A few weeks ago, I bought my first two large Bundt cake pans on Amazon. I've always loved Bundt cakes (prior to the two large ones, I own a small 6-cup Bundt pan, which I love but don't use nearly enough), admired them in photographs or in real life, mainly because they always looks so effortlessly beautiful with their intricate patterns and coating of glaze.
So imagine my elation when the Bundt pans, one standard Bundt pan and one Heritage Bundt pan, finally arrived in the mail. I got down to cake making as soon as I could, resulting in this beautiful Earl Grey Bundt cake you see here!
I also made miso caramel to go with the cake, because why not? For those of you who may not know what miso is, it is basically a fermented soybean paste. Originating from Japan, miso has an 'umami' flavour, which is somewhat like a mix of salty and savoury and slightly beany... it's a little bit hard to describe – you just have to try to for yourself! There are many different varieties of miso too – some are milder in flavour, some are more 'beany' than others, etc.
For miso caramel, you want to use white miso as it has a milder flavour that complements caramel. For me, I used koji miso, which worked wonderfully.
A few notes on making a Bundt cake:
Use a good quality Bundt pan. Mine are from Nordicware, which I purchased from Amazon.
To ensure that the cake releases from the Bundt pan easily, coat the insides of the pan with butter and flour. Ensure that every nook and cranny are coated with butter and flour. Do not skip this step.
Then, when you want to unmould the cake, flip the pan over and the cake should release easily.
A few notes on making the miso caramel:
I used the dry caramel method as opposed to adding water to the sugar (i.e. wet caramel) because it's just the method I prefer. You can go ahead and make a wet caramel and then add the miso paste (more on that in the recipe below).
When using the dry caramel method, make sure that you place the sugar in an even layer on bottom of the saucepan. Give the pan a shake so that sugar spreads out into an even layer.
Then, on a low to medium heat, let the sugar melt and caramelise (the edges will caramelise first). Do not stir it yet.
Once the sugar around the edges start to caramelise, use a heat-proof spatula to bring the melted and caramelised sugar at the edges into the middle of the pan.
The thing about dry caramel is that the sugar may start to clump as it melts. Do not panic. Just keep stirring until the sugar lumps dissolve.
Happy baking!
Earl Grey Bundt Cake with Miso Caramel
Makes one 10-inch Bundt cake
Ingredients
For the Earl Grey cake
195 g (3/4 cup) whole milk
8 Earl Grey tea bags
340g (2 2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
170 g (12 Tbs) unsalted butter, at room temperature
300 g (1 1/2 cup) granulated sugar
1 tsp sea salt
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
54 g (1/4 cup) neutral vegetable oil
64 g (1/4 cup) greek yogurt
For the Earl Grey milk soak:
65 g (1/4 cup) milk
1 Earl Grey tea bag
For the miso caramel:
200 g (1 cup) granulated sugar
118 g (1/2 cup) heavy whipping cream, warmed
2 Tbs (42 g) white or koji miso paste
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
Method
Make the cake and milk soak:
Heat milk in a saucepan over medium heat until it almost boils. Remove from heat and place into the milk 8 Earl Grey tea bags. Set aside to let the tea steep and cool down.
Prepare the Bundt pan. Coat the insides of the pan with butter and flour, ensuring that you cover the nooks and crannies of the pan. Invert the pan and gently tap out any excess flour. Do not skip this step! Coating the insides of the pan with butter and flour will prevent the cake from sticking and ensure that it releases cleanly from the pan later on.
Preheat the oven to 170°C.
In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and baking soda.
In a separate large bowl, cream together butter, sugar and salt until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
Add the eggs into the butter-sugar mixture, one at a time, whipping to ensure that each egg is well-incorporated before adding the next egg. Then, add in the vanilla extract. Remember to scrape down the bowl to ensure the mixture is well-incorporated.
Stream in the oil and add in the greek yogurt. Mix to combine.
Fold one-third of the sifted dry ingredients into the batter. Then, mix in half of the steeped Earl Grey milk.
Again, fold in the next third of the sifted dry ingredients and the remainder of the Earl Grey milk. Fold in the last third of the sifted dry ingredients until everything is well-combined. Do not over-mix the batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared Bundt pan. Gently tap the Bundt pan on the counter to ensure that the batter fills every corner of the pan and the top levels out.
Bake the Bundt cake at 170°C for 50 to 55 minutes, until the cake has risen and browned and a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.
Remove the cake form the oven and let it cool in the Bundt pan for about 5 minutes. Then, with gloved hands or using a tea towel (the Bundt pan would still be very hot!), very carefully invert the Bundt cake onto a wire rack. The cake should slip out of the Bundt pan easily.
Make the milk soak for the cake. Warm the milk and steep one tea bag in the milk. Then, using a pastry brush, brush the entire cake with the Earl Grey milk soak. The cake will absorb the Earl Grey milk. This is to lock in the moisture in the cake.
Let the cake cool completely on the wire rack.
For the miso caramel:
While the cake cools, make the miso caramel. Heat the cream in the microwave until it is very warm but not boiling. Set aside.
Place the sugar in an even layer in a saucepan.
Set the saucepan over low to medium heat to melt the sugar. At this point, do not stir the sugar. Let the heat gently melt the sugar.
The sugar around the edges will begin to melt and caramelise first. When this happens, use a heat-proof spatula to gently 'pull' or bring the melted and caramelised into the middle. This is to encourage sugar to melt and caramelised evenly. If there are some lumps in the sugar, keep stirring over low to medium until it has dissolved. Do not increase the heat as the sugar might burn.
Continue to stir all the sugar has melted and caramelised. Watch the colour of the caramel. Once it has reached a dark amber colour, remove the caramel from the heat and carefully stir in the warm cream. Keep stirring as you pour the cream until the cream is well-incorporated into the caramel. The mixture will bubble up; don't worry, it is normal.
Return the caramel to the heat and stir until it is smooth.
Remove the caramel from the heat and stir in the miso paste. Then, pour the caramel through a sieve (to get rid of any lumps) into a container. Set aside to cool. The caramel will continue to thicken as it cools.
To serve:
Drizzle the warm miso caramel over the Bundt cake. Cut into slices, drizzle more miso caramel and enjoy!
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