Kiss My Bundt

Amazing Winter Citrus Available at Farmers Markets Now!

See our tips and photo albums on Facebook now

Come see our Photo Album and Citrus Tips from the Kiss My Bundt Bakery's Facebook:  

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Sign up for this Sunday's Baking Class at Surfas Los Angeles, and get 20% off:  (offer expires Friday 1/13/2012): 

Easy Egg Nog Cake

In case you didn't get this link on Facebook or Twitter this week, here is a repost:

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When it comes to holiday baking flavors, there are many flavors that represent the season.  To me, Egg Nog has to be in the Top 3.

This delicious cake can be made with or without alcohol.  I'll share the recipe adjustments, just in case you want to decrease or increase the amount of alcohol in your cake.  

Egg Nog Cake:  Adapted from from "Kiss My Bundt:  recipes from the award winning bakery." 

Cake Ingredients:

6 ounces of unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups of granulated white sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 cup eggnog + 1/4 Cup of Bourbon or Rum or Brandy. 

•    To increase the "booziness" you can use 3/4 C of eggnog and 1/2 C of your favorite alcohol.

•    Though the alcohol will mostly bake-out, if you would like to make the cake alcohol-free, you can use 1 1/4 Cup of Eggnog and omit the alcohol from the recipe)

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt

Cake Directions:

1. Heat the oven to 350 degrees. 

2. Using an electric mixer, combine the butter and sugar until creamy and fluffy. (about 2 minutes)

3.  Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding another.

4.  In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.

5. Combine the eggnog and alcohol into 1 container.  Set aside. 

6.  Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Next, add 1/2 of the eggnog mixture.  Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl.  Continue mixing the batter, alternating between dry (flour mixture) and wet ingredients (eggnog mixture) until all ingredients are thoroughly mixed.  Begin and end with the dry mixture.

7. Pour the batter into pans that have been greased and floured. **The recipe will make one (10 to 12 cup) bundt cake, 24 mini bundt cupcakes, 16 cupcakes, and two 9" cake pans.

8. Bake until a cake tester or toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean and the cake doesn't jiggle when shaken, about 55 minutes for a Big ol Bundt cake. 


9. Cool the cake in the pan for at least 10 minutes. Then invert onto a serving plate. If cake resists, cool for an additional 15 minutes. Cool completely before frosting, at least 1 hour for a single large bundt cake.

**This cake recipe makes 24 Mini Bundt Cupcakes (1/2 C capacity) or 12 Baby Bundt Cakes (1C capacity)

Classic Egg Nog Glaze:

Ingredients:

~3 Cups of Powdered Sugar (measured then sifted).  

~1/4 Cup of Liquid* (For your liquid, you can use any combination of eggnog, bourbon rum, or brandy).   

Directions:

1. Put liquid into a mixing bowl.

2.  Slowly add the powdered sugar into the liquid until powdered sugar is completely dissolved.

3.  If you want a thicker glaze, add more powdered sugar.  For a thinner glaze, add more liquid.

4.  Pour glaze on a cooled cake, and let glaze set and harden (about 30 minutes).

5.  To spice up presentation, sprinkle ground nutmeg on top of the white glaze!

6.  Eat and enjoy!

To booze up cake even more, you could brush pure brandy, rum, or bourbon onto the cake before adding the glaze.

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Happy Baking and Happy Eating… and Happy Holidays!

Question: Do I use unsalted butter?

Angie emailed a really common question:

"My daughter and I took a baking class about 1-2 years ago. I have kept the recipes we received and I have a question on your buttercream frosting- for the plain unflavored buttercream recipe asks for 8 oz of Butter- is this unsalted butter? I bragged about having an awesome recipe and am now committed to making 50 cupcakes- I don’t want to ruin the frosting. Please let me know!!!!!"

If this question was related to cake batter, in a pinch, you can use salted butter and just omit any salt for the recipe.  But since this question is about buttercream, the answer is that it needs to be 100% unsalted butter.  Salted Butter = salty buttercream.  And if that's not the flavor profile you are going for, you will be displeased.

Happy Baking

Seasonal Baking: Winter Citrus (Class Just Added!)

