Cinnamon Chip Bundt Cake For Playgroup

I have been unable to host yet for my playgroup thanks to our living arrangement—which I know is terrible manners, and so I just keep offering to bring food. My dirty little secret of course is that I love baking for groups of people and am pretty excited for the day when I am able to host at my own home and possibly bake something that can be made that morning. Like fresh baked scones, mmm…

I had some trouble coming up with a recipe this time—I am a little berried out, I am not a fan of stone fruits, and I already did lemon for them twice. The truth of the matter is when it comes to non-chocolate sweets, I really prefer, with the exception of lemon, fall and winter flavors. Pumpkin, for example, and gingerbread. Which is why my kitchen ended up smelling like a crisp fall day this past Sunday while a Cinnamon Chip Bundt Cake baked. Seriously, why didn’t I think to make this cake every time we showed our house while we were selling it last summer? Never mind bread, this was like potpourri in a cake. And that’s a good thing.

The original recipe called for a nut-cinnamon swirl, but because we have some kids with nut allergies in our group (who truthfully cannot eat my baked goods anyway but I did not want to risk them even touching something with nuts) I decided to skip the nuts. I used a brown sugar-cinnamon swirl instead—and while it tasted wonderfully, it lacked the same definitive swirl that the ground nuts would have given it. Because of that and the fact that my rose bundt pan is all I have left unpacked, and I did not think it suited the cinnamon chips very well, this is not the prettiest bundt cake I have ever made. I didn’t hear any complaining though!

Thanks again to Elizabeth, a fellow mom, for taking the photos before everyone dug in. Once again, she has exposed my photography!

Cinnamon Chip Bundt Cake

Adapted from Baking By Flavor, Lisa Yockelson

Ingredients

For the swirl:
3 T light brown sugar
1 ½ t ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg

Cake batter:
3 cups AP flour
2 ¼ t baking powder
¾ t salt
2 t ground cinnamon
1 ½ cups cinnamon chips (miniature if possible—but I only had regular sized)
½ lbs (1 cup or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
4 large eggs
2 t vanilla
1 cup milk (I used whole)

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray the inside of a 10 inch* bundt pan with Baker’s Joy or grease and flour. Set aside.

*As usual, I used a smaller bundt pan and made 2 additional mini loaf cakes.

Mix the brown sugar and cinnamon for the swirl—use a small whisk or a fork and make sure that all lumps from the brown sugar are broken down and thoroughly blended with the cinnamon. Set aside.

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon together. In a small bowl, toss the cinnamon chips with 1 tablespoon of this mixture.

Cream the butter in a large mixer for 3 minutes on moderate speed. Add the granulated sugar gradually and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add the brown sugar and beat for one more minute. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, mixing for 30 seconds after each egg. Don’t forget to frequently scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl. Mix in the vanilla last.

On low speed, alternately add the flour and milk in 2 additions for the milk and 3 for the flour—beginning and ending with the flour. Be careful to not overmix. The batter will be a little thick compared to some cake batters.

Fold the floured cinnamon chips into the batter.

Spoon half of the batter into the prepared bundt pan. Create a well or depression running through the center of the batter and add the swirling mix into that depression. Spoon the rest of the cake batter on top of this. Using a butter knife, swirl the batter—only about 8 foldovers (do not touch the bottom of the pan). Do not overswirl! Shake the cake gently back and forth once or twice to level the batter.

Bake the cake for 55 minutes, or until set and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out with only a few crumbs attached (except for the swirl—there may be gooey cinnamon colored swirl attached too). The baked cake will pull away from the sides of the pan. Be sure to rotate the cake halfway through if your oven is really uneven.

Let the cake cool in the pan on a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Then carefully turn the cake out onto the cooling rack to cool completely.