Piece of Cake

September 28, 2009 1:38 PM

My lovely castle cake pan is sadly suffering from disuse. Help me out with your favorite bundt cake recipes and glazes.

I'm especially looking for recipes that go well with seasons or themes (for example, for Fall/Halloween, maybe a pumpkin or haunted house chocolate bundt cake), but I'd enjoy anything from your favorite, easy-to-make staples to the most exotic variety. Again, don't forget to include special glazes (and yes, I have seen the top 20 on allrecipes.com).

posted by misha to food & drink (13 answers total)

MONKEY CAKE! Sweet, simple, fun and delicious - no matter the time or season!

4 cans Buttermilk Biscuits
1 3/4 cups Sugar (Divided)
2 T. Cinnamon
1 1/2 sticks Margarine
1/4 cup Brown Sugar

Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees F.
Mix 1 cup sugar and 2 T. of cinnamon.
Cut uncooked biscuits into 1/4 pieces.
Dip 1/4 sections into sugar/cinnamon mix.
Place dipped sections into greased tube pan.
Pour remaining sugar/cinnamon mix on top.
Melt 1 1/2 sticks margarine, add 3/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup brown sugar.
Bring to a light boil. Pour over biscuit sections in pan.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 40-45 min. Immediately remove from pan to plate.
Once cake is on the plate and it cools for about 5-10 minutes, you can start picking at the cake.
The pieces will just come off, no need for cutting!
(Recipe taken directly from netcooks without permission)

People will tell you that you don't need a bundt pan for this cake, but it won't turn out the same if made in a regular pan - I don't know why .... but past experience showed me it is true that you DO need a bundt pan for a proper Monkey Cake.
posted by goml at 1:53 PM on September 28, 2009

This is delicious and super-easy:

Spiced Pumpkin Cake

2 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 1/2 16-ounce cans solid pack pumpkin (24 oz total)
3 cups all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
Powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour bundt pan. Beat sugar and oil in large bowl to blend. Mix in eggs and pumpkin. Sift flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder into another large bowl. Stir into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in chocolate chips.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Turn cake out onto plate and cool completely. Dust with powdered sugar.
posted by palliser at 2:13 PM on September 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

I've always wanted to put some softened sorbet in mine, re-freeze it, dip the metal part in hot water for a few minutes, and try to invert a sorbet castle. Could work, yes?
posted by amtho at 2:18 PM on September 28, 2009

Make an amaretto bundt cake like my Dad's...and then thank me.
posted by Green Eyed Monster at 2:24 PM on September 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Does one have to have a bundt pan to make these delicious recipes?
posted by Kimberly at 2:43 PM on September 28, 2009

This sweet potato pound cake with buttermilk glaze will send you swooning. SWOONING. It is moist with a nice crumble, fragrant without being overly spicy, goes well with unsweetened whipped cream or a dollop of gentle vanilla ice cream. It is heaven.
posted by barnone at 3:31 PM on September 28, 2009

I found this blueberry coffee cake recipe last summer and have made it about4 times since. Amazingly good, and a wonderful use of fresh blueberries.
posted by Miko at 4:25 PM on September 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Boozy Dark Chocolate Cake. Turned me from a cake hater to a cake lover. Straight up amazing. http://orangette.blogspot.com/2008/12/like-winter-and-warmth.html
posted by mollymayhem at 8:19 PM on September 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Banana Cake with Lime Icing

Cream 125 grams of butter with 3/4 cup of caster sugar. Add 1 beaten egg, 1 tablespoon of vanilla essence and 2 VERY ripe, mashed bananas. Mix and sift in 1 and 1/2 cups of plain flour, 1 teaspoon bicarbonate soda and 1/4 cup of milk. Mix until combined and pour into a greased pan. Bake at 180C for 30-35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.

For the icing, mix the juice of half a lime with 1 cup of icing mixture, adding a teaspoon of hot water at a time until the mixture is smooth and very thick. Carefully pour over the cake. Top with grated lime zest.

I make this all the time and use a silicone bundt pan - this mix should be slightly sloppy so that it gets into all the detailed areas. If I don't have limes for the icing, lemon or passionfruit are equally awesome.
posted by ninazer0 at 9:57 PM on September 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Better than sex cake

I like it better without the pecans.

Kimberly: In my experience, you can do most bundt cake recipes sans bundt pan, in an ordinary cake pan. But they don't have that nice crust.
posted by eleanna at 10:23 PM on September 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

eleanna, your link didn't work for me, but I did a search and found a recipe for the Better than Sex Cake #2 that has pecans, and it DOES look delicious.

I'm really loving these recipes. Only hesitating to favorite the Sweet Potato Bundt Cake because it calls for two sweet potatoes already cooked and mashed, and we never eat sweet potatoes--but now that I'm thinking about it, I'm not sure why we don't!
posted by misha at 10:36 AM on September 29, 2009

Kimberly, you might need two or even three loaf pans to handle all the batter. Just fill each about 2/3 to 3/4 full, and see where that leaves you. Baking time will then be a bit shorter, since there's less batter -- maybe start testing at 45 minutes? I'd probably use loaf pans rather than cake pans, just because I assume the cake is meant to be a little denser than your typical layer cake.
posted by palliser at 5:01 PM on September 29, 2009 [1 favorite]

For easy, fruity, summery bundt cakes, I use a cake mix, and replace the water with crushed fruit and/or fruit juice. Then you can do all sorts of combinations! Two recent favorites are 1) lemon cake mix with thawed raspberries, and 2) vanilla cake mix with almond extract and cherry pieces. Cake 1 had a lemon glaze (mix 1 tbsp lemon juice with confectioners sugar to thicken), cake 2 was just dusted with confectioners sugar.
posted by dorey_oh at 5:29 PM on September 29, 2009 [2 favorites]