Very Vanilla Sour Cream Bundt Cake

I love being experimental in the kitchen, unusual flavours, new combinations, its all fun and games to me but, and hear me out, it’s very important to learn to walk before you can run. With baking I think it is so important to learn the basics before we start playing around. How will you know a cake will turn out well if you’re just making random changes to something you’ve never made? When people ask about learning to bake better, learning to make their own recipes, the advice I give most often is make things multiple times before making changes and even then make changes one at a time. I cant tell you how many times I have received emails from excited bakers that are wondering why something went wrong even though they changed multiple things. If you don’t know the foundations how can you build a successful house. Are you bored of the metaphors yet? I am, so I’ll get to recipe in one second. Really what I am saying is the technical foundations, the skills, the way a recipe works, all of this is super important especially if you love adapting recipes. The more you understand how basic recipes work the easier it is to understand what adaptions can be made without the recipe failing. 

One of the best recipes you can have in your arsenal, that recipe that you whip out when you don’t have a lot in the house but need a special cake, is a classic pound cake. My ideal version is a very vanilla forward cake, laced with sour cream. The cake is so simple the vanilla should be very present, this is the time to crack out the vanilla pods, and in fact this recipe uses both a vanilla pod and vanilla extract for a double dose of the good stuff. The cake has no frosting so the texture needs to be the right amount of moist (dont come at me with your hatred for the word moist, it’s useful and I cannot be persuaded to stop using it) and the sour cream ensures a velvety crumb that is a joy to eat without any adornments. 

With this recipe the technique is key and if you follow me over on Instagram you know this year one of my aims is to help you all become more confident bakers and arm you with the skills to master any recipe. For this recipe we are using the creaming method and even if you’ve been baking for years I encourage you to watch the video to really nail your technique. This recipe is based on a classic sour cream pound cake, one of those that appears everywhere but the origin is hard to trace but I have adapted it quite a bit to suit both my tastes and British ingredients. The sugar in the original recipe was much higher and whilst delicious my takeaway was too much sugar so this gives you the right taste without an overwhelming level of sweetness. 

Very Vanilla Sour Cream Pound Cake
Serves 15-16

340g unsalted butter, room temperature
450g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
5 large eggs, room temperature
325g plain flour
50g cornflour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
240ml sour cream, room temperature
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan).

First we need to prep our Bundt pan. Because the pans have nooks and crannies this is especially important. My favourite method for this cake is to lightly spray the inside of the tin with a non-stick baking spray (this is the one I use) and dust the inside of the tin with a little extra flour. When spraying the tin the area I find most people overlook is the core, this is likely where the cake will stick the most so make sure this is fully coated before adding the flour. The flour coating wants to be super thin so once every part of the tin is coated invert the Bundt pan and tap it on the worksurface to remove any excess. 

When a recipe calls for room temperature butter that can be a little vague, everyones kitchen is a different temperature after all. What this actually means is the butter should between 15-20ºC but no warmer. If you don’t have a thermometer the best way to test this is to press your finger into the butter. Your finger should easily leave an impression without being coated in a layer of greasy butter, the butter should still feel a little firm, it shouldn’t completely give way to a little pressure. This is the ideal temperature for butter to be whipped and for it to hold on to lots and lots of tiny air pockets, making for a nice light cake. We also want to make sure that by this point the eggs and sour cream are also at room temperature. I never keep my eggs in the fridge but to ensure you batter doesn’t curdle, if you do chill your eggs, you’ll need to get them out well in advance of baking to bring them to temperature. 

So to make the cake place the butter and sugar into the bowl of a stand mixer, along with the seeds scraped for a vanilla pod, and on medium speed beat together for about 5 minutes. To test this mixture is ready you’re looking for the butter and sugar mixture to have gone from a dense looking, very yellow in colour, mixture, to a light and fluffy, almost white in colour, mixture. With butter starting at the right temperature this normally takes 5 minutes. 

