Younger son and his girlfriend celebrated their 30th birthdays at the weekend (his recent, hers yet to come) with a party for friends and relatives. Earlier in the week I had a call from the GF asking if I would mind making the birthday cake.
While I enjoy baking, when it comes to cake decorating I missed out on the artistic genes. I looked hopefully in Paris Cutler’s Planet Cake for inspiration but that only reinforced my shortcomings. I had visions of a kitchen turned into a wasteland of cake crumbs and icing that refused to do as it was told. It’s a good few years since I’ve made birthday cakes – robots, Garfield, Sport Billy and treasure chests.
A bundt cake is a dessert cake that is baked in a bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive ridged ring. The d in “bundt” is silent.- Wikipedia
A bundt cake is a dessert cake that is baked in a bundt pan, shaping it into a distinctive ridged ring. The d in “bundt” is silent.- WikipediaI decided to take the easy option and start off with a cake that came with its own built-in décor and set off to source a bundt pan. None of the nearby stores had what I wanted – not even the Chef’s Hat – but once the South Melbourne Market was open for business, I found one there. It’s amazing how often I end up at my market finding something I’ve searched high and low for elsewhere.
I planned to make a chocolate and matcha (green tea powder) two-tone creation and, as luck would have it, a quick Google located one on Bakerella’s site. It seems to have set the gold standard as numerous other bloggers have also tried her recipe, mostly with great success.
I pretty much followed her instructions with a couple of adjustments. All went to plan. The cake cooked in the allotted time and, more importantly, it came out of the pan with no coaxing.
The theme for the party was glitter and shine so I decided to ice the cake after all, stud it, in restrained fashion, with silver and coloured cachous and set a silver star-burst in the centre – later augmented with sparklers. You’ll notice the major decorations were purchased trimmings requiring no artistic input from me…
Chocolate Matcha Bundt Cake
Chocolate mixture
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Matcha mixture
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2-3 tablespoons matcha powder
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Wet ingredients
3 cups sugar
250g unsalted butter, room temperature
3 eggs, room temperature
400ml milk, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and flour (I used cocoa) a 12-cup bundt pan.
With a wire whisk, mix the sifted dry ingredients for the chocolate mixture in a small bowl and set aside. Do the same for the sifted matcha mixture.
Using a mixer, cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, milk and vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined. If the mixture happens to split after the milk and eggs are added, use a stab blender to re-combine.
Divide the creamed mixture evenly in two separate bowls – you’ll have about 4 cups of mix, approximately 2 cups for each bowl.
Slowly add the chocolate mixture to one half of the creamed mixture and mix thoroughly.
Do the same with the matcha mixture to the bowl containing the other half of the creamed mixture.
Drop alternating spoonfuls of each mixture into the bundt pan until it’s about 3/4 full. For a marbled effect, gently run a knife through the two batters in a swirling motion a couple of times.
Bake for about 75 minutes. Test with a wooden skewer. Cool for 10 minutes in the cake pan then turn out.
As for the business end of the cake, GF sent me a photo of the last slice next day so I could see how the swirls worked. Yes, I would make one again and thanks, Bakerella, for blazing the trail.
