Spiced bundt cake

'Tis the season for gingerbread! There's something about falling snow and cold nights that call for spicy sweets on the table. If rolling and pressing out cookies is too much work for you, why not try this fragrant cake instead?

This cake is heavy and dense, and very reminiscent of gingerbread, with a slight smokiness and heat from the Chinese five spice powder and the crystallized ginger. This thing has serious bite. I mean, how often do you bake a cake that calls for a hefty dose of black pepper?

So, let's get started, shall we?

First I tackled the ginger. I buy it at the Mid East Food Shop, where you can get all sorts of dried fruits and veggies -- quite inexpensively too. The recipe calls for the ginger and sugar to be blitzed in the food processor, but I opted just to chop instead. I love these wee bites that manage to be both hot and sweet at the same time.

And a note about the sugar: the recipe specifies white, but because there was molasses going in the mix, I opted for half and half of white and brown sugar. I think it worked out well.

Once the wet and dry ingredients had been blended together, I dumped everything in my new silicone bundt pan, which I had buttered and floured, just in case. It came out a breeze.


Ta da! Finished cake, sans pan and lightly dusted with icing sugar. But don't ask me why the picture is vertical instead of horizontal.

And this picture of a slice doesn't quite do it justice, but you can just make out a tiny piece of ginger tucked inside. This cake keeps quite well and I think gets better with age.

Spiced Bundt Cake (recipe Rachael Ray Magazine Nov 2009)

3 cups flour
1 tablespoon Chinese Five Spice powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup granulated sugar (or half and half with brown sugar)
1/2 cup packed crystallized ginger
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter at room temp
2 large eggs, at room temp
1 cup dark molasses diluted with 1 cup hot water
icing sugar, for dusting

1. Position rack in the lower third of the over and preheat to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a 10 cup bundt pan. In a bowl, whisk flour, five spice powder, baking soda, salt and pepper.

2. Using a food processor, mix the granulated sugar and ginger until the ginger is coarsely ground (or chop it up like I did)

3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter, sugar-ginger mixture and vanilla at high speed until fluffy, about 5 mins. With the mixer at medium speed, add 1 egg at a time, beating after each addition. Mixing at low speed, add the flour mixture alternately with the molasses in 3 batches until combined. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan and bake until the cake begins to pull away from the side of the pan and is springy to the touch, about 1 hour. Transfer to a rack and cool for 20 mins. Invert cake onto a rack and cool completely. Dust with the icing sugar.

Enjoy with a cup of coffee!