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First in a new weekly series showing you a technique or tip to make you a better baker. Todays video is how to properly cream together butter and sugar. Yes its a simple technique but its the foundation of a lot of recipes so its worth spending the time to do properly. Also if there is a technique you want to film, let me know! - #bakingbasics #techniquetuesday #theboywhobakes #creamingmethod #bakingguide #cakesandbakes #igtv #bundtcake #bundstagram #poundcake #vanillacake

A post shared by Edd Kimber (@theboywhobakes) on Jan 21, 2020 at 10:04am PST

Add the eggs to a large jug and briefly whisk together to break them up. With the mixer still running add the eggs a little bit at a time, mixing until the egg has been fully combined before adding more. This slow addition of the egg, along with the proper creaming of the butter and sugar, ensures a good emulsion and will stop the batter from curdling. Whilst a cake batter that has curdled is worth baking the resulting cake will not be as light as it could have been. Meanwhile add the flour, cornflour, salt and baking powder to a large bowl and whisk together. Once all of the egg has been combined add a third of the flour mixture and mix briefly just until combined. Mix in half of the sour cream and the vanilla. Continue alternating like this until everything has been added. 

Scrape the finished batter into the prepared Bundt pan, trying not to get any up the sides of the pan. Spread the mixture into an even layer and then bake in the oven for about 75-85 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Remove the bundt from the oven and set it on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting it onto the wire rack and releasing it from the pan. With Bundt cakes this timing is important. I find if you try and turn the cake out immediately after baking the structure of the cake may not be fully set and the cake is more prone to breaking. If you turn the cake out much longer than 10 minutes after removing it from the oven, the sugars in the cake can make it adhere to the pan, I find 10 minutes is the sweet spot for most recipes. Allow the cake to cool fully before serving. Whilst this cake is wonderful on its own I love serving it with a dollop of creme fraiche and roasted rhubarb. Kept covered the cake will keep for 3-4 days. 

Rhubarb, White Chocolate and Spelt, Courgette Muffins

This post is sponsored by Doves Farm Organic Flour

I have been writing about food, and specifically baking, for 10 years now and if I am correct I don’t think I have ever published a recipe for a muffin. It’s not that I don’t like them, I think they can be wonderful. Truth be told I have no idea, no excuse, no reason why but here we are, 10 years in, and this is the first muffin recipe I have posted. Thankfully it was worth the wait, these spelt rhubarb muffins are incredibly easy but also jam packed with flavour. 

What is Spelt Flour

This is another recipe in my series on baking with ‘Ancient Grains’ with Doves Farm Organic Flour and in this recipe I am using their ‘Stoneground Wholemeal Spelt Flour’. Now spelt is maybe one of the easiest grains to use when you want to swap out regular wheat flour and because of this and its flavour it has become an incredibly popular ancient grain. When we talk about ‘ancient grains’ it is easy to think this means we’ve been using it for hundreds of years but the truth is much more impressive. It is said that spelt has been cultivated since around 5,000/6,000 BC. Over the years, wheat flour became the dominant grain which we bake with and spelt was, for many years, relegated to animal feed. Since the 1970s ancient grains have been re-introduced to UK soils however and thankfully now it is among one of the more popular ancient grains. Milling historic, heritage grains since 1978, Doves Farm has led the way in this and was the first in the UK to grow and produce flour from spelt 

There is, however, a lot of confusion about what spelt actually is. Many think of it as a gluten free option, or that it has less gluten, or less ‘bad’ gluten and strictly speaking none of these are accurate. Rather than less gluten it actually has a different formation of gluten, which for those who suffer gluten intolerances (not coeliac or allergic reactions) can be an easier form to digest. Without getting into too much technical detail, gluten is made up of two proteins and one of these gives stretchiness and the other gives strength and structure. Wheat flour is viewed as having the perfect balance between the two proteins and is why it became the most commonly used grain for baking. The gluten in spelt has more of the stretchy type of gluten which means breads with lots of spelt tends to rise less and spread more and it also means you should avoid kneading spelt doughs too much as it can cause crumbly breads, in fact when you work with spelt bread doughs you’ll find they become incredibly stretchy much quicker than when made with regular wheat. Flavour wise, I like to compare the grain to wholemeal flour, but sweeter - no real bitterness is present, it’s a great taste that suits a wide variety of flavours. As it is also a soft flour, it makes for particularly tender recipes.