Seasonal Baking Class: Winter Citrus Cakes 

Kiss My Bundt Baking Academy @SURFAS

While we normally associate citrus fruits with summertime and lemonade, in Southern California, we see an abundance of Blood Oranges, Grapefruit, Naval Oranges and Lemons in our Winter Months.

This baking class features our favorite cakes that feature the tart and sweet sides of citrus. 

For more information, view the class description here:  http://wintercitrusbaking.eventbrite.com/

OctoBUNDTfest Baking with Beer Classes: $10 off

OctoBUNDTfest:  Baking with Beer

For Octoberfest, we decided to launch some baking classes to show everyone how to bake wonderful desserts with Beers.

Our next class is on Friday, October 21st from 6-8:30pm.  Currently there are 12 spaces still available.  If we don’t sell at least 8 of these 12 seats, we will have to cancel the class due to small class size.

To entice all of you to sign up for our class, we’re offering $10 off the class price.  The discount is only available by clicking this link:  http://beerandspicebaking.eventbrite.com/?discount=beerbundts

If you are interested in class, sign up today!

-Chrysta

What can I do about this Dry Cake?

A lovely woman recently bought Kiss My Bundt cookbook, and asked a baking question.

Lovely Customer: Hope all is well. I had a question regarding the lime basil cake. When I make this it seems to get a little dried out too fast. Any suggestions on making this a little more moist?  

After I thanked her for buying the book and being a fellow Bundt Lover, I shared that all of the recipes that were in the Kiss My Bundt Cookbook were tested at least 3 times, some up to 5 times.  Recipes were tested by acclaimed chefs, baking experts, and inexperienced home bakers.  The reason I mention this is just to say that our recipes yield great cakes.

If you bake one of our recipes and it comes out questionably, it’s likely the result of equipment, oven temperature, or technique.

We’ll get to the bottom of this!  

The Lime Basil Cake from the Kiss My Bundt Cookbook is a butter-based cake.  That being said, the following advice can be used for any of the butter-based cakes that you may make that come out a little dry.  

1.) Since the recipes in the book measure by volume rather than weight, make sure to measure the flour using the "Scoop and Level" technique I refer to in the book.

2.) Sift all dry ingredients after you've measured them.

3) Stop after the Dry-Wet Alternation.  When mixing the dry ingredients into the butter/sugar mixture, be sure to stop mixing at the point you no longer see any more flour. Mixing beyond the point that the flour is dissolved is "overmixing" which will make the cake dry.

4) Be sure not to over bake the cake.  Check the cake 5 minutes earlier than you did the last time.  As soon as a toothpick/skewer/knife inserted in a cake comes out clean (e.g. no wet batter on it), the cake is done. 

5) Once the cake is baked, try covering it with a frosting or a glaze.  This helps keep the cake protected from dry air.

6) Keep the cake covered with a lid or saran wrap after it’s all done, and especially after it’s been cut into.  Please know that butter cakes dry out really fast.

7) Don’t refrigerate a butter cake as it will get really dry.  Imagine a stick of room temperature butter.  It’s soft, really moist.  Now imagine a stick of butter fresh from the fridge.  It’s hard.   A butter cake that is room temperature is soft, but once it’s in the fridge, the butter will get hard (as butter does).  

Good luck,

Chrysta  

Chef-Owner-Author-Instructor Kiss My Bundt Bakery

Salted Caramel Sauce

Kiss My…Summertime Steaks

While I love to bake bundt cakes, I’m not a one trick pony!   I love food, and as we begin to launch our new website (dear Lord I hope that’s soon!) you’ll find all of my food interests in one place.

This weekend is one of those rare times where I’m not cooking for a living–I’m cooking for friends, and I’m really looking forward to that.

As a result of my dinner party/Game Night, and as a result of some new recipes I have to test for an upcoming Baking Class in Berkeley, CA at Kitchen on Fire, this Bundt lady is up to new tricks in the kitchen, and I promise that new recipes and photos are coming to the blog soon.

In addition to Cream Scones, Strawberry Shortcakes, Salted Caramel Ice Cream, and Bacon Roasted Fingerlings, I decided a recipe that would be great for tonight’s guests would be a flavorful flank steak.

Photo taken from: stakeitout.com

Flank steak is very affordable, very flavorful, and great for big groups.  But, it is a muscle and can be tough if you over cook it, or most importantly don’t cut against the grain.

