Today is National Bundt Cake Day! Characterised by their intensely detailed shapes, bundt cakes have grown immensely in popularity with Nigella Lawson having 3 different bundt cake recipes in Simply Nigella and Paul Hollywood using the fleur-de-lis bundt tin for the Savarin technical challenge on Bake Off.

Bundt tins can be fairly expensive for the occasional baker however they are incredibly high quality and durable (and can only be made by Nordic Ware who have trademarked the bundt tin!) and made from cast aluminium so they would be ideal for a hobby baker and you must please take care with washing it!

A lot of preparation is required to prevent the bundt cake from sticking; because of its fine details which define this cake, it’s also a vital step in the process. If you can afford it (and will use it regularly), the Wilton cake release spray is a useful tool however it is very expensive for the hobby baker.

The other method is to grease the tin well with a flavourless oil such as a sunflower or vegetable oil or margarine and dust liberally with flour. You may find that because of the shape of the bundt tin that the melted margarine or oil collects at the bottom, so have some kitchen roll on hand to absorb the excess otherwise you will end up with a greasy clump of floury fat when you invert your cake.

Another tip is to not overfill the bundt tin. Whilst the hole in the centre of the tin allows heat to distribute itself much more evenly and bake the cake quicker, this doesn’t excuse you to fill the tin too high and have cake mixture spilling all over your oven! It’s recommended that the tins are filled no more than three-quarters full; as the cake rises and sets, it takes on the shape of the bundt tin.

Bundt tins come in all different shapes and sizes and the tin that I used was the fleur de lis tin. The ‘flower of the lily’ tin gives a very attractive cake when it’s turned out with a somewhat regal quality. Here are some other bundt cake recipes from other food bloggers for you to try:

Bakes4fun’s Chocolate Orange Almond Marbled Bundt Cake

Cakes by Noah’s Gluten Free Chocolate and Blackberry Bundt

I’m sharing my invention for a Pink Lemonade Drizzle Bundt Cake. It’s a light and fluffy lemon flavoured sponge drizzled with a pink lemonade glace icing using icing sugar from Sugar and Crumbs (who I met this weekend at the Cake and Bake Show in Manchester!).

If you’ve not heard of pink lemonade before, it’s essentially lemonade that is flavoured with a red berry; this is usually strawberry or raspberry but can be cranberry or cherry too. The Sugar and Crumbs Pink Lemonade icing sugar is flavoured with raspberry and works perfectly with my bundt cake with its sharp and powerful berry flavour complimenting the lemon cake. I finish it off with a few toasted flaked almonds for texture.

Sugar and Crumbs icing sugar comes in a plethora of different flavours ranging from Jaffa Twist to Banana Split to Strawberry Milkshake, suiting all of your baking needs. Here are some of my other recipes using their icing sugars:

Individual Strawberry Cheesecake

Mini Chocolate Orange Loaf Cakes

Cherry Bakewell Victoria Sponge

The cake recipe is tried and tested so I knew that putting it in a bundt tin wouldn’t pose too many problems. This amount of batter fills the tin just under two-thirds full so you don’t have to worry about overflowing cake batter. This quantity of cake batter is just easy enough to mix by hand however you can also use an electric hand whisk.

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175g margarine, plus 25g for greasing

210g sugar

Zest of 1 lemon

3 eggs

250g self raising flour

4 tbsp milk

75ml lemon juice

75g Sugar and Crumbs Pink Lemonade icing sugar

1-2 tbsp milk

Handful of flaked almonds

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Melt the extra 25g of margarine in the microwave. Use a pastry brush to brush the margarine all over the tin, making sure all of the tin is well covered. Any excess needs to be drained away. Tip in 2 tablespoons of plain flour and shake it around the tin to coat in a thin layer, rotating it on its side to make sure it’s evenly covered. Tip away the excess.

Preheat the oven to 160˚C.

Cream together the margarine, sugar and lemon zest until it is light and fluffy. Working the lemon zest at this stage releases all of its essential oils and boosts the flavour of the sponge. Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition and scraping down the bowl after each egg is incorporated.

Fold in the flour until the flour is just incorporated and the cake batter is thick. Loosen the batter with the milk, gently folding until it has been mixed through. Repeat this process with the lemon juice; I add the lemon juice last as the acidic lemon juice reacts with the raising agent in the flour and if I did this earlier, the baking powder could be exhausted by the time the cake goes in the oven, leaving you with a poorly risen bundt cake.

Pour the mixture into the bundt tin, allowing it to naturally take its shape. Spread out the surface with the back of a spoon and bake the bundt cake for 40 – 50 minutes until the sponge is golden brown on top, is starting to come away from the edges and an inserted skewer comes out clean.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for no longer than 10 minutes and invert the cake out onto a cooling rack to cool down completely.

Prepare the drizzle icing by mixing together the icing sugar with enough milk to form a thick icing that can be piped and won’t run off the cake when put on. Place it into a piping bag and cut off a small hole.

Drizzle over the icing liberally over the whole cake and sprinkle over the toasted flaked almonds before the icing sets.