Made with a simple cake, made with melted butter for speed, it is swirled with cinnamon butter which sinks and melts into the cake as it bakes. The cake is finished with a simple vanilla bean glaze that sets as it cools giving the same effect as a glazed doughnut. It is the perfect cake to whip up when a craving hits and perfectly paired with a big mug of coffee. It’s a teensy little cake which makes just 4-6 slices depending how hungry you are which means if your staying inside to avoid the rain nothing has to go to waste. If you like the idea of Small Batch Bakes you can get a copy of the book anywhere books are sold. If you’re in the US the following places also have limited amounts of signed copies, which can be shipped anywhere in the US:

Book Larder - Seattle
Omnivore Books - San Fransisco
Now Serving - LA

The following Williams Sonoma stores have copies available exclusively in store

Williams Sonoma - LA Farmers Market
Williams Sonoma - Edina, Minnesotta

Cinnamon Bun Slices - Small Batch Bakes

Cinnamon Butter
25g unsalted butter, at room temperature
25g light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
Pinch of fine sea salt

Cake Batter
50g unsalted butter, diced, plus extra for greasing
100g caster sugar
1 large egg
65ml double cream
¼ tsp vanilla bean paste
100g plain flour
¾ tsp baking powder
Pinch of fine sea salt

Vanilla Glaze
50g icing sugar, sifted
1 tbsp whole milk
¼ tsp vanilla bean paste 

Preheat the oven to 180º (160ºC Fan) 350ºF, Gas Mark 4.

Lightly grease a 23 x 13cm loaf tin and line with a strip of parchment paper that overhangs the long sides, securing it in place with metal clips.

First, make the cinnamon butter: place all the ingredients for it in a bowl and beat together until a very soft paste forms. Set aside.

To make the cake, melt the diced butter in a small pan over a medium heat, then set aside. Place the sugar, egg, cream and vanilla in a bowl and whisk together until smooth and combined. Add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk again, just until a smooth batter forms.

Pour in the melted butter and stir gently with the whisk, just until fully combined. Scrape the batter into the prepared tin and spread evenly.

Spoon little dollops of the cinnamon butter over the batter, then use a skewer or chopstick to gently swirl them in. Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the cake springs back to a light touch and is just starting to come away from the sides of the tin. Turn off the oven and set the cake aside for 15 minutes, before carefully transferring to a wire rack to cool.

When the cake is cool, reheat the oven to 180º (160ºC Fan) 350ºF, Gas Mark 4. Combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl and mix together until smooth and pourable. Drizzle the glaze all over the cake, then return it to the oven for a couple of minutes, or until the glaze is set. (this step is optional, the glaze will eventually set at room temp but for that classic doughnut style glaze the heat helps)

Serve thin slices of the cake alongside big mugs of coffee. Once sliced, it is best eaten that day, but the slices can also be frozen for up to a month.

Blueberry Cake Doughnuts with Blueberry Bourbon and Basil Glaze

How do you define a doughnut? You could argue its just fried dough but does that just mean a bread dough? What about cake batter, or choux pastry? Both of those can make great doughnuts, so what really does define a doughnuts? Maybe it’s one of those ‘hard to define but I know it when I see it’ kind of thing? Well, however you define a doughnut, today we are talking about one of the two major types, cake doughnuts. 

You can probably already tell from my use of doughnut instead of donut that I am a Brit and, here in the UK, cake doughnuts are not anywhere near as common as in North America. Bakeries known for doughnuts tend to go down the fried dough route. Of course a brioche doughnut, stuffed full of cream or jam is a beautiful thing but sometimes I want my doughnut craving fulfilled quicker and in an easier manner. The batter which cake doughnuts are made with takes just a couple minutes to make and there is no proofing required. If cake doughnuts are made well I also find they keep better than a brioche doughnut. Whilst all doughnuts are best served as close to frying as possible, these will keep for a day or two and still taste great.

The inspiration for these doughnuts is from Blue Star Doughnuts who make a doughnut with a blueberry basil and bourbon glaze. I took that idea and ran with it, not only does the glaze have blueberries in (paired beautifully with basil and bourbon) the doughnuts themselves are studded with them too. A quick note on blueberries, for this recipe I like to use frozen blueberries as it helps to prevent them turning to mush when mixed into the batter. I also like to use frozen wild blueberries. Wild blueberries have a better flavour and importantly they are very small. The benefit of small berries is that they don’t affect the structural integrity of the doughnuts when cut and fried. I have made them with regular frozen blueberries and they work fine, they just tend to look a little more irregular in shape.

