“Spaceballs: The Bundt”

For my second item in the Thanksgiving Dessert Bonanza list, I whipped out a fancy-pants bundt cake!  This recipe ended up being a lot more intense than I had originally realized.  Thank goodness I had Spaceballs to keep me company.

I yoinked this recipe from this year’s Bon Appetit Thanksgiving issue.  I finally had some time last week to go through my piled up mail and magazines, and found this among them; was absolutely enamored with their entire spread for Thanksgiving dinner.  Since I was looking for some fancy new desserts, the Spiced Bundt Cake seemed like a winner.

Typically when I see a recipe for a bundt, my brain rejoices in its simplicity; unlike a”normal” flat cake pan, bundts are very plug-and-play: pour the batter into the pan, bake, and voila!  Turn a lovely cake out onto your cooling rack, no tweaking or leveling required.  It turns out looks can be deceiving (not reading the recipe entirely also makes it easier to be deceived).

Not only does the recipe required vanilla brown butter (that’s right – vanilla.  It was actually a little exciting), but it takes a myriad of spices, lemon zest, 8 eggs, and ground almonds.  UGHHHH.  The lazy person inside me screamed in protest when I read over the directions.  “WHY would you do this??” it asked me, hammering its lazy little fists against my brain.  “Because,” I responded, “it looks delicious.  And we don’t argue with delicious cakes around here.”*

So against the lazy-odds I got all my ingredients in order to make this magical bundt cake happen.  And you know, I was pretty impressed; all the work I’d prepared for ended up not being too bad.  And I tried to cheat – I’m telling you, I wanted to cut corners.  But folks, I restrained myself.  I ground up those almonds in my food processor, and I infused that butter with vanilla beans.  Actually, it was a pretty satisfying cooking experience, the best part being that after you infuse the brown butter with vanilla, you actually put it back into the fridge to let it firm up again, then use it to cream with the sugar!  A very interesting technique, I thought.

Plus, the batter was beautiful.  Whenever my batter turns out looking this good, I know I’m doing something right.

After getting together the absolutely ridiculous amount of batter (it filled up practically my entire 4.5 quart mixer), I dumped it into my prepared pan and set it on its way to bakey town.

Unfortunately, folks, this is where I finally did cut a corner, and it came back to bite me in the ass:

Sigh.  All that work, only to screw up the final cake.  Man, I could kick myself.

See, when I was buying ingredients at the store they had Baker’s PAM on sale – you know, the special pan spray with flour and magic inside it, specially made for baking?  This stuff is clearly a sham; I liberally sprayed the pan down with this nonsense and look at what happened.  I knew I should’ve just stuck with the regular brand and a light dusting of flour.  KHAAAAAAAAN!  *shakes fist*

Despite its appearance, though, it tastes pretty good (as my parents would say, “You just don’t have to chew as hard”).  I haven’t had any big slices yet since I was sending it up to Pennsylvania with my parents, but I picked at the pieces from the pan.  Sweet and lovely, the spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc) give it a very warm and home-y feeling.  It’s a nice departure from a traditional pumpkin pie or the tooth-aching sweetness of pecan pie.

To top it all off I also made the caramel sauce listed in the recipe, though I am skeptical – it calls for a splash of cider vinegar which gave it a very sharp bite, both to smell and to taste.  Perhaps it will perfectly compliment the more subtle flavors of the cake.  I’ll have to report back later!

If nothing else, the cake preparation was fun and I learned a few new techniques.  Huzzah!  I’d definitely recommend giving this recipe a shot if you like spicey cakes.  It’s definitely a winner (I mean, when has Bon Appetit  ever steered you wrong?).

* Also I may be a crazy person.

Spiced Bundt Cake with Apple Caramel Sauce

From Bon Appetit!