You might have guessed from both my title and my picture that this month’s BundtAMonth did not go as planned. The first problem was that I just did not have many occasions on which to bake a bundt cake, given that I was sick throughout the holidays. Then, when I did make one, I made a fantastic mojito bundt, just for this occasion, see picture below. First problem was that I served it to dinner guests and never took pictures. The second problem was that I realized, after the fact, that I cannot in good conscience post any more cakes from Cake Simple: Recipes for Bundt-Style Cakes from Classic Dark Chocolate to Luscious Lemon-Basil
Then I lost track of time and realized I still had not baked a cake as of this past Monday. I decided to adapt a previous bundt cake of mine, this Vinho Verde Bundt Cake (which I highly recommend in and of itself). The flavor is wonderful, everything I was aiming for. But I think I will let the next picture speak for itself:
I currently have 3 working theories: something went wrong in the adaptation (which is why I do not have a recipe for you); gumminess from nonstick sprays is damaging my pans (this was an older pan); or the nicks that are in some of my older pans are causing a problem. Anyone want to add to the conversation? It was a bummer, because I loved the flavor: I added orange and lemon zest to the cake, along with some orange juice. The real difference maker was the teaspoon of fiori di sicilia I used in place of the vanilla. If you have never tried this stuff I highly recommend finding some. It is like flowers plus lemon plus vanilla plus a hint of orange. Absolutely delicious.
I am pretty sure every baker has the same solution for all types of cosmetic dessert fails. Trifles/parfaits. I have done it in the past (more than once!) and no doubt will do it again in the future since nothing comes out perfectly 100% of the time. Instead of sharing a recipe (since I do not have one I consider reliable), I thought instead I would walk you through my thought process for the trifle. First I decide just how fancy of a dessert I need. In this case it was just my family, so I wanted a few quick individual trifles, but otherwise we can just eat mangled cake. And as is pretty apparent from the pictures, the additional time needed to turn it into a trifle left me pressed for time which led to cluttered photos. But if I was making it for guests, I would have taken the time to find a lemon curd and had a triple layer trifle, which I probably would have layered into a large trifle dish. I knew that I wanted whipped cream in the dish, but since I was not making lemon curd, I wanted it to have more flavor than just heavy cream. Keeping in mind the theory behind Alice Medrich’s white chocolate mousse, I lightly whipped about 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream. I also melted about 5 oz of good quality white chocolate. To the latter I added the zest of one orange (after I wished I had added lemon zest as well) and about 1/2 cup of sour cream. I mixed it together (see photo below), which cooled the melted chocolate, and then folded it into the whipped cream. I skipped the chilling stage and layered it with the cake.
The final dessert was delicious. I am just sad because I really do not have the photos to convince you of that. Everything was rushed, and so my counter was cluttered. And in the meantime, just to add to the overall sense of everything going wrong with this cake, I left my camera at my mom’s house this past weekend, which is where I was when I participated in Cook, Eat, Tweet. So these are iPhone photos, which means every bit of counter clutter is prominently displayed in the background! But hey if you want to check out some really gorgeous citrus bundt cakes, I suggest you go check out what everyone else was baking for January BundtAMonth!
Almond Clementine Bundt Cake by Carrie from Poet In The Pantry
Citrus Bundt Cake with Sparkling Wine and Fiori di Sicilia by Laura from The Spiced Life
Citrus Cocktail Mini Bundt Cakes by Renee from Magnolia Days
Citrus Lust Mini Bundt Cakes with Lemon Curd by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
Dried Tomato Cherry & Yuzu Cake by Ann from Anncoo Journal
Glazed Lemon Bundt Cake by Alice from Hip Foodie Mom
Grapefruit Poppyseed Bundt Cake by Deb from Knitstamatic
Grapefruit Yogurt Bundt Cake by Kate from Food Babbles
Lemon Bundt with Lemon Curd by Holly from A Baker’s House
Mini Orange Bundts with a Grand Marnier Glaze by Tara from Noshing With The Nolands
Orange Chocolate Marble Bundt by Paula from Vintage Kitchen
Orange Olive Oil Cake by Katerina from Diethood
Orange Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Bundt Cake by Anuradha from Baker Street
Soaked and Glazed Lemon Cake by Dorothy from Shockingly Delicious
Zesty Lemon Bundt Cake by Anita from Hungry Couple NYC
Here’s how you can be a part of Bundt-a-Month:
– Simple rule: Use mandarin, orange, Citrus lime, yuzu, lemons, Key lime or ANYTHING citrus – and bake us a Bundt for Tangy January
– Post it before January 31, 2013.