How To Use Spelt Flour

For many recipes spelt can be used as a straight swap for regular wheat flour. When making breads it tends to spread out, more than rise up, so I personally like to use it as a portion of the flour if baking a free form loaf or if I want a higher percentage of spelt in the bread. Baking it in a tin ensures the bread holds it shape. When substituting regular wheat flour for spelt flour I happily start by replacing 50% of the flour, in cakes and breads, and for things like biscuits and pastry, recipes that don’t rely on the gluten for structure, you can use a higher percentage of the grain. If you’re not following a recipe that was specifically designed for an alternative grain then when making flour substitutions it is always a good idea to start by subbing out smaller percentages so you can see how the recipe reacts to the alternative grain. With spelt the benefit is you can generally start this at a relatively high level. With a lot of recipes you’ll find using spelt as the sole flour is absolutely possible and absolutely delicious. The one thing to note about using spelt is that it has a higher rate of absorption so it’s often advisable to reduce the amount of liquid called for. I find this particularly true when making spelt breads, and find a 10-20% reduction is advisable.

Muffins

Because of the type of gluten in spelt these muffins tend to rise flatter than is normal but it’s a really good way to start baking with spelt as the muffin cases ensure structure as the batter clings to the paper cases rather than spread out. So if you’re not ready to try breads, this is a great recipe to test the waters. For the muffins I wanted something easy and really packed full of flavour. The base of the recipe is a courgette cake which is similar to carrot cake but the courgette gives less of a flavour which means it’s a great option if you want to use flavours that pair less well with carrots. For its main flavour I added rhubarb, because it’s in season and I will never not be excited to use it in more recipes, and topped the muffins with a little white chocolate because it tastes so good with the rhubarb. I also included some complimentary spices - cinnamon for a background flavour that really bring outs the flavour of the spelt, cardamom which is dream with rhubarb, and finally a little pepper which really gives everything a boost and a bit of liveliness. 

The recipes makes between 12 and 15 depending on the type of muffin case you use. If you use tulip muffin cases then it’ll make 12 large muffins but if you use regular muffins it’ll make 15. With the spelt, but also just because you’re making muffins and we don’t want to work the gluten too much, make sure to fold the batter just until the flour disappears.

Doves Farm Organic Stoneground Wholemeal Spelt Flour is available from ASDA, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsburys and Tesco. You can also buy direct from Doves Farm

Rhubarb and White Chocolate Courgette Spelt Muffins

Makes 12-15
200g courgette, coarsely grated
175g rhubarb, sliced lengthwise and diced
175g caster sugar
75g unsalted butter
250g Doves Farm Organic Stoneground Wholemeal Spelt Flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
3 large eggs
275g natural yoghurt
75g white chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC). If you are using regular muffin cases line two muffin tins with 15 cases, if you are using tulip cases line one muffin tin with 12 cases. 

Place the courgette onto a clean kitchen towel and use to squeeze as much liquid out of the courgette as possible. The courgette has a much higher level of moisture than carrot so to make it behave in the same way we need to get rid as much water as possible. 

Take about 50g of the rhubarb and place it into a small bowl with about 1 tsp of the sugar. Stir it together to coat evenly then set aside for the moment. Place the remaining sugar and rhubarb into a large bowl and similarly mix together. Place the butter into a small pan and heat over low heat just until melted. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool slightly. 

Place the Doves Farm Wholemeal Spelt Flour into a large bowl with the baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt, whisk together so everything is evenly distributed. Add the eggs and yoghurt to the bowl with the majority of the rhubarb and mix together until everything is thoroughly mixed. Make a well in the dry goods and pour in the liquid goods and add the courgette. Gently fold together just until the flour has just about been absorbed, a few spots of flour is fine. The key thing with muffins is mixing as little as possible, you don’t want a tough muffin. 

Divide the batter evenly between the prepared muffin cases, you should be filling the cases about 2/3-3/4 of the way. Sprinkle over the reserved rhubarb and the white chocolate. Bake in the preheated oven for about 18-20 minutes or until the top of the muffin springs back to a light touch. Remove from the oven and allow to set for 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. 

Kept sealed the muffins will keep for about 2-3 days.

Milk Chocolate Tahini Buche de Noel

This Post is Sponsored by Doves Farm Organic Flour

I can’t quite believe that 2019 and another decade is about to end. It has been a massively busy year and I have been working on a few exciting projects that I cannot wait to share with you in the new year. Can you also believe that next year marks 10 years since I first stepped foot in the Bake Off tent? Feels like it just happened. Feeling all the feels about that anniversary! But before I get stuck down memory lane I think we need one last recipe for the year, something very special for Christmas. 