Blueberry Cake Doughnuts
Makes 8

275g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
100g caster sugar
zest of 1 lemon
100ml buttermilk
4 large egg yolks
30g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
100g frozen wild blueberries

Blueberry Basil and Bourbon Glaze
50g blueberries
1 tbsp lemon juice
3-5 basil leaves
1 tbsp bourbon
Pinch of fine sea salt
1/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
200-225g icing sugar

Making these doughnuts is incredibly easy, so much simpler than a yeasted doughnut. To a large bowl add the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, sugar and lemon zest and whisk to combine. In a small jug whisk together the buttermilk, egg yolks, butter and vanilla. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and, using a spatula, stir together to form a thick cake batter. Add the blueberries and briefly stir into the batter until evenly distributed. Don’t worry if the blueberries bleed a little into the batter, thats to be expected, and using frozen berries prevents the berries breaking down further as the dough is rolled out.

Line a baking tray with parchment paper and flour liberally. Tip out the cake batter and sprinkle liberally with flour. Using your hands or a rolling pin, press the dough into a 1.5cm thick layer. Transfer the tray to the fridge for abut 2 hours to form up slightly. 

To make the glaze add the blueberries and lemon juice to a small saucepan (a milk pan or butter warmer works perfectly here) and cook over medium heat until the blueberries are breaking down and the liquid is bubbling, cooking for a few minutes more to reduce the amount of liquid a little (this also concentrates the colour). Scrape the blueberry mixture into a jug and add the basil, bourbon, salt, vanilla and about half of the sugar. Use a stick blender to puree until smooth, then add more sugar until you have a thick but pourable glaze. You can adjust the thickness by adding a touch more lemon juice if too thick and more icing sugar if it is too thin. Cover while you fry the doughnuts.

Fill a large saucepan about 1/2 full with vegetable oil and over medium heat bring to about 160-170C. Once at temperature, turn the heat to low. You’ll want to have a thermometer handy so you can regularly check the temperature of the oil so you can adjust the heat as needed to keep it within the 160-170C range. 

Remove the doughnut mixture from the fridge and using a 3 inch round cookie cutter, cut out as many doughnuts as you can. Using a 1 inch round cookie cutter, remove a hole from the middle of each doughnut. You can fry the middles as doughnut holes and the scraps can be pressed back together, re-rolled and cut out as before to get a couple more doughnuts. 

Carefully lift the doughnuts into the oil and fry, 2 or 3 at a time, for about 2 minutes flipping halfway through cooking to ensure even browning. When the doughnuts are golden brown use a slotted spoon to remove them from the oil. The doughnuts should feel light, if they feel heavier than you expect they are likely undercooked and need a little longer in the oil. Transfer the doughnuts to a wire rack set atop a baking tray. Once all your doughnuts are fried pour over the glaze, covering as much as you can. Leave the glaze to set for 15-20 minutes and then enjoy!

Whilst doughnuts of any sort are truly at their best as soon as they are cool enough to eat, these cake doughnuts will keep for at least a day after frying. 

Vegan Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

This post is sponsored by Alpro

You read the title of the post right, this is a vegan recipe. For the last few years the demand for vegan recipes has skyrocketed and I have never really felt confident in developing recipes without eggs and dairy, it wasn’t what I knew. Over the last year I have quietly been playing around with vegan baking, trying to teach myself how to use vegan alternatives and create recipes that work and are delicious. To kick off a new occasional series of vegan baking I have also just been named as an ambassador for Alpro and todays recipe is the first recipe developed for our new partnership.

When it comes to vegan baking the idea a lot of people have (myself included at one point) is that you will need all manner of strange ingredients that you’ll need to find online on some random website. Thankfully so much vegan baking is making simple swaps and for this recipe, a lemon poppy seed pound cake, it couldn’t be easier. The cake is made with oil instead of butter and Alpro Plain No Sugars, a plant based alternative to yoghurt, (available from …) and the eggs, well there are no eggs. 

Eggs are a key building block of so much baking, they add fat, they help bind ingredients together and they also help with the rise of a cake. Without them cakes need lots of adjustments to make them work. This cake is thankfully incredibly simple, using the muffin method where the wet ingredients are added to the dry and everything is mixed together. Because this method adds no air through creaming and there are no eggs to help it along, all the leavening is chemical, in this case baking soda. The acid in this recipe, from the lemon juice, also helps the baking soda react and create a nicely textured cake, moist but with a tight tender crumb, the perfect vegan pound cake.

For a lemon cake I want the lemon flavour unadorned, simple. The olive oil used in the recipe adds a subtle flavour but doesn’t overpower the citrus and the Alpro Plain No Sugars adds a little tang, and helps keep the cake moist but because it is made without sugar it also helps keep the cake from becoming overly sweet. For those who are also trying to reduce their levels of saturated fat, because this cake is made with olive oil and Alpro Plain No Sugars it has lower levels of saturated fat than a cake made with butter and the dairy traditionally used in this sort of cake. 

