Christmas Cake: Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake with Peppermint Cream Filling

Several years ago, my brother’s girlfriend Jenn gave me a decorative bundt pan for Christmas. I love it.  While it may not be the first thing you think of to give someone as a gift, if you know someone who bakes, it really is the perfect present. Each year I use it at least once, usually for Christmas cake, and I always think of Jenn. Now that my brother and Jenn live in the Caribbean and we don’t see them as much as we would like, it’s nice to have them at our table, at least in spirit (or bundt, as it were).

This year, after falling in love with cream cheese whipped cream at Thanksgiving, I adapted the same recipe to create a peppermint whipped filling for my Christmas cake. This was super simple, I used the exact same recipe as the topping for our Thanksgiving pie (recipe here) except I used peppermint extract instead of vanilla and folded in about a cup of andes peppermint chips at the end. I used this to fill and decorate my Chocolate Fudge Bundt Cake that I made by following this King Arthur Flour recipe almost exactly, only subbing half of the white sugar for brown and the vanilla extract called for with peppermint.  I didn’t make the ganache topping that the recipe includes, but if I had it to do over again, I think I might actualy make the ganache. I thought that might be too much but in retrospect, why not? Go big or go home. Alas, this cake was big as is and quite popular (especially with the kids, well, only after I told them that the andes peppermint chips were m&m’s - oh the lies I tell these days).

The final cake was super moist, chocolate and pepperminty. Kind of like a starbucks peppermint mocha in cake form. Yes please. One of the great things about this cake is that you can, and should, bake it the day before because it is even better the next day. I baked it the morning before and left it in a covered cake carrier on the counter overnight.  Then on Christmas morning, after all of the presents were opened, I made the filling, decorated the cake and slipped it into the fridge until it was time for dessert.

 This one helped, and by “helped” I mean, helped eat the cake that I cut out to make room for the filling.

The filling part is pretty intuitive.   After you have successfully released your cake from the pan, let it cool completely.  While it is cooling, wash the pan, dry it thoroughly and put the cake back in. When you are ready to fill it, dig a moat out of the center of your cake - be careful! Don't dig too deep, you don't want to break the cake.  

If you want,  thought it's not necessary, you can cover the filling with some of the cake pieces you took out. 

I used the remaining filling to pipe a border around the cake and decorate - this was primarily to prevent myself from eating too much of the peppermint cream (I could eat it by the cupful with a spoon. I could never be a skinny pastry chef).  Powdered sugar is all it needs (though, like I said, I wouldn't turn my nose up at some ganache).

The day before Christmas, after baking the bundt and turning it out to cool, we headed off the Long Grove.  Emmett enjoyed working the cash register, Isla wanted to play with leprechauns and Eve was all about the vast array of Irish snacks now available at Paddy's on  the Square (Noelle slept through all the fun). If you haven't been in for a while, come check out the selection. I ended up bringing a few items home to try which I plan to write about here in the next couple of months. 

Putting them to work early! 

Soda bread, brown bread, potato farls, sausage rolls, Winston's sausages, meat pies, black and white puddings, Irish bacon and more.

Sampling all of the snacks. Hot and spicy Monster Munch was her favorite. 

Something for everyone. I always gravitate towards the baking mixes, flours and condiments. Paul went for the curried baked beans and Shepherd's pie mix.  The kids, of course, want ALL the snacks and candy.

Thanks for visiting and Happy New Year! 

Noelle, Noelle

No cooking or baking this week, unless you count this little bun, whose been in the oven for ages and was ready to come out just in time for Christmas.

We named her Noelle Hikari.  She loves to be held, to eat and to sleep.  So yeah, she's perfect. Emmett and Isla love her to death (almost literally... they will not STOP TOUCHING HER, especially while she's sleeping!!!!) and Eve isn't crazy about her (to say the least).  Now we have 4 kids under the age of 5, which sounds, perhaps IS, insane.  But so far everything has been ok. Chaotic at times but not too different from before.

We've been very lucky to have our support system.  My brother-in-law's willingness to spend the night more than once while we were figuring out whether or not "tonight was the night" I was going to deliver her; my sister-in-law's selflessness in driving two hours each way from Indiana just to wait in the car with Noelle so that I wouldn't have to miss the kids' school program; and a big pot of pozole on the stove ready to be devoured when we arrived home from the hospital, courtesy of our amazing babysitter. I'm not sure I could have thought of anything better to ask for, oh yeah, except a perfect, nearly painless labor, delivery and recovery, which I also had.  And the best doctors ever (my doctor, who is incredible, was in Paul's high school class, which we found out a year and a half ago when she delivered Eve).

With everything that last week has brought, I've been overwhelmed with gratitude.  On my due date, already home with Noelle for a few days, I was feeling especially grateful to have some time to think about what gifts to give Emmett and Isla's teachers.  Teacher gifts are so, SO tough to think up.  When your kids have great teachers nothing you can afford comes close to being enough.  I know that the best thing to give is  cash but I also like to make something homemade to show them how much we appreciate all that they do for our little ones.  Plus, I think it's good for the kids to be able to give something tangible to their teachers as an expression of their gratitude, even better if they help with the baking and wrapping.

Thus, bound somewhat by what I had in my pantry and because it has become a ritual (ever since Emmett was born), I decided to make granola.  I used my basic recipe/technique that can be found here.