For the final recipe in my Christmas baking series with Doves Farm Organic Flour I have created something very, very special. It uses one of the ingredients that was incredibly popular this year, something that I became a little bit of obsessed with, tahini. I have paired the sesame paste with chocolate to make a twist on a classic Christmas recipe, the Buche de Noel. The cake is a chocolate sponge using Doves Farm Organic Plain Flour and the filling is a milk chocolate and tahini whipped cream. To decorate, the cake is coated in a thin layer of milk chocolate ganache (which is there as an edible glue) and it is finally coated in little shards of sesame caramel, a great textural addition to a cake that is normally on the softer side. 

If you fancy something a little different for Christmas and you want to make this, I would suggest making the cream the day before and baking the cake and assembling on the day you want to serve. The cake needs to be rolled relatively soon after baking and once the cake is decorated the caramel will start pulling moisture out of the ganache and will eventually become sticky and weep.

Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour is available at Ocado, Sainsburys, Tesco

Milk Chocolate Tahini Buche de Noel
Serves 8

Chocolate Sponge Cake
3 large eggs, separated
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
80g caster sugar, divided
50ml vegetable oil
50ml whole milk
30g Doves Farm Organic Plain White Flour
30g cocoa powder

Tahini Milk Chocolate Whipped Cream
300ml double cream
75g tahini
75g milk chocolate
Pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla bean paste

Milk Chocolate Ganache
75g milk chocolate, finely chopped
60ml double cream

Sesame Caramel Shards
150g caster sugar
1 tbsp sesame seeds (I use a mix of black and white)

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and line the base a 9x13 baking tin with parchment paper. You can lightly grease the base of the pan to help the parchment stick but make sure the sides remain clean, we want the cake to cling to the sides of the tin as it bakes. 

Make the filling in advance as it needs at least 4 hours to chill before whipping. Place the cream, tahini, chocolate, salt and vanilla into a small saucepan and heat over low heat, stirring regularly, until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. Pour the cream into a small bowl, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least four hours until cold. I generally make this day before I want to serve the cake, so there is less work on the day.

To make the cake place the egg yolks into one bowl and the egg whites and cream of tartar into another. Add half of the sugar to the yolks and using an electric mixer whisk for 3-4 minutes or until pale and creamy. Add in the oil and the milk and whisk briefly to combine. Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix to form a smooth batter. Set this bowl aside for the moment. Using an electric mixer (cleaned after making the cocoa batter) whisk the egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until foamy then slowly sprinkle in the sugar, a tablespoon at a time whisking until the whites hold medium peaks. The final meringue wants to be stiff but still flexible, if the mixture becomes over whisked and dry it will be hard to fold into the cocoa mixture without losing volume.  

Add the meringue to the cocoa batter in three additions, gently folding until streak free. Once fully combined pour into the prepared tin, gently levelling out. Bake in the preheated oven for 12-14 minutes or until the cake springs back to a light touch. Use a rounded blade knife to cut the cake away from the sides of the tin then immediately invert the cake onto a sheet of parchment. Whilst the cake is still warm gently peel the parchment from what is now the top of the cake.

For the filling remove the cream mixture from the fridge and in a large bowl whisk briefly until holding soft peaks. Spread the filling over the cake leaving the short edge near you clean. Carefully roll up the cake and then refrigerate for a couple hours before serving.

For the ganache filling place the cream and chocolate into a small saucepan and place over low heat and stir constantly until melted and smooth. Pour into a small bowl and set in the fridge aside until thickened but still spreadable. Spread the ganache over the outside of the cake, leaving the exposed ends clean, setting aside for the moment. 

To make the caramel shards place the sugar into a medium sized saucepan and cook over medium heat until the sugar has melted and caramelised turning the colour of an old rusty penny. Immediately pour the sugar onto a parchment lined baking tray and tilt the tray to spread into a thin layer. Before the sugar sets sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Set aside for 30 minutes before breaking up into small pieces and sticking to the cake. 

The cake is best served on the day it is made.

Gingerbread Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Sugared Cranberries

This post is sponsored by Doves Farm Organic Flour

The weather has well and truly changed and winter is without a doubt here, stepping outside the warmth of my kitchen is something I’d rather avoid at the moment, I’d much rather be inside baking, no change there then. For the second recipe in my Christmas baking series with Doves Farm Organic Flour I’ve gone with something we all know and love, gingerbread, using Doves Farm Self Raising Flour. 

