Maple Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Maple Icing

  •  Maple Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Maple Icing

    There’s something about maple that I can’t stay away from, and I don’t think you should stay away from it either.

    Raised on Quaker Oats’ Maple and Brown Sugar- flavored instant oatmeal, I developed a taste for the sap at an early age.  I admit that my pancakes and waffles were smothered in the synthetic syrup made by none other than Aunt Jemima, instead of the real deal, but you get the point.   (To say that I smothered my pancakes as a kid is an understatement.  I really had a bowl of syrup for breakfast that I’d dip a piece of pancake into every now and then.  Love the syrup-sugar-induced high, first thing in the morning.)

    I have since graduated to the land of (woefully expensive) real maple syrup, as a good Canadian should.  Might I suggest that you purchase Grade B, since it’s darker and a bit stronger?  So much better for baking.

    This recipe is the triple-maple-threat of cakes.  You use maple syrup and maple sugar in the batter, then cover the cake with a thick maple icing.  Yes, it’s worth it to find maple sugar, and yes it’s worth it to fork over the cash for it.  And it should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway- ditch Auntie J for the real syrup… just in case you were thinking of making a Synthetic Maple Sour Cream Bundt Cake with Synthetic Maple Icing. :)

    Adapted from the epicurious recipe…

    CAKE

    2 cups all-purpose flour

    2 teaspoons baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon baking soda

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1 1/3 cups sour cream

    1/4 cup pure maple syrup (Grade B, ideally)

    1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, toasted & chopped

    1/4 cup plus 1 1/3 cups maple sugar

    1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

    13 tablespoons butter, cut into pieces, room temperature

    2 large eggs

    2 teaspoons vanilla extract

    MAPLE ICING

    1 1/3 cups powdered confectioners’ sugar

    1 tablespoon pure maple syrup

    1. Preheat oven to 350°.  Butter a 9″ Bundt pan, then spray with nonstick spray.
    2. CAKE:  In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate medium bowl, whisk sour cream and maple syrup together.  In a small bowl, mix toasted & cooled walnuts (or pecans), 1/4 cup maple sugar, and cinnamon together.
    3. In a large bowl, beat butter and remaining 1 1/3 cups maple sugar until fluffy (3 minutes or so).  Gradually beat in eggs and vanilla, occasionally stopping to scrape down sides of bowl.  Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating with sour cream mixture in 2 additions.
    4. Transfer 2/3 of batter to prepared Bundt pan.  Sprinkle with nut mixture.  Pour remaining batter into pan and smooth surface.
    5. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 55 minutes.  Cool 20 minutes, then turn cake out onto rack to cool completely.
    6. GLAZE:  In a medium bowl (or a nice big measuring cup with a pourable spout), whisk confectioners’ sugar with maple syrup  until smooth.  Add more sugar or syrup until desired consistency is reached- the thicker the icing, the less it will pool at the bottom of the cake.  Pour icing over cake and allow to chill slightly to set.  Cover and keep at room temperature.

    Tips:

    • Okay, so what if I don’t have maple sugar?  I think you’ll be just fine with light brown sugar and an additional 2 tablespoons of maple syrup in the batter.  But really- get your hands on some maple sugar.  It’s amazing sprinkled on things (oatmeal, yogurt, in your coffee or meatballs- whatever).
    • Why the alternating additions of wet & dry mixtures to the batter?  It has to do with chemistry and coating the flour with fat and activating gluten and other boring words.
    • Toasting nuts totally enhances their flavor.  Throw them on a pan when the overn is preheating, and set your timer for about 8 – 10 minutes.  Be sure to check in on them.  They do burn quickly.  Ahem.
    • Icing comments:  You could go in a few different directions here.  Make the icing runnier and glaze the whole cake, making every bite (with crust) a nice glazy experience.  Or keep thin, like I did here, and when you do get a bite with icing, there’s no mistaking it (and it looks kind of neat how it starts to drip off the edge of the cake and then got too tired and decided to stop).  Or do both- a thin layer of glaze all around, and then a thick layer overtop.  Like a heavy snowfall over an existing dusting of snow.  Only with sugar.  One last note: save a few toasted nuts and sprinkle them on the top of the just-iced cake- it will look nicer.  (Really- sprinkle while the icing is still oozey or the nuts will just fall off.)
    • Be careful to bake this cake properly.  Don’t do what I did, which was to stick the cake tester in 2/3 of the way and say “whoo hoo- it’s done!” and then realize after it had cooled that it so wasn’t done.  Click here to mourn the underbaked cake with me.
    • Serving ideas?  A little whipped cream never hurt anyone.  Or vanilla ice cream.
    • Enjoy!

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    November 14th, 2012 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , ,

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