Whether it’s a recipe from my own cookbook, or a recipe from my favorite blogger, I always review technique and the underlying science behind the recipe.  That way, I’m more likely to have culinary success.  As I learned last night, sometimes the best intentions can be foiled by bad technology* (stay tuned for my post on Salted Caramel Ice Cream)

In my crash-course in steaks, I pulled up one of my favorite blog posts on this topic.  http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/03/why-should-you-cut-meat-steak-against-the-grain.html

Happy Eating–photos soon!

6 Incredible Years Later…Let’s Celebrate and Donate!

Most of you reading this know my story. I’m Chrysta Wilson, Chef/Owner of Kiss My Bundt Bakery, a.k.a the Bundt Lady.

I’ve spent most of my life baking for family and friends, starting when I was 8 years old with my Easy Bake Oven. My entire life, everyone told me that the cake was really good.  “But,” I Thought, “there are a lot of good bakers out there.”.

I longed to find ways to introduce my love for baking and cooking into my professional life, especially after late night Food Network marathons.  I would always wonder how I might be able to work in the food industry in a meaningful way to both make amazing products and help develop the love of Baking and Bundts in others.

Then, six years ago, the person that taught me the love of baking (My Aunt Dia) passed away, and this was the catalyst to make that change in my professional life.  I realized then that life is short:  we don’t have time to short-shrift our dreams.  (I later re-learned this lesson 1 year later when my mother passed away)…

My love of baking, flavor development, and desire to work in the food industry grew to be so large that it couldn’t be contained in my office cubicle.

Six years ago, today I officially launched my part-time dream until a full-time reality.

If someone would have told me back in 2005 that:

• One day there would be a retail brick-and-mortar bakeshop opened…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be voted “Best Cupcake in LA” (Twice)…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be featured in the Los Angeles Times Food Section (Four Times) for delicious and innovative flavored Bundts……and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be one of the top highest reviewed bakeries in Los Angeles…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be featured in the New York Times Business Section…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be written about in our favorite magazines, like Angelino, Westways Magazine, Family Circle Magazine, Sunset Magazine…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would be featured on all local LA television stations…and…
• My favorite reporter of a network would come and do a 3 hour “feature” within my bakery…and..
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would win awards for both it’s Bundts and for it’s Baking Classes…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would teach Baking Classes in cities across the United States…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would write a cookbook that would become one of the highest ranked Baking Cookbooks on Amazon.com…and…
• The you can buy the Kiss My Bundt Cookbook in Barnes and Nobles across the United States…and..
• That Kiss My Bundt Bakery would even HAVE a cookbook…and…
• Kiss My Bundt Bakery would have nearly 4,000 supporters and fans on Facebook/Twitter…
  • (Actually, back then, we didn’t even know what Twitter was!)…and…
• That I, Chef/Owner Chrysta Wilson, would sought after to audition for the same food network shows that I loved (and that I would turn then down based on principles and core-values misalignment)…and..
• That I, Chef/Owner Chrysta Wilson, would be chosen as one of the most Interesting People In Los Angeles for the LA Weekly 2010 People Edition…

Well… If someone would have told me all that, I would have said they were crazy.  All that would have seemed so impossible.

And yet, here I stand, 6 years later, with all the joy that comes from seeing your Dreams come true, wrapped in a box with ribbons.

So, on this 6 year Anniversary, I want to thank each and everyone of you for your support, your purchases, your compliments and feedback, your comments, and your incredibly good taste.

T  H  A N  K  –   Y  O  U

We’re celebrating 6 years today by participating in a charity bakesale that will raise money to fight Childhood Hunger.

Leave No Cookie Behind

@Scoops

12 N Heliotrope, north of Melrose, west of Vermont, in East Hollywood.

2pm-till we Run Out!

http://nocookieleftbehind.wordpress.com/donate/

Come by and say Hi!

Again, without your support and purchasing power and relationships, I know that Kiss My Bundt is just a girl that can bake.  (There are millions of us out there).  Thank you for helping me make Kiss My Bundt Bakery much more than that!

-Chrysta Wilson, Chef/Owner/Instructor, Kiss My Bundt Bakery

Email:  info {at} Kiss My Bundt {dot} come

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