Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Lime Glazed Mini Bundt Cakes


To kick off the wedding desserts posting extravaganza, I thought I would first share my personal favorite treat from the table, mini lime bundt cakes.

When Rebecca first asked me to do their dessert table, they were in a tight spot with their reception hall caterer. They had had a few cake tastings and were just not happy with the taste and the texture of the cake. The problem was that the cake came free with the hall, and they didn't want to have to spend another 500 dollars on an outside cake. So, when I started brainstorming for dessert ideas, I wanted to find some unique cake-like nibbles that could fill the void of the disappointing wedding cake. (Update: the chef agreed to make the bride's family chocolate cake recipe at the last minute and it turned out much better!)


When I saw a pan that made little baby bundt cakes, I knew they had to be on the table. I am a complete sucker for anything mini and luckily the bride and groom were just as enamored as I was. Sticking with their colors of white and green, we settled on a light lime glaze to go over the top of the vanilla pound cakes. Knowing that cake freezes beautifully, I got started right away making batches after batches of these little guys.


We had to offer the dessert table as a 'favor' to the guests instead of a plated dessert, per hall rules, which meant cellophane treat bags and huge numbers of the treats themselves. We planned for about 4-5 desserts per person on average, a few eaten while drinking and dancing, and a few to take home. The final number of Lime Bundt Cakes: 175, and mind you, this was just one of the 4 desserts on the table.



Mini Bundt Cakes with Lime Glaze
adpated from williamssonoma.com

this makes 24-20 mini bundt cakes or 1 regular size bundt cake


2 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs, lightly beaten, room temperature
1 teaspoom vanilla
1 cup whole milk, room temperature

Preheat oven to 335 F, placing a rack in the bottom third of the oven.

Butter and flour your bundt pan, shaking out all excess flour and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Whisk or sift together, set aside.

In a stand mixer fit with the paddle attachment beat the butter until smooth, about 30 seconds. Add the sugar and cream together with butter on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Gradually add the egg, beating thouroughly and scraping down the sides in bewteen each addition. Add the vanilla and beat just until incorporated, about 1 minute.

Add one-third of the flour mixture and beat on low speed until incorporated, then add half of the milk, beating again until incoporated. Scrape down the sides in between each addtion. Repeat with another third of the flour mixture, then the remainder of the milk, then the remainder of the flour.

Spoon batter into prepared bundt pan, filling each vessel about 3/4 the way full. If you fil them too high, they will form little domes on the bottom and will not sit level, don't worry though they will still be damn cute.

Bake for 28-32 minutes (for the mini bundts), until brown around the edges. Place pan on wire rack and allow to cool for 15 minutes. You can then turn the bundts out onto the wire rack and cool completely before glazing.


Lime Glaze

The amounts of liquid to sugar will vary based on how thick you would like your glaze. I made mine very thick, so that it would dry and form a shell almost, so that it would stand up to stacking. If you want yours thinner and lighter, just up the liquid content a little until it reaches your desired consistancy.

1 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons lime juice (fresh squeezed if you are making 24 bundts, bottled if you are making 175 bundt. Trust me on this one)
1 teaspoon lime zest

Combine all ingredients in small bowl and wisk or stir together until smooth. Dip the top of each cake into the glaze and set on a wire rack to dry for 1-2 hours.

I will absolutely be making these again. The possibilities are endless when it comes to flavors and glazes, I could barely keep my hands off of them. Its not my fault, when you have almost 200 of these puppies on your counter, its easy to tell yourself no one will know if there is 1 or 5 missing.

24 comments:

  1. Your mini cakes are so cute. The glaze sounds divine!

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  2. Those mini bundts are beautiful! Plus anything mini doesn't have calories - right? ;)

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  3. These are lovely--and you're right the variations are endless. May I ask where you found the mini bundt cake pan?

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  4. Steph-

    Thanks! The glaze is great, and very versatile, I made basically the same thing with meyer lemons a few months ago and it was delicious!

    My Man's Belly-

    I agree 100%. Even if you eat 10 in one sitting, still no calories.

    Susan-

    I got it at Sur la Table, the brand is nordic ware, and I know you can find them on amazon as well.

    Thanks everyone for stopping by my blog!!

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  5. Those are ridiculously beautiful! Love that glaze :)

    xxMK
    http://delightfulbitefuls.blogspot.com/

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  6. These cakes look amazing. I especially love the last photo. It looks so dramatic.

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  7. Mary- I could eat the glaze with a spoon, but in interest of my waistline, I won't. Thank you for stopping by!

    Memoria- Thank you!

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  8. Did you end up freezing these? How long did you give them to thaw? They look amazing.

    Paula

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  9. Paula,

    I did end up freezing all of the cakes before glazing them. The morning before the wedding I glazed all 150 of them at once, and many of them were still frozen when I started, but were thawed in about an hour or so. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

    -Bria

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  10. How did you freeze them to keep them from getting freezer-burned?

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  11. Found the photo on Pinterest. These cakes look delicious. What's the reason for using bottled juice if you are making 175 cakes? Less hassle?

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  12. Real Girl Lindsay- I put them in large ziploc containers and there wasn't any trouble with freezer burn!

    Jackie - yeah it was the night before delivery and I started juicing about 50 little limes that weren't giving up very much juice. I gave up and went to the grocery store to buy lime juice. if i was making just a small batch of glaze, I would absolutely use fresh squeezed limes, just a time saver!

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  13. Those look adorable and absolutely tasty! That glaze looks amazing seriously. I saw these pinned on Pinterest and had to check them out. While here, I see tons of recipes I wanna try... I'm your newest follower :)

    http://steaknpotatoeskindagurl.blogspot.com

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  14. desi, thanks so much, I hope you try these sometime, or the gingerbread version I did last fall. The pan is so cute, you cant go wrong with whatever you put in it! thanks for stopping by!

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  15. I am making this for Christmas!! It looks so scrumptious :O) Thoughts on baking time for a traditional sized bundt pan??

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  16. Wow these look absolutely delightful!!

    Cathy Trails

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  17. Hi! Stopping by to let you know that you were one of my favorite pins and inspirations this week at Tumbleweed Contessa: http://www.tumbleweedcontessa.com/blog/weekly-rays-of-sunshine-5-and-family-favorite-holiday-sides/

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  18. Wow! These look so delicious! I made regular sized bunt cakes for my daughter's wedding but these would be so lovely.

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  19. Wow! How long ahead of time did you make these?! Also, do you mean Ziploc baggies or like Tupperware containers? These are darling!

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    1. Nicole, I started making the cakes a few weeks before my event. I used Tupperware containers but you could use bags as well. If you use bags I would suggest freezing the cakes on a sheet pan and once they are frozen then transfer them into a bag , that way they won't lose their shape. Thaw and glaze just before serving, up to a day

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  20. wow, they are cute, I do not have such a cute-y pans, if I use regular bundle pan, how much time do you suggest to start with?

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  21. I wonder if I can freeze these with the glaze on it already. will it be as tasty once its defrosted.

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    1. I would recommend freezing prior to glazing, the glaze may dissolve when defrosting and youll probably end up with a sticky mess. Luckily the glazing only takes a minute to do!

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