A bundt cake is a cake that’s been baked in a ring shaped bundt tin. Which means that basically, this orange and speculaas bundt cake could have had any shape at all. It is the holiday season though. So if you have one of these tins, why not use it?
The distinctive ring shape of the bundt cake can be traced back to the European Gugelhupf. The dutch version of this Gugelhupf is called “tulband”, which translates as turban. My grandparents had one of these at pretty much every Christian holiday and, as a kid, I absolutely hated them. They’re made from a yeast dough with raisins, currents and green pieces of candied peel mixed in. I especially disliked the candied peel, because to my young eyes, those little green pieces looked exactly like boogers. So I was happy to discover that bundt cakes aren’t anything like this. Bundt cakes only use the same round-shaped moulds, but are made with cake batter not brioche dough.
The beautiful, finely detailed bundt cake tins that exist today are an American creation. Unfortunately, I don’t own one of these tins. Mine is kind of plain but it gets the job done, which is the most important thing.
I decided to flavor my cake with orange and speculaaskruiden. Speculaaskruiden is the spice mix that gives dutch speculaas cookies, also known as windmill cookies, their distinctive taste. If you can’t find this mix in your part of the world, you can try substituting it with mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice. These mixes aren’t the same but similar enough. You can also make your own mix with this recipe.
This cake is soft and moist and will still be good to eat the next to day. How do I know this? Well, after baking and photographing, I had left my cake on the dinner table. Where we later discovered that cats apparently like orange syrup, because ours was diligently licking the cake clean. So we scolded the cat and then put the cake in a safe place, on top of the oven. After which we forgot all about it, until the next day.
So if you own a cat, do keep it away from your orange and speculaas bundt cake.
| Prep Time | 10 minutes |
| Cook Time | 35 minutes |
| Servings |
servings
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- 180 gr flower
- 20 gr cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1 tsp speculaas spice mix or use mixed spice or pumpkin pie spice
- 2 eggs
- 125 gr caster sugar
- 150 ml orange juice
- 100 ml sunflower oil or another mild tasting vegetable oil
- 100 ml orange juice
- 100 gr caster sugar
Ingredients
Cake batter
Syrup
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- Butter and flour your cake tin. Make sure you butter every little detail of your cake tin design, to prevent your cake from sticking when you turn it out.
- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C (350°F).
- In a mixer-bowl combine eggs, caster sugar and sunflower oil. Mix until fluffy.
- In a separate bowl, combine your flower, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spice mix. Add this, a bit at a time, to your egg mix.
- Finally add the orange juice. Mix until combined.
- Pour the batter into your prepared tin and put in the oven for about 35 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare your syrup by combining the orange juice and sugar in a pan and bringing to the boil. Let the mixture reduce by about half. Then set it aside.
- After taking your cake out of the oven, let it cool for about 10 minutes, before turning it out on a plate. Then, while it is still hot, brush or pour on the syrup, letting it soak into the cake.
- Once the cake has cooled completely, decorate to taste. I used some store-bought chocolate decorations but you can also use icing or powdered sugar.
