Christmas is just around the corner, and you are still clueless about which cakes and cookies to make this year? I have a quick and easy solution for you, and it comes in the form of these mini Christmas Bundt cakes with clementines and almonds.
These little cakes are velvety, soft and extremely moist but wait until you taste them! Hints of citrus, vanilla, and rum will, without a doubt, put a smile on your face. 🙂
What is a Bundt cake?
Interestingly, Bundt cakes are not tied to any particular recipe but get their name after the mould they are baked in. In the 1950s and 1960s, an American cookware manufacturer Nordic Ware got inspired by the shape of a traditional European cake called Gugelhupf and started producing similar-looking aluminium pans, under the trademarked name “Bundt”. The Bundt pans soon became a big hit, and the Bundt cakes were born.
The brioche-like Gugelhupf is in Germany, Austria and Swiss, also called “Bundkuchen”, which explains the reason behind the name Bundt.
While Gugelhupf follows a specific yeast-based recipe, Bundt mould can be used for various ones, even for ice creams or savoury-based dishes.
There is something more to these particularly shaped moulds than pure aesthetics. The whole in the middle allows the cakes to cook faster and more evenly, which works exceptionally well with deep cakes.
Today, the market is flooded with Bundt-style moulds in different sizes and materials. Even though the aluminium ones are classic, I prefer silicone ones, which I find much easier to handle and clean. Which ones do you like more?
What makes these Bundt cakes so special?
Since you know Bundt cakes don’t follow one specific recipe, you probably ask yourself: “What can I expect from these little cakes?”. These Christmas Bundt cakes were inspired by the classic recipe for French shell-shaped cakes called Madeleines. If you don’t know what Madeleines are, imagine airy, fluffy pillows with a melt-in-your-mouth sensation.
These little Bundt cakes share the same fluffiness as Madeleines, but they are moister and richer in flavour thanks to the clementine juice, rum extract and almond butter.
Besides being delicious, they will look adorable when served for a family gathering or a Christmas party with friends.
And, of course, they are quick and easy to make. While the batter for classic Madeleines needs to rest in the fridge for a few hours before being baked, that is not the case when making these little cuties. The batter is best when baked straight away and comes out of the oven in only 15 minutes.
So, for those of you who love making Madeleines, this will be a very easy one. But for those of you, Madeleines are something completely new; in the next section, I will touch on the crucial steps when baking these Christmas treats.
What goes inside these mini Christmas Bundt cakes?
- Eggs
- Granulated sugar
- Almond flour
- All-purpose flour
- Olive oil
- Almond butter (made from roasted almonds)
- Clementine juice (mandarin and orange juice are also very good options)
- Clementine zest
- Baking powder
- Vanilla extract
- Rum extract
- Salt
How to make these Christmas Bundt cakes?
Preparation tips
- Use a mini Bundt cake mould made from cast aluminium or silicone. I find it is much easier to handle them in a silicone mould, but the aluminium ones are also a great option.
- The eggs should come to room temperature before you add them to the mixture because they will bind much better with the rest of the ingredients.
Mix eggs with sugar
The most important part when making these mini Bundt cakes is mixing eggs with sugar correctly. Crack the eggs into a stand mixer bowl and gradually add sugar at a lower mixing speed. When all the sugar is incorporated, increase the speed and mix it until the “ribbon stage”, which will take approximately 5 minutes.
What does the ribbon stage mean? It is a name for the state when the eggs and sugar turn into a pale, thick, but very foamy batter. Lift the whisk attachment on your stand/ hand mixer, and if the batter falls in a continuous ribbon-like shape, you will know that you’ve reached the right consistency.
What if I don’t have a stand mixer? Don’t worry; you can still use a hand mixer and achieve the same results, but it will take you a bit longer, close to 8 minutes.
Fold in the dry ingredients
Weigh out all the dry ingredients and mix them well to ensure they are evenly combined. Add them to the egg-sugar mixture little by little, folding them gently in with a spatula. The egg-sugar mix is full of air, and by incorporating the dry ingredients too vigorously, you will risk losing the fluffiness of the batter. Also, If you through them all at once, you can get an uneven, lumpy batter.
Incorporate the wet ingredients
After incorporating the dry ingredients, add the wet ones all in one go. Continue the same folding process to get an even mixture that is still aerated. Because of the weight of the wet ingredients, the mixture will lose a bit of volume, but that is how it should be.
Bake the Bundt cakes
Before you start filling up the moulds with the prepared mixture, grease them with butter or olive oil and dust them with all-purpose flour. Thanks to the flour, the cakes will have more defined edges, and it will be much easier to take them out of the mould once baked.
Start filling up the moulds, leaving ¼ of the mould empty, giving them enough room to rise.
Bake the cakes for 15 minutes or until golden brown and start releasing from the edges. You will achieve the best results with the fan setting on.
Rest the Bundt cakes
After you take the Bundt cakes out of the oven, leave them to rest for 10 minutes before taking them out of the mould. I like to dust them with icing sugar while still in the mould, preventing them from sticking to a plate you plan to serve them on.
How to serve and enjoy these Christmas Bundt cakes?
My favourite way to serve these fluffy cakes is by dusting them with icing sugar and dipping them in tea or coffee. They absorb the icing sugar after a few hours, so I recommend dusting them right before serving.
