Date, walnut, raisin, & red currant bundt cake

The best thing about Christmas is that it gives everyone a good excuse to get together and be merry. There's eating, drinking, chatting, and laughing. Hopefully there's good times had by all. And where there's all these things there's got to be dessert, and where there's dessert, there's me.

I'm always after an excuse to try new recipes, or to make something that feeds more than two people. Whenever I get together with my friends I always look forward to making a bundt cake. As I've said before, I'm not really a fan of fancy iced cake (unless there's mousse involved somewhere). On the whole, I prefer my cakes to be full of nuts and best served with a cup of coffee.

This cake fits the bill perfectly. It's dense but not dry. The fruit throughout adds flavour and texture, and syrup glaze makes it intensely orange-y.

The original recipe called for cranberries but as it was Christmas eve the day I made this cake there were none to be found anywhere. Instead I substituted dates, raisins, walnuts, and fresh red currants. Really you could use anything you like. I found the addition of fresh red currants added am intense bite to to the cake which I enjoyed but the cake would be fine without them. Not everyone has gardening obsessed parents who give them all kinds of free stuff.

The recipe itself is very simple and quick, which is excellent when you've decided you want to make a cake on a whim.

Date, walnut, raisin, & red currant bundt cake

(adapted from Genesis of a Cook)
Makes one 10-12 cup bundt cake

120g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
100g (1 cup) granulated sugar
2 large eggs
Zest of 1 medium orange
1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
220g (2 cups) plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
160ml (2/3 cup) buttermilk
50g (1/2 cup) fresh dates, chopped
50g (1/2 cup) walnuts
40g (1/4 cup) raisins
2 medium sized bunches of fresh red currants, or 40g (1/4 cup) dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F). Thoroughly grease and flour a 10-12 cup bundt tin.

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk thoroughly.

Using a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugar on medium-high speed until it is light a fluffy, about 3-5 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition. Add the orange zest and vanilla bean seeds and beat until well combined.

Reduce the mixer to low, add half the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Add half the buttermilk and continue to mix until combined. Add the remaining half of the flour, and then the buttermilk. Remove the bowl from the mixer and fold in the dates, walnuts, raisins, and currants.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then invert it onto a rack and let it cool for at least 20 minutes before glazing. Once cool, transfer the cake to a serving plate.

Orange Glaze

130g (1 cup) icing sugar
125ml (1/2 cup) freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange zest

For the glaze, combine the ingredients in a small pot over low heat. Whisk the glaze until the sugar has dissolved then pour glaze over cake. Serve at room temperature.

Savarin with poached pears

Some things are so weird. This is one of them. It's so bizarre that I'm at a loss as to whether or not I like it. This is apparently savarin, I've never had (or made) savarin so I'm not sure if it's supposed to be as weird as my rendition is.

Probably more knowledgeable folks that I will have eaten savarin before made by someone who actually knows how to make it - someone who knows good and bad. Someone who is decisive about their likes and dislikes.

I feel I should like this because taste-wise it's rather nice, but texture-wise it's just weird. There's so much syrup in it that it's completely squishy. I'm not a squishy food kind of girl - I can't stand things like bread and butter pudding - the way the liquid filled solid thing squelches around in my mouth. Good description there?

Anyway, looking at the picture (not my picture, the picture in the magazine) there's looks just as squishy. That's good, I suppose?

Though I'm umm-ing and ahh-ing about the savarin, I am definitely not torn about my feeling towards the poached pears. They're delicious, and this is coming from a girl who claims not to enjoy red wine. They're sweet, pretty, soothing delicious.

Savarin with poached pears

(from Gourmet Traveller & Decadence by Philip Johnson)
makes 8-10 savarin and 8 poached pears

For the savarin

175g plain flour, sifted
2 teaspoons caster sugar
3/4 teaspoon dried yeast
125ml lukewarm milk
2 eggs, at room temperature
60g butter, softened and coarsely chopped
30g raisins

Preheat the oven to 180°C, butter eight 7cm savarin moulds or six 10cm bundt tins.

Combine flour, sugar, yeast, and a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. With the mixer on low, add the milk and the eggs and mix until smooth, about 3-4 minutes. Add the butter and beat on medium-high speed until the dough is smooth and homogeneous, about 8-10 minutes. Add the raisins and mix to combine. Then half-fill the prepared savarin moulds or tins and stand in a warm place until risen, around 10-15 minutes. Bake until golden and well risen, about 6-10 minutes. When cooked, turn the savarin out on to a wire rack, piece each one several times with a thin skewer, then transfer to a deep tray.

