TWD--All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake

For the month of November, as TWD bakers, we are so kindly allowed to post any of the month's four recipes in any order we choose.  It worked out nicely that after I decided to make the All-In-One Holiday Bundt Cake it would be perfect for our friend, Tes' birthday.  I just realized we forgot to take a picture of Tes with a candle in her slice of cake.  We sang to her earlier in the evening, but forgot when it was time for dessert.  Whoops!  Tes' birthday is really on Halloween.  We had the cake Monday night. 

This bundt cake was chosen by Britin of The Nitty Britty.  You can get the recipe for this bundt cake on her blog, or you can just get Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours and have a ton of great recipes at your fingertips! 

I followed the recipe, even using freshly grated nutmeg for the first time.  I used ground ginger instead of fresh.  And in place of the one cup of cranberries, I used 1/2 cup of cranberries and 1/2 cup fresh pomegranate arils (about 1/2 a POM).  Love POMs!  The cake came perfectly out of the bundt pan (some others mentioned sticking problems.).  All I did was spray the pan with cooking spray.  The cake sure left a wonderful smell in the house while it was baking!  Mine only baked for 50 minutes.  Dorie suggests 60-70 minutes.  It passed the knife insertion test,  so out it came.  Perfect!

I love my Chop Wizard, it chopped the apples into the perfect little tiny squares.

I recently made some pumpkin cream cheese ribbon bread that wasn't "ribboning" very well, so I swirled it around and made pumpkin cream cheese swirl bread.  The recipe had some orange zest in the cream cheese, and I really liked it.  I have the recipe if anyone wants it.  The bread was great and quite moist and pumpkiny flavorful!  Where was I going with this?  Oh yes, orange zest and pumpkin!

I decided to make an orange icing for the bundt cake.  I had a little butter sitting on the counter, so I threw that in as well as some powdered sugar, pinch of salt, orange zest, some orange juice and cream.  It tasted great!

Orange Icing, by Katrina

2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon orange zest

2 tablespoons orange juice

2 tablespoons butter, softened

pinch salt

6 tablespoons cream (or to desired consistency)

Mix all ingredients together and whisk until smooth and no lumps remain.  Drizzle over cake.

Love the pecans in this cake and on the top.  The cake has many great flavors.  Tes and I loved it!  The rest of the family---pppbbbbttt!  The boys didn't even try it. (They had a little ice cream and MORE Halloween candy!  Is it gone yet?  jk)  Kevin ate a little courtesy piece, then told me he doesn't really like cranberries.  (Never knew that, he loves cranberry juice!)  I loved the juicy POMs with their little crunch.

I gave Tes a big hunk of the cake to take home. 

Great bundt cake!

Thanks for the great pick, Britin!  Hey, speaking of bundts.  Do you like big bundts?  Mary at The Food Librarian does.  She loves (it may now be a love/hate relationship) bundts so much that since October 15th, she has been posting a bundt cake per day on her fabulous blog, in honor of the upcoming National Bundt Cake Day, November 15.  Why is that date important?  Hmm, yes, someone is having a BIG birthday that day.  It's me, it's me.  I just think it's so nice of Mary to make so many cakes in honor of my birthday.  Wow.  (jk)

Lovin' the bundts, Mary!  Check out her blog, if you haven't!