If you forced me to downsize my cake tin collection (I would hate you for it…), the tin I would cling onto and you would be unable to prize out of my angry, resentful grip would be my bundt tin. These are a bit on the expensive side but once you buy one, if you give it a bit of love – by this I mean hand washing – you’ll have it for life. (Nordicware is the mothership for bundts. It is an American brand but is available in the UK from John Lewis, Amazon and other stockists. Wilton also do a cheaper but very respectable version.) The tin does all the work for you because the simplest bundt cake recipe is transformed by the tin’s beautiful contours. If you don’t have time to decorate or are too impatient to let it cool down, a light snowfall of icing sugar is an equally gorgeous finish.
Helen Collier is a food writer, baker and co-owner of The Last Crumb Café in Stoke Newington Church Street, N16. www.thelastcrumb.co.uk. Instagram: @thelastcrumblondon
INGREDIENTS
225g unsalted butter
225g light brown sugar
4 eggs
160g plain flour
75g cocoa powder
4 tsps ground ginger
1.5 tsps baking powder
3 tbsps full fat milk
Pinch of salt
Icing
175g icing sugar, sieved
2 pieces of stem ginger, chopped into 2 cm chunks
4 tbsp stem ginger syrup plus 1 tbsp water if needed
METHOD
Preheat oven to 180°/Fan 160°/Gas Mark 4.
Grease a 24 cm bundt tin with melted butter then dust lightly with flour, turn upside down and tap gently to knock out extra flour.
Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time.
Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, salt and baking powder together to thoroughly combine together then sieve half into the butter, sugar and egg mixture. Fold in gently. Add half the milk and combine then sieve in the rest of the flour, fold in and add the rest of the milk. Mix again until combined.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared bundt tin and level. Bake for 30-35 mins. Pierce the cake carefully with a skewer, if it comes out clean then it is baked.
Leave in the tin to cool for 10 mins. Turn out onto a wire rack and allow to cool.
For the icing, stir the ginger syrup into the icing sugar. If it is too stiff, add a little water to loosen it until you have an icing the consistency of a thick custard not a runny gravy. If you add too much liquid, sieve some more icing sugar in until you get it back to the right thickness. Gently pour the icing over the bundt and decorate with the stem ginger pieces.