Breaking in the baby bundts

I'm not big on shopping when it comes to clothes and things but I could shop for hours when it comes to housewares, kitchen, and food related items.  Leave me at Sur la Table and I could go missing for an hour or two easy.  I actually live minutes away from a mall - no Sur la Table there, unfortunately (or maybe it's fortunate), but I often find myself nipping into Williams-Sonoma or to Crate & Barrel and Anthropologie to check out the home section.

A mini spongy honey bundt cake

Inevitably, I often walk away with a little something - a plate, a mug, some kitchen tool I just realized I should have.  I do try to control myself because I feel like I have all the essentials I need nowadays (and, as importantly, no place to store much else!), but as you know, need and want are two separate things.  And about a week ago, I succumbed to the temptation of the bundt pan.  It's one of the things I don't have and probably don't really need but have always wanted.

Four cakes with toasted walnuts and two (on righthand column) have mini chocolate chips

Well, hey...Williams-Sonoma was running a sale and I was being practical here.  I bought a mini bundt pan - the smaller capacity works better for my small family and with the holidays coming around, I just know I'll have plenty of use for them by being able to make gifts of pretty little cakes.  Right?  Right!

So when you think Fall desserts, maybe you think bundt cakes like I do.  Why is that? I think it might have something to do with the rich, dense pound cake-like texture I often associate with bundt cakes.  They're great spiced with all the flavors of Fall and they conjure up hearty and homey, the kind of things you want when the weather turns cool and the leaves start drifting down.  Well, I know that sounds terrific but I went on a slightly different tangent with my inaugural batch of baby bundts.  

These little cakes are on the lighter side.  They are spongy honey cakes, with toasted walnuts.  I adapted a recipe I saw for Russian Honey Cake on Food52.  I messed with the recipe by scaling it down to make just enough batter for my 6 mini bundts.  That made it easy to then make the batter by hand.  Rather than sour cream, I used whole milk Greek yogurt instead.  I also added some vanilla extract for a little extra flavor. And I couldn't resist switching up the mix-in and making a couple of the little cakes with mini chocolate chips instead of walnuts (plus, I went with a more generous dose of them).  Using two kinds of mix-ins confuses the process a bit but I just couldn't resist.

Spongy honey cake with toasted walnuts

These sponge cakes are lightened by whipping egg whites separately from the yolks. Besides the Greek yogurt and eggs, there's no oil or butter added to them.  Don't expect cakes that are dense and rich like a pound cake though.  What we have here is moist as in spongy, practically bouncy, little cakes that have a sweetness in part from honey.  It was a good place to put the raw honey that I stock up at the farmer's market to good use. 

Spongy honey cake with mini chocolate chips

If you pick the cake with walnuts, you get a punch of nutty flavor from pre-toasting them (a must).  If you go with chocolate chip, well...you pretty much can't go wrong. My son was a big fan of those and they were reserved for him.

To be totally honest here, as dainty as these little cakes look, they're more like snack cakes, the 'pick up with your hands and eat with your fingers' kind of casual cakes.  If I was into sweets for breakfast, these are the types of cakes I'd reach for.


As I mentioned, I messed with this recipe a bit.  Luckily, it worked out pretty well.  It was lucky that when I scaled the recipe down by a third, I had just about the ideal amount of batter to fill my six mini bundt cake cavities with.  It also made it easy to make the batter by hand and I love being able to mix things up the old-fashioned way.

The batter will be airy and foamy since that's the type of cake we have here, as we fold in egg whites at the last step.  I filled my bundt cakes about 2/3 of the way.  The cakes will rise all the way to the top and then some.  I took a serrated knife and trimmed off the excess bulge in the center of the risen cakes but it's really not a big deal.

If I was in a test kitchen, I would love to do a side-by-side taste comparison of these cakes with sour cream versus the Greek yogurt I choose to use.  The two are clearly good substitutes for each other but I can't help but wonder what the little differences would be if we had the chance to taste the same thing made with each side-by-side! Maybe one day...

If you're into spongy cakes and ever give these a try, and if you use nuts, I implore you to toast them first.  It really contributes a lot of flavor and character to the cakes and toasting the nuts amplifies that at least tenfold.  If you don't want to go the extra step of toasting nuts, there's always chocolate chips!

Now, I know I said these are very much casual snack cakes you should pick up and bite into but if you want to doll things up a bit, you know a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a spoonful of whipped cream won't hurt a bit.  The powdered sugar dust on top of bundt cakes just goes without saying if you're not using a glaze or icing.


Recipe:

Spongy Honey Bundt Cakes
Adapted from Vicki's Russian Honey Cake recipe via Food52

- For 6 mini bundt cakes - 

2 eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey (I like raw natural honey)
1/2 plus 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
2/3 cup whole milk Greek yogurt
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts (or 1/2 cup miniature chocolate chips)
Confectioners' sugar, for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a mini bundt pan with baking spray or prep with butter and flour.  

In a bowl, whisk egg whites until stiff peaks.  In a second bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar together until mixture is thick and almost white in color.  Add honey, baking soda, salt, Greek yogurt, and vanilla, whisking to combine.  Toss walnuts (or chocolate chips if using that instead) into the flour and add to the mixture.  Mix together with a rubber spatula until incorporated.  Lastly, fold in the egg whites until just combined.  

Fill mini bundt cake cavities about 2/3 way up with batter.  Bake until cakes have risen, turned golden brown, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, approximately 20 minutes.  Set cake pan on a wire rack and allow to cool for about 30 minutes before inverting and cooling completely.  Serve with a dusting of confectioners' sugar over top.

Cakes can be stored in an airtight container, at room temperature, for up to 3 days.