Laying down the perfect bundt.... cake: citrus bundt cake, with or without syrup

You've seen the shape, ragazzi, yes?  The typical "bundt" cake, and  you may very well think that this is a very, VERY old, and traditional form of a cake:

Well, as Annalena learned very recently, (say in the last five minutes), we are ALL mistaken, unless we have a very interesting take on what is VERY old (and some of you probably do feel that way, as we go).

Bundt cakes, as we know them, only came into prominence, in the 50's-60's, thanks to a cookware company.  They are based on a much, MUCH older shape of cake and recipe, something called a gugelhopf.  These are German in origin, or Middle Europe.  You can buy gugelhopfen, and generally, they are rich cakes which are not too sweet.  

"Bundt" is a name that seems to have come out of the blue.  The cookware company which designed the pans,  gave it that name, and the best culinary linguists can come up with, is to analogize the word to "bund" which, as you may guess, is close to the word "to bundle," which apparently has to do with the notion that the cake "bundles" around the tube in the middle of the pan. 

As the kids say, "whatever."  For some reason, these shaped cakes catch our fancy. Annalena will tell you that, if she makes a cake in a bundt pan, and also makes the VERY SAME cake in the standard, loaf pan you see next to the bundt pan, people will INSIST that the bundt cake tastes better.  Perhaps it does, as we eat with our eyes. 

Bundt cakes are BIG cakes.  As you can see from above,  Annalena's bundt pan is much larger than her 8x4 bread loaf pan, which takes 3 cups of flour for a loaf.  You can get smaller ones, but generally, a bundt pan is going to take upwards of six cups of ingredients.  You need to keep this in mind when you make them.  You also need to keep in mind that a shape like that of a bundt cake requires some special care.  All those "nooks and crannies" have to be greased, and they have to be greased CAREFULLY.  Even so, as you will see from Annalena's finished product, getting one out is always a challenge.  Make sure you grease the tube of the pan REALLY well, and then get EVERY surface.  Some also flour the pans before they bake the cake. Annalena doesn't do that, because she feels that the combination of the butter and flour on the outside of the cake is gross.  She'd rather eat the more damaged one, than one that doesn't taste good.  Also, given the size of these monstrous cakes, you'd best be ready to have leftovers, or to serve it to a lot of people.

The recipe that follows is, at its core, a Northern Italian one, from Patricia Wells.  If you make it to her specs, you have a breakfast cake, or a tea cake.  If you add the syrup Annalena speaks of in this recipe, you have a dessert cake.  Go either way you like. And do not feel constrained to make only this recipe in these pans.  They are not inexpensive, and you should be ready to make more than one cake in them. Still, if you made only one cake, this would be a good one to make.

COMINCIAMO!    Let's start by greasing that pan really, really well.  You can start by using the paper from two sticks of unsalted butter, that has gone nice and soft.  You will probably need more than this, but start there, and get the baby well lubricated.  

Zest one orange, and one lemon, and then juice them.  Combine those juices, and also, in a separate cup (for now), measure out 3/4 of a cup of whole milk.  

Now, you're going to "clabber" the milk, by pouring the milk and juices together.  It doesn't matter which one you put in which, but you do need to mix them together.  Let them sit.  "Clabbering" is a process that is not unlike souring milk - in fact, it IS souring milk.  The product is not pretty:

Looks gross, yes?  (Annalena never uses that word, but she used it twice here.  Hmmm).    

Let's begin making our cake.  Get out your mixer, and put the two sticks of butter in  a mixing bowl, with a cup and a half of sugar.  If you happen to have vanilla sugar, use it.  If you don't, get ready to add vanilla, by putting a teaspoon or so into that clabbered milk. 

Let's stop for a minute, and think about this: we've already added two sticks of butter and a cup and a half of sugar.  if you look at other recipes for cakes, you will see that, we are essentially making two cakes at once. 