Big Batch Granola Assembly Line

For the teacher gifts, I omitted the egg whites (not everyone likes it clumpy) and used a mix of butter and coconut oil instead of olive oil. For the fruit and nut portion, I used what I had in my pantry: pecan pieces, chopped walnuts, bran flakes, dried apricots, raisins and cranberries and coconut flakes. The recipe makes a ton, but after packing up the jars for the teachers, I wished there were more left over for me! I'll have to make another batch soon.  

Merry, Merry Christmas to you and yours. Please shop the site for unique Irish Christmas gifts. If you are in the Chicago area, feel free to call the stores and they can set aside items for you to pick up. Traditional Irish and English foods are now stocked at Paddy's on the Square if you are looking for any additions to your Christmas spread. Thanks for reading and welcoming the new year with us! 

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

When I was a kid, I played competitive tennis. We lived in Colorado where winters were cold and court time was expensive.  So I often practiced very early in the morning or late at night when it was easier and cheaper to reserve a court at the indoor tennis club in our town. I also traveled to tennis tournaments which sometimes required catching a flight or getting on a bus at 5:00 a.m. No matter how early I had to leave, my mom would always get up to make me breakfast before sending me off.  I especially remember the days when she would pop those Pillsbury cinnamon rolls with orange glaze in the oven for a 4:00 a.m. pre-tennis breakfast.  I loved the way they made the house smell and the sweet sticky glaze on top. And while I’m sure I never expressed it back then, I loved that even when my dad was driving me or someone was picking me up, my mom always, always got up to feed me.

One morning a couple of months ago, when we were in California visiting my parents, my mom made us all cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Emmett claimed that he did not like cinnamon rolls and then proceeded to devour at least two big ones. I wasn’t surprised, given my healthy appreciation for them. And I couldn’t help but remember those early tennis mornings from my childhood. Watching him eat the rolls with gusto made me think about food memories and family rituals. And that got me to thinking that we should have something special for Holiday breakfasts. Something the kids look forward to and always remember the way I remember 4:00 a.m. cinnamon rolls.

So, seeing as most of us were verified cinnamon roll lovers, I thought it would be nice to make them as a special Thanksgiving breakfast this year.  Because I could make them the night before and let them rise overnight in the fridge, I knew they would be a low-maintenance breakfast that would allow me to focus on cooking the “real food” for the day. When we woke up, all I had to do was leave them on the counter for an hour or so before popping them in the oven.  

"MORE!" Another cinnamon roll lover. 

They were a hit with the kids who love, and often request a “special breakfast” on the weekends or on Holidays.  Perhaps the best part is that the recipe makes 16 rolls in two cake pans - so I had one leftover for the freezer. I plan on defrosting them overnight in the refrigerator on Christmas Eve so that we can have another “special breakfast” on Christmas. The kids have actually asked to have them again a handful of times in the last two weeks, so I think they will be a welcome addition to our Christmas morning activities.

This recipe is adapted slightly from the book Baked Elements by Matt Lewis.  I add salted chopped pecans to the filling because the saltiness and texture of the nuts cuts some of the sweet and softness of the rolls as they would be otherwise.

I went back and forth on when and how to freeze them before deciding to simply freeze them fully baked and frosted so that I can reheat them (after defrosting overnight) in a 250 degree oven for about 20 minutes. While I have yet to test this, I’m pretty confident that they will be just as good this way.  I’m already looking forward to indulging in one of these with a big cup of coffee on Christmas morning.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls

For the Dough:

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup whole milk, slightly warm (but not hot)
• 2 1/4 teaspoons instant or active dry yeast
• 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out
• 1/2 cup (packed) dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon table salt
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 2/3 cups pumpkin puree, canned
• 1 large egg
• Oil or cooking spray for coating rising bowl

For the Filling:

• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon table salt
• ½ cup chopped roasted, salted pecans
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

For the Glaze:

• 4 ounces cream cheese, room temp
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted
• ½ teaspoon  vanilla extract or vanilla paste

Melt the butter in a small saucepan or the microwave. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

Add yeast to milk in a small bowl and set aside. After a few minutes, it should start to foam, if it doesn’t your yeast might be bad. Try it again with new yeast.

In the bottom of the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine flour, sugars, salt and spices. Add about 3/4ths of your melted butter, reserving the other 1/4th for assembly, and stir to combine. Add yeast-milk mixture, pumpkin and egg and mix until combined. Switch mixer to a dough hook and knead on low for about 5 minutes.

Place mixture in a large oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside for 1 hour in a warm place until the dough just about doubles.

Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with cooking/baking spray.

To assemble buns: Once dough has nearly doubled, turn it out onto a well-floured surface and roll the dough to an approximately 16×11-inch rectangle. Brush with reserved butter. Stir filling ingredients together in a bowl and sprinkle mixture evenly over your dough rectangle. Roll the dough into a tight spiral. Cut into 16 equal sized rolls by applying minimal pressure to the rolled up dough and slicing with a serrated knife (this helps to avoid squishing the rolls when they are cut). Cutting with dental floss also works well.

Place 8 buns in each prepared pan. Cover and place in refrigerator overnight. In the morning, take buns out and leave on the counter for 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350F and make glaze.

To make glaze: Beat cream cheese until it is light and fluffy. Add sugar and vanilla. Drizzle in milk a little at a time until glaze is the right consistency - spreadable or pourable. We like it on the thicker side.

She loved them too! YAY! I found something we can all get excited about.