Little in the Middle

Happy National Bundt Day 2010! That crazy lady over at The Food Librarian has taken it upon herself to make yet another 30 days of Bundt cakes to celebrate the joyous occasion. Click here to see all her fabulous concoctions for "I Like Big Bundts -2".

Last year I made a Vanilla Halloween Candy Bundt cake for "NBD." We literally had Halloween candy up the bundt. This year Blockette was more interested in having her friend from school come over and play that she came back with a tiny haul. I mean the kid didn't even bring home a single Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Didn't she know she was supposed to go out until she brought one home for her loving mother??? Kids these days.

So, what did I make to honor the festive occasion this year? While I do like big bundts, (I cannot lie, ) I got a mini bundt pan for Christmas last year and I had not yet gotten around to using it. If you can't break in your bundt pan for "NBD" when can you?

Awww look at that lil cutie. Lil bundt cakes totally rock. There is nothing like sitting down and eating a whole cake all by yourself without the unfortunate side effects of actually consuming an entire full scale cake. It's especially cool when you are five. OK. Yeah. Alright. Who am I kidding? It's just as cool when you are 35.

The Cinnamon tea cakes recipe can be found over at Technicolor Kitchen. This site is great because the author is nice enough to include crazy American measurements on the English version of her Blog. I love not having to convert things from metric, because, like Barbie says, "Math is Hard." No, really it's because I'm lazy. Really lazy.

I would like to clarify that the brown on top of the buntlettes is not because I burned the wee fellas. It is brown sugar and cinnamon. I didn't coat the tops as evenly as I would have liked. I was a bit rushed as all the things I made for dinner last night got done cooking at exactly the same time. While the cakes don't look so spectacular they were pretty tasty in their messy cinnamon and brown sugar attire.

This recipe was the first time I ever had to beat eggs to get them to form stiff peaks. I think I did it right, but how would I know if I did it wrong? The batter was fairly thin by the time I added all the ingredients. The cakes did fluff up and rise nicely. They were also moist and airy. I think if I had screwed up somewhere the bundts would have been akin to bricks.

I thought the cakes tasted a bit eggy. Mrblocko agreed, but didn't notice until I pointed it out. I like eggs so it wasn't a deal breaker for me. If this flavor was a negative for anyone, a drizzle of dulce de leche could hide any eggy elements and no one would be the wiser. I may do just that tonight when I wolf down another cake, not because I didn't like the taste of the cake. I just like dulce de leche and feel guilty eating it by the spoonful.

One more thing...the recipe mentions a cooking time of 35 minutes. That may be a good time for cooking a full size cake, but my mini bundts were done after only 15 minutes.


Cinnamon tea cakes from Technicolor Kitchen
2 eggs, separated
1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons caster sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
2 teaspoons baking powder, sifted
¼ cup  unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cinnamon topping:
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons  unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350°F; butter two 6" round cake pans, line the bottoms with baking paper and butter paper*.  Place egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until stiff peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar til thick and glossy. Add egg yolks, one at a time, beating well to combine. Gradually add milk then flour, baking powder, butter and vanilla. Beat til smooth. Divide mix between prepared pans and bake 35 min til cooked when tested with a skewer. Turn out onto wire racks.
In a small bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon. While cakes are still hot, brush with  butter and dust with combined brown sugar and cinnamon.

* I halved the recipe and used four 1-cup (240ml) capacity mini bundt pans; I generously buttered the pans and unmolded the cakes right after taking them out of the oven;