#Bundtamonth: Strawberry Jam Glazed Spiced Pound Cake with Buttermilk and Orange

#Bundtamonth: Strawberry Jam Glazed Spiced Pound Cake with Buttermilk and Orange

This Bundt-A-Month was tough for me. Not because I don’t like jam, the theme (I do!!), but because figuring out how to successfully incorporate the jam into the cake was hard for me. My first cake was a pretty big flop. Like throw it out for the birds and squirrels kind of flop! It was not inedible, but it was not worth the calories. I have not totally given up on the idea I had, but until I figure out how to make it work, that is all I am saying about that!

When I first started thinking about this month’s theme (which included jellies and preserves too), all I could think about was Great (great great) Grandma Kelly’s Jam Cake. If you are at all interested in either using jam in cakes or heirloom baking, I highly recommend checking out both the recipe and the cake. My mom and I figured out the recipe was at least 130 years old! But I have shared it before and I wanted to try something new for this month’s Bundt-A-Month.

Next I considered a swirl. That was the disaster. And I know my idea was workable, but have you ever gotten so irritable at trying to make something work that you need to take a break from it and try something new? Yeah that was me. So no jam swirl.

So that left a glaze. After that I needed to figure out what kind of cake I wanted to glaze. For whatever reason I could not get cardamom and orange out of my head. It was a bit of a crapshoot, as I wasn’t positive the flavors would work together, but I went for it. I found a recipe to work with in Ken Haedrich’s Simple Desserts,

and boy am I glad I did! I loved the tangy but sweet strawberry with the earthy but fragrant cardamom, the fruitiness of Ceylon cinnamon (do not use cassia for this recipe!) and of course the sweet orange.

Here’s how you can be a part of #BundtaMonth:

• Simple rule: Bake us a bundt using your favorite jam

• Post it before November 30, 2013

• Use the #BundtaMonth hashtag in your title. (For ex: title could read – #BundtaMonth: Raspberry Jam Bundt with Peanut Butter Glaze)

• Add your entry to the Linky tool below

• Link back to our announcement posts

Even more bundt fun! Follow Bundt-a-Month on Facebook where we feature all our gorgeous bundt cakes. Or head over to our Pinterest board for inspiration and choose from hundreds of Bundt cake recipes. For jam inspiration, check out all of our announcement posts:

Aloha Cake by Veronica at My Catholic Kitchen

• Blueberry and Lemon Bundt by Holly at a A Baker’s House
• Butter and Jam Bundt by Anne at From My Sweet Heart
• Cranberry Pear Pumpkin Cake by Kate at Food Babbles
• Crabapple Yogurt Bundt Cake by Alice at Hip Foodie Mom
• Cream Cheese Black Cherry Bundt Cake by Anuradha at Baker Street
• Cream Cheese Pound Cake with Blueberry Jam by Sandra at The Sweet Sensations
• Guava Cream Cheese Bundt Cakeby Kathya at Basic N Delicious
• Peachy Keen Spice Cake by Kim at Ninja Baking
• Raspberry Jam Bundt with Peanut Butter Glaze by Lora at Cake Duchess
• Spiced Bundt Cake with Berry Jam & Cream Cheese Swirl by Heather at Hezzi D’s Books and Cooks
• Sticky Toffee Bundt Cake with Cranberry Jelly Glaze by Felice at All That’s Left are the Crumbs
• Sticky Fig Bundt by Anita at Hungry Couple NYC
• Strawberry Jam Glazed Spiced Pound Cake with Buttermilk and Orange by Laura at The Spiced Life
• Strawberry Lemon Bundt with Strawberry Jam Glaze by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Triple Blackberry Bundt by Tara at Noshing with the Nolands
• Strawberry Jam Glazed Spiced Pound Cake with Buttermilk and Orange
• Recipe type: Dessert
• Cuisine: Bundt Cake
• For the cake:
• 4 cups (509 g) AP flour
• ¼ cup potato starch (you can sub cornstarch if necessary)
• 2 t baking soda
• 1 t fine sea salt
• 1 T ground cardamom (if freshly ground use a little less, 2½ t)
• 1 t Ceylon cinnamon
• 1 cup (8 oz; 2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 2½ cups sugar
• zest of one orange or ⅛ t orange oil
• 6 large eggs
• 2 t vanilla
• 2 cups whole buttermilk
• For the glaze:
• ¾ cup good quality strawberry jam
• ¼ cup sugar
• juice of half lime (or lemon)
• small pinch of fine sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease and flour a 12 cup bundt pan (if you use a 10 cup pan, as I did, you will have batter for 2 mini loaf pans as well). Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, potato starch, baking soda, salt, cardamom and Ceylon cinnamon. Set aside.

Beat the butter in a stand mixer (or with a handheld mixer) until creamy. Add the sugar gradually, in about 5 additions, beating to incorporate on medium low speed. Add the orange zest or oil with the last addition. When all of the sugar has been incorporated, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and then beat on medium high speed until lightened and fluffy, about 3-4 minutes.

Add the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition and scraping down the sides and bottom of bowl every 2-3 eggs. Add the vanilla and beat on medium speed until completely incorporated and fluffy.

On the lowest speed, add the flour mixture and buttermilk, alternating, in 5 and 4 additions respectively, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. When you have added the last of the flour mixture, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix on medium-high speed for 15 seconds to make sure everything has completely incorporated, but do not mix any longer at that speed.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan/s. Bake, about 30 minutes for mini loaves and 60-75 minutes for bundt cakes, until the cake is golden, pulling away from the sides of the pan, and a cake tester inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached.

Let cool in the pan on a cooking rack for 5 minutes (mini loaves) or 12 minutes (larger bundt cakes) before turning out onto a cooking rack to cool completely.

While the cake is cooling, mix together the glaze ingredients in a small saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved and the glaze has loosened into something easily poured over a cake. Let stand for 5-10 minutes to allow it to cool off a bit and thicken just a bit.

Place wax paper underneath the cooling rack. Pour the glaze over the cake–if desired, be prepared to remove the wax paper, replacing it with fresh, and pouring the “drippings” back over the cake a second time. Repeat as many times as you have the patience and desire for-twice is usually my max!

A jam glaze will probably not perfectly set, unless it is very dry where you are. So do not plan to wrap this cake in plastic wrap, but rather store in a cake keeper or under a dome on a cake stand.

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#BundtaMonth,

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buttermilk,

cake,

cardamom,

ceylon cinnamon,

citrus,

jam,

orange,

preserves,

strawberry