– Use the #BundtAMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title should read #BundtAMonth: Chocolate Cinnamon Bundt)
– Add your entry to the Linky tool below
– Link back to our announcement posts.
Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from over 350 Bundt cake recipes.
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Despite all of your trials and obstacles, you came up with a beautiful dessert and that’s a WIN every day in my book. And we have the photo of your daughter digging in, for proof! Well saved, Laura, well saved!
Girl, we’ve ALL been there. I usually go the cake pop/ball route when my cakes break as they’re coming out of the pan but now I”m thinking a good trifle is in order,
Anyways, it sounds delicious! I love all the citrus layers in both the whipped cream and the cake itself!
I’m all for trifles! Great way to use up a tasty cake. Thank you for sharing your experience with the recipe and I’m glad despite all that happened you got a delicious dessert! 🙂
Trifles are the perfect solution, and this is wonderful with white chocolate mousse!
About the sticking to the pan, I have only one large bundt pan and it´s at least 15/18 years old, so it has the now `old´ non-stick coating which is very worn out. Some vegetable spray and it never fails, though I also coat it with fine dry breadcrumbs (an old tip from Maida Heatter). But even without the crumbs the cakes hardly ever stick. I bought a gold coated mini bundt pan with a more complex pattern but not that much, and no matter what I do many, many recipes just don´t unmold well. I would think the pattern is the main problem.
But the excuse to make a trifle is always a good one!
Trifles rule! And we have all been there on cake oopsies and I can’t think of any better way to make the best of the situation. Besides, everyone loves a good trifle. Yours looks incredibly delicious.
Why have I never made a trifle before? I’ve had plenty of messy cakes and other oopsies in the kitchen that would have benefited from this treatment! And white chocolate with whipped cream? Yum!
I’ve seen fiori di sicilia in the King Arthur Flour catalog before. Now I need to get some!
I’m no stranger to counter clutter or mishaps when it comes to bundts but I’m so happy you shared this post anyway! Love that you took a broken cake and made it into something wonderfully citrusy and delicious. This trifle sounds amazing and I seriously need to go buy some fiori di sicilia. I just thought it was fancy lemon extract but the way you describe all the underlying flavors makes me realize I need to have this in my kitchen repertoire. Lovely!
Hey, no worries. . the trifle looks great and very resourceful!! Thank you for the recommendation of using fiori di sicilia. . I am going to try it! 🙂
Don’t feel bad. I had a bundt collapse to pieces just recently. I love trifle! 🙂
You came up with an amazing dessert and trifle is one of my favs!! Kudos to you for not giving up and being so resourceful!!
I love Fiori di Sicilia! It is my secret ingredient!
You know what, as anoying and frustrating as it is when that happens (and I’ve been there) you still ended up with a delicious dessert. Trifles are simply fantastic. As for the pan, I generally go the shortening/flour route except this time and have never had a problem. I did try baker’s joy for this month because the thought of getting into all the nooks and cranies in the blossom pan my usual way made me twitch. LOL
This happens to me every time I try a bundt cake (maybe I have a flawed pan?) – if I am brave enough to try again I will remember the trifle option!
Shhhh…but I like your trifles better than any bundt cake! Now where do I find this sicilia thingamajigger?! 😉
Have never heard of fiori di sicilia before. Will definitely love to try this one day. Thank you 🙂
What a fun event! I love bundt cakes & they’re so easy to bake, compared to layer cakes. This looks like a fantastic dessert and I will try your suggestions when I try to replicate this one. Thanks for sharing. One of these days, I may just hop in and join your Bundt cake events! Thanks for the blog visits, Laura!