Lemon Poppy Seed Pound Cake

250g caster sugar
Zest of 3 lemons
4 tbsp poppy seeds
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
375g plain flour
350ml Alpro Plain No Sugars
150ml olive oil
125ml lemon juice

Lemon Soak
75ml lemon juice
75g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and grease a 10-cup capacity bundt pan.

Add the caster sugar and lemon zest to a large bowl and use your fingers to rub together until the sugar resembles wet sand. Rubbing the zest into the sugar helps to bring out the oils from the zest and makes for a more flavourful cake. Add the poppy seeds, baking soda, salt and flour and whisk together until evenly combined. 

Add the Alpro Plain No Sugars and olive oil and whisk together to combine. Juice the lemons and pour 125ml juice into the oil mixture and whisk to combine. Make a well in the dry goods and pour in the liquid ingredients and mix gently together until a thick, smooth cake batter is formed. Scrape the batter into the prepared bundt tin and spread into an even layer. 

Bake in the preheated oven for about 55-60 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Whilst the cake is baking make the soak by adding the lemon juice and sugar to a small saucepan and place over medium heat and cook just until the sugar has dissolved. 

Remove the cake from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before turning the cake out onto a wire rack to cool. When the cake is unmoulded, brush over the syrup until all has been used.  

You can make a glaze or a frosting if you want but I love a pound cake served as it is, served on its own with nothing but a big mug of tea to go with it. 

Blood Orange White Chocolate Pound Cake

Oh blood oranges, you really do brighten up a miserable wet London day. Every winter when I effectively become a hermit, locking myself away in the kitchen making bread…and pies…and cookies…and anything else that makes me feel that the cold is bearable and that a life somewhere sunny isn’t more desirable, there are a couple bright spots in a world of grey. I am obviously talking blood oranges and rhubarb. They are the joy of the season and I relish every week they still make an appearance at the market. Over the years I have managed to squeeze blood orange into as many different recipes as I can convince myself they’ll work in, todays recipe is a little more classic, back to basics, easy to make. A slight twist on a classic pound cake, it is flavoured with the zest of the oranges and a little helping of white chocolate. It is a double cream pound cake meaning it is wonderfully tender and moist, keeping fresh for about 3-4 days.

For the decoration I went back on forth on a couple different styles, trying to make it cleaner, more elegant, I tried to make it more striking, more graphic but in the end I went right back to my original version. I embraced the imperfection and the rustic nature of the cake, and ignored my boyfriend’s suggestion about cleaning up the sides, slightly messy and haphazard works fine for me. 

If you are reading this out of season and you cant find blood oranges, fear not you can happily whip this up with regular oranges but obviously the colour will be different. Regular oranges just don’t have the vibrance to create as dramatic a design so you might want to help the orange glaze a little with some colouring or if you want to replicate the pink hue, a little splash of pomegranate juice will give a very similar look. 

Blood Orange White Chocolate Pound Cake
Serves 10

215g caster sugar
100g unsalted butter, room temperature
Zest of two blood oranges
2 large eggs
150g plain flour
65g ground almonds
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
65g white chocolate, melted and cooled
125ml double cream

Syrup
120ml blood orange juice
120g caster sugar

Glaze
2 tbsp blood orange juice
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
400-500g icing sugar

Lightly grease, and line with parchment, a deep 9-inch round cake pan. Preheat the oven to 180C / 160C Fan.

Place the butter, sugar and zest into a large bowl and using an electric mixer beat together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs a little at a time, beating in until fully combined before adding more. Mix in the cooled white chocolate until evenly combined. In another bowl mix together the flour, almonds, baking powder and salt. Starting and finishing with the flour mixture, add in three additions, alternating with the cream.  

Scrape the finished batter into the prepared cake pan and gently smooth into an even layer. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45-50 minutes or until golden brown and a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Pop the pan on a wire rack and allow the cake to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto the rack to cool completely. 

Whilst the cake is still warm make a syrup by heating the blood orange juice and sugar together in a small pan until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture just comes to a simmer. Brush the syrup all over the cake, doing so whilst the cake is still warm allows it to full soak into the cake. 

Once the cake is fully cooled make the glaze. In one bowl mix together the blood orange juice and half the sugar mixing to form a thick but just pourable glaze. Do the same with the milk, vanilla and remaining sugar. You want the glazes to be thick enough that they will hold some definition when piped but loose enough that will spread together to form a uniform glaze. If you need a visual guide check out the video of the recipe on my Youtube channel. 

Place each glaze into a piping bag and snip off the ends with a pair of scissors. Pipe alternate stripes of the glaze over the cake, allowing a little excess to drip down the sides. Set the cake aside for a couple hours to allow the glaze to set before serving.