Gingerbread is a mainstay of my family baking history and over the years I have made a few different versions. This version is one of the easiest but also one of the most festive. The cake is a simple wet to dry method and takes just minutes to make. To serve the cake I’ve opted for a classic cream cheese frosting, the tang and creaminess really pairs well with the gingerbread. If you want to layer in a little more flavour you can add a couple tablespoons of the syrup from a jar of candied ginger. Whilst these two elements would be more than enough I have also added a little festive cheer in the form of some lightly candied cranberries. The cranberries look great on top of the cake but also give a nice sweet-sour pop of flavour that balances out the sweetness in the cake. 

For the flavouring of the cake I have stuck with traditional spices, the stuff you would add to a classic gingerbread, but if you want you can play around with more intense spices like cloves or nutmeg, or more floral sweet spices like cardamom and fennel. Whatever spices you use remember that as with most gingerbread made using golden syrup the cake will keep incredibly well and without its frosting will keep for at least 4 days and will definitely be better with a day’s rest before serving - the flavour deepens and the cake gets a little stickier. 

Doves Farm Organic Self Raising Flour is available from Sainsburys, Ocado and Tesco

Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and Sugared Cranberries
Serves 10

Sugared Cranberries
200g fresh cranberries
250g caster sugar
150g water

Quick Ginger Layer Cake
250g Doves Farm Organic Self Raising Flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp baking soda
200g golden syrup
125g light brown sugar
125g unsalted butter, diced
250ml whole milk
2 large eggs

Cream Cheese Frosting
75g unsalted butter, room temperature
125g cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
400g icing sugar
Pinch of salt

A few hours before you bake the cake prepare the sugared cranberries. This is a form of candying but unlike something like orange peel, we don’t want to simmer the cranberries in a sugar syrup as it break the more delicate cranberries down. Instead we simply soak the berries in the syrup, off the heat. To make, sort through the berries and remove any cranberries that feel soft. Place 150g of the sugar and the water into a small saucepan and over medium heat cook until the sugar has dissolved then simmer for about 3 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the cranberries and set aside for at least an hour to soak. If you’re making these in advance you can leave these to soak overnight (they’ll take on more sugar as the mixture sits). Use a slotted spoon to remove the cranberries from the syrup and set them on a wire rack to cool for an hour. Meanwhile spread the remaining sugar onto a small baking tray. Once the berries have dried for an hour tip them onto the sugar and toss to coat. Remove from the sugar and set aside until needed. The cranberries are not fully candied so don’t last as long as truly candied fruit but they’ll keep for a couple days before the sugar starts to turn syrupy and sticky, just keep them in a sealed container away from heat and direct light.

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan) and lightly grease two 8 inch round cake tins and line the bases with parchment paper. 

Mix together the flour, spices, baking soda and set aside for the moment. In a large saucepan place the golden syrup, brown sugar and butter and over medium heat cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is smooth and combined. Remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the milk. Add the eggs to the syrup mixture and whisk until smooth, then pour into the bowl with the dry goods. Whisk the batter until smooth and no lumps remain but no longer, you don’t want to overmix the batter as the cake will end up a little tough. 

Divide the batter evenly between the two tins and spread into even layers. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are just starting to come away from the sides of the tin and they spring back to a light touch. Remove the cakes from the oven and set on a wire rack, leaving for 10 minutes to cool before turning out onto from the tins onto the wire rack to cool completely. 

To make the frosting place the butter into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until soft and creamy. Add the cream cheese and vanilla, beating just until combined, we don’t want to mix too long as the cream cheese will become wet and loose if beaten for too long (this is the reason the cream cheese must be at room temperature before starting). Add the salt and then the icing sugar in two additions and beat until light and fluffy, just a couple minutes.

To decorate place the first cake layer on a plate or cake stand and top with a layer of the frosting. Top with the second cake layer and spread the remaining frosting over the tops and sides of the cake. Finish with a sprinkling of the sugared cranberries and serve.

Note: the recipe for the sugared cranberries makes more than you need but I like to make a large batch as they’re great to have on hand as a sweet nibble if your having a Christmas party or you just want a little festive snack. You’ll also be left with most of the syrup you made and whilst it wont have much flavour from the cranberries it can be kept and used in cocktails where a simple syrup is required.