For the syrup

250g caster sugar
500ml water
60ml light bodied red wine

While the savarin is rising, begin the syrup.

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, add the red wine, then pour the syrup over the cooked savarin. Stand, occasionally turning the savarin, until they are puffed and saturated, or 5-6 hours.

When you are ready to serve, transfer the savarin to a non-stick pan and pour over any remaining syrup. Warm gently over low heat. Serve with poached pears or ice-cream.

For the poached pears

Zest of 1/2 lemon, peeled into strips
1 cinnamon stick
100g caster sugar
375ml (1 1/2 cups) light bodied red wine
250ml (1 cup) water
4 ripe but firm pears, halved, peeled, and cored

Combine the lemon zest, cinnamon stick, caster sugar, wine, and water in a large saucepan over medium heat and stir until the sugar has dissolved, then reduce to a simmer. Immerse the pears and cover with baking paper and a plate to keep them submerged. Poach for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.

Allow the pears to cool in the poaching liquid, then transfer them to a bowl and set aside. Strain the poaching liquid through a fine sieve and return to the saucepan - discarding the aromatics. Return the pan to medium heat and simmer until reduced by one-third. Pour the syrup over the pears and refrigerate until required.

Viennese raisin coffee cake

If I were a better person I wouldn't know what this cake tastes like. I wouldn't have leveled it solely so I could have a bite and I would be horrified if someone told me they'd done so. But I'm not a better person, so I went ahead and leveled it. Worst of all, I'm not horrified with myself. I'm sitting here telling myself I needed to test it before it went out the door, but I know that's not the case.

We've all been there, right? You've just a made something new, and it's a recipe that you've been wanting to make for ages but it's not for you - you're not even going to be in the city when it gets served. So, you sneak a bit.. right? You consider the best way to try it without it being noticeable. In this case, cutting off the bottom worked quite well. It's a bundt cake, I think it's entirely unnecessary to do so, but at least I now know what the cake tastes like and it sits nice and flat on the plate (it was pretty flat before, mind you.)

Needless to say, the cake tastes delicious. I knew it would from the beginning it would. It's everything I like about cakes. The cake itself is incredibly soft, it insides are like a pillow. Oh, how I wish I could show you the insides but cutting a slice is going too far. Just trust me. Or, buy The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri just so you can see a photo of the inside.

This cake requires the eggs to be separated, and then the whites are whipped to peaks and folded into the batter. This technique results in a wonderfully light cake with enough structure to support it during baking.

The cake is flavoured with lemon and raisins, I personally feel it could do with a teaspoon or two more lemon zest but I intend for it to have a lemon syrup when it's served so maybe not.

Viennese raisin coffee cake

(from The Modern Baker by Nick Malgieri)
Makes one 20 to 25 cm (8 to 10 inch) bundt cake

1 2/3 cups flour (spooned into dry measure and leveled off)
2 teaspoons baking powder
225g (8 ounces) butter, softened
1 1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs, separated
160g (1 cup) raisins, tossed with 1 tablespoon flour

Grease and flour one 10 to 12 cup kugelhopf or bundt tin. Set the oven rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat to 180°C (350°F).

Stir the flour and baking powder together and set aside.

Combine the butter and 3/4 cup of sugar int he bowl of an electric mixer. Beat, with the paddle attachment, on a medium speed until soft and light, about 3 to four minutes.

Beat in the lemon zest and vanilla, followed by two of the egg yolks.

Beat in 1/3 of the flour mixture. Once combined, stop and scrape down the bowl and beater.

Beat in two more eggs, followed by another half of the remaining flour. Stop and scrape. Repeat using the remaining egg yolks and flour mixture.

Pour the egg whites into a clean, dry mixer bowl. Place on the mixer with the whisk attachment and whip until the egg whites are very white, opaque, and beginning to hold a very soft peak. Increase the speed to medium-high and whip int he remaining 1/2 cup sugar in a slow stream. Continue to whip the egg whites until they hold a soft, glossy peak.

Fold 1/3 of the egg whites unto the cake batter to lighten it, fold in the floured raisins and then the remaining egg whites.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.

Bake the cake until well risen and deep golden, and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out dry, 45-50 minutes. If the cake is baked in a shallow bundt tin it may be ready 5 minutes sooner.

Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes, then on to a rack to cool completely.

Lemon Syrup

1/3 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
Juice of one lemon

Combine the caster sugar and water in a small saucepan and, over a low heat, stir until the sugar has dissolved. Increase heat and boil for 2 minutes. Turn off element and stir in the lemon juice.

Drizzle over cooled cake to serve.