Begin beating these together,  and be prepared to take your time.  You want things to be very light, and very fluffy - 2-5 minutes.  Stop every  now and then, and scrape things down to make sure everything is in fact getting mixed.    After you've done this, add , one at a time, 5 large eggs.  You did read that correctly:  5, large eggs.  Wait until each one is incorporated, before you add the next one.  Again, keep stopping to scrape down the bowl if you need to, and you probably will.  

You'll have what looks like buttercream, and this is in fact the base of your cake.    

Separately, mix together 3 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour,  1.5 teaspoons (or, half a tablespoon) of baking powder, and half a teaspoon of each of baking soda and salt.  You add both leavens here, ragazzi, because you have acid, from the citrus, and alkalinity, from the milk.    Add the grated citrus peel to that. 

Now, we're ready to do something that puzzles most people,  and is really a simple step.  You are going to add portions of the flour mixture, and then the milk mixture, and each time, you will wait until the added material is totally incorporated:

and

This last picture is what you get at the end.  Think flour/milk/flour/milk/flour/milk/flour.   Four adds of flour, and 3 of milk.  So you have a hefty three cups of flour, and probably about a cup and a quarter of milk mixture.  Do the math, and you'll be fine. And if you're not, don't much matter.  

When that's done, pour everything into the bundt pan.  This takes a bit of attention, because you have a LOT of batter, and you have a big whole in the center of your pan.  Annalena finds it easier to do this with a spatula.  Use whatever means necessary. 

A big cake like this needs at least an  hour at 350.  Baking hotter is not helpful, nor is it a good idea.  What happens with a large cake like this, at a high, hot temperature, is that the outside cooks so fast that the heat cannot get into the center, and you get a raw cake.  Bundt cakes are a place where the old "stick a straw in the center" is a good test, because you won't see the hole in the finished product. For those who don't know the straw test:  you stick a straw into the center most part of the cake, and pull it out. Look at what, if anything, is stuck to it: if it's wet, your cake isn't done.  If it's not, it is.   When it's done, take it out. 

Let the cake sit for ten minutes, and now, say a prayer.   Seriously, this is where luck comes into play.  Annalena tries to make things work better, by running a soft knife around the edges, and the center of the cake, before the inevitable"turn it over and knock it out. " Indeed, that's what you're going to do here.  Get a plate large enough to cover the bottom of the pan, put on your oven mits, and turn it over. Shake it if you have to.  Shake it a bit more.  Keep praying.  If you get nowhere, try the knife trick some more, and if that doesn't work, here's a trick professional bakers taught Annalena: put the whole cake pan on a burner, turn the heat to low, and heat up the pan.  When cakes stick, it's because the sugar has carmelized, and you're melting it.  The problem with this technique, is that your pan is getting very hot, and you still have to turn it over. 

Well, here's what Annalena's looked like.  It did not turn out perfectly, but one patches when this happens: 

At this point, you can serve the cake as a slightly sweet, simple tea or coffee cake.  But if you want to do something fancier - and you can do this with any cake - have a syrup ready.  You can use purchased syrups - like the kind they use in espresso and cappuccino - or  you can make your own.  That way you can control the sweet.  Annalena uses half cups of sugar, water, and lemon juice (or key lime juice) on her cake.  You can brush the syrup on the cake, or pour it.  Do it while the cake is hot, and you will be surprised at how quickly, and how easily  the cake absorbs that liquid.  This, by the way, is the secret behind baba au rhum, where the batter is VERY light, and the cake takes a ton of syrup.    It is also the secret behind that wonderful Greek semolina cake ,ravani', and many of the cakes of the Middle East and southern Greece.

So there you have it, ragazzi.  A nice, big cake, designed to impress.  You will find, literally, HUNDREDS of bund cake recipes out there.  Let this one be a start for you, and then, have some fun.  Make a cake.  People will love you.  They really will. and with a cake this large, a LOT of people will love you.