Bundt of the Month

Happy St. Patricks day! I never really was into this green holiday until a few years ago I met an amazing pastor and his wife in Shreveport. Among blessing us with their friendship, encouragement and grace.. her shameless love of St. Patricks day led me to do a little research and get excited myself. I'm not going to write about that today, but encourage you, especially if you are a Christian or someone who believes in following your beliefs to the uttermost... look into it! And watch The Secret of Kells on Netflix.

This months bundt cake did not turn out that great. So I'm not giving you a real recipe. I basically made it like last months, but with a few bad substitutions.To make this bundt I used white cake mix, chocolate syrup and andes mints. I mixed the cake mix four egg whites, 1/2 cup oil and a cup of water and 1 tsp of peppermint extract. I then added green food coloring and spooned about 1/3 into my greases bundt pan. I added about a cup of chocolate syrup and a cup of chopped Andes mix to the rest and poured it on top. Baed at 350 for about an hour. It was pretty good, but really dry! Needed more moisture.  The point of this experiment is to teach myself to bake something other than white cake box cake and to learn. I did learn a few tips.

1. Don't substitute oil for butter. Butter rules.
2. Andes mints will melt completely and be absorbed into the cake. The flavor is still there, but you wont see them or have the texture. It did make the center of my cake nice and creamy.
3. Not marbling the cake (going up and down all the way through the mixture with a knife) will make a horseshoe shape! (convenient for this holiday).
4. Duncan Hines makes a product called Amazing Glazes. For cheater cakes, or semi homemade days.. these are awesome! You microwave the bottle, shake it up and then pour it onto the cake. It dribble down the sides perfectly! It also sets into a yummy thick fudgy texture in about 30 seconds. Perfect and easy! It was perfect sprinkled with chopped Andes mints and was by far the best part of this cake.

Bundt of the month: February

I am making an effort this year to celebrate more with my children and expand my baking vocabulary. A simple and yummy way I'm going to do this is to make a monthly bundt cake! I know. It is going to be so difficult to indulge in one of the concoctions each month, but if I have to I will. You know, for the children. Here is February's (made for valentines day)... enjoy

Chocolate Covered  Cherry Bundt cake 

1 box Moist Delux white cake mix

1 large jar  maraschino cherries

3/4 cup chocolate syrup

1/2 cup melted butter

4 egg whites

Grease and flour a 12 cup bundt cake pan and set aside. Separate Cherries from juice, reserve juice. Slice cherries into small pieces. Avoid nibbling on too many.. they will taste even better in the cake! Mix cake mix with 1/2 cup of butter and juice from the cherries (make sure juice is about 1 cup.. if less add water to equal). Mix in egg whites. Stir in sliced cherries. Your mixture will be a beautiful pink color if you had enough juice. Feel free to add food coloring if you want, but make sure you use taste free if you use red! Scoop half the mixture into the cake pan. Now add chocolate syrup to the cake mix. Resist the urge to find a big straw. Pour chocolate onto cherry layer. Use your spoon to gently marble the mixture. Bake for about an hour or until middle is cooked (clean knife test). I let mine cool for a little while before turning it out onto a baking rack. After completely cool you can ice with a royal icing drizzle. My recipe wasn't very good so I'm not sharing! I colored mine pink and then added sparkly red sprinkles to the top of the cake after drizzling the icing.