Following on from my previous post of pear tart, when you've got a handle on a basic recipe such as the frangipan, it is amazing how much further you can expand on it by using your imagination.
For this recipe I increased the quantities of the basic frangipan recipe and made one and a half times the recipe amount, then I decided to add 2 pear halves that I had left over from the pear tarts, and, because I love cherry bakewell tart, I simply had to have some glace cherries in the mix....the pears, cherries and ground almonds give a deliciously moist cake.
I added a little orange extract to the mix too as I am of the opinion that orange goes very well with almonds....call it the Mallorca effect!.....the island of Mallorca is famous for almonds and oranges.
Just to make my cake a little more exciting and aesthetically interesting I have used a medium sized bundt cake tin. You can get bundt tin in small individual sizes like a muffin cup....I found some wonderful silicon ones in Lidl, other sizes are available in most good cook shops or online.....medium sized tins are around 7 inches across and 4 deep, or you can get the classic bundt tin which is anything from 8 to 10 inches wide and very deep like, 6 inches or so, but that's an awful lot of cake, unless you are having a party or have a big family to feed!
As I am using cherries, poached pears and orange extract, I have reduced the amount of castor sugar needed as there will be sufficient additional sweetness from the cherries etc.
For Bakewell Bundt you will need.......
150 g butter at room temperature plus a little extra to butter your cake tin
120 g castor sugar
100 g plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
50 g ground almonds
3 really fresh, medium eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon orange essence/extract
1 teaspoon almond essence
1 whole or 2 halves of poached pear
100 g glace cherries
How to.....
- melt a little butter and grease the inside of your bundt tin really well making sure you get into all those decorative nooks and crannies. I find chilling your tin in the fridge for a while helps you see exactly where you have buttered.....when you feel your tin is buttered sufficiently, return it to the fridge until needed
- sieve the flour with the baking powder then add the ground almonds and mix well, I like to use a small whisk, this helps to break down any lumps that may be in the almonds
- break and beat up the eggs, add the almond and orange extracts / essences and beat well
- cut the pears into fine dice, chop the cherries finely or cut in quarters if you'd like then a little chunkier
- cream the butter and castor sugar until light and fluffy with a electric mixer...much easier on the old arm
- add the eggs slowly and mix on fast speed making sure each little bit of egg is whipped in well before adding more...this helps prevent an unattractive and inconvenient curdled mass!
- when all the egg has been added, scrape down your bowl then gently fold in the flour and almonds, you can either do this on slow speed on your mixer, or by hand
- lastly, when all the flour has been added and mixed in well, you can fold in the chopped fruit
- spoon your mix into your chilled cake tin and place in a pre-heated oven 180oC
- bake approx 20 minutes or until well risen and golden brown...test with a skewer and if it comes out dry, the cake is done
- allow the cake to sit for 5 minutes then turn it out onto the plate / platter you will serve it on, allow it to cool really well before icing
Icing / decoration
I do like a bit of either water icing, maple icing or fondant icing on a bundt cake, some people like theirs coated with chocolate or maybe just a dusting of icing sugar, but as it's a Bakewell Bundt, by rights it should be a water icing.
I simply sieved some icing sugar, about 200g, added 1 teaspoon of the orange extract/essence for flavour then added a tablespoon or so of hot water from a just boiled kettle.... helps dissolve the icing sugar quicker and makes your icing silky smooth....when I had achieved the consistency I wanted by either adding a little more water or a touch extra sugar, and it was sufficiently thick... I love a thick icing! I simply spooned the icing over the crest of my cake and let it slide its way gently down and over all those pokey out edges.......just as I was about to zest some fresh orange over the top I discovered some pesky teenager had sneaked off with the last orange from the fruit bowl...hence the naked cake! But if you want to decorate yours, do so before the icing sets, and a thick icing will set surprisingly quickly.
You can arrange some glace cherry halves on top, scatter some chopped pistachios or almonds, or dust with some edible sparkles, in fact if you wanted to use this for christmas you could decorate it accordingly with some edible holy leaves and berries, edible gold and silver stars or silver and gold balls, a last minute dusting all over with icing sugar and you have winter on a plate....go on go nuts...it's Christmas!
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