Winter always posts a challenge to me recipe-wise because of the “limited” fresh produce availability. But lately, I’ve learnt that it might just be me who is limiting my creativity. So this winter I am actively testing different citrus like cara cara, yuzu, bergamot on top of my normal blood oranges, navel oranges, limes and lemons in my recipes. In this one, you could use any citrus you have available, except maybe grapefruit. But I like the combination below best. You have play with it and let me know in the comments section which citrus combo tickled your fancy!

This is a straight up bundt cake that could also be baked in a large loaf tin. You can watch my bundt cake tutorial below to avoid getting your cake stuck in the pan.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Joanne | Mrs.FancyPants (@mrs.fancypants.recipes)

If you make this recipe, tag me using @mrs.fancypants.recipes on social media or use #mrsfancypantsrecipes or #mrsfancypantsbakes so I can see them! If you have other questions or comments, please feel free to use the comments section below. Now time to get your whisk out and give this recipe a try! I promise you won’t regret it. Happy baking!!!

 
Difficulty: Medium

Citrus & Poppy Seed Cake

Makes 1 x 10-cup bundt cake or 1 large loaf cake

Ingredients

    For the cake
  • For syrup:
  • For glaze

Instructions

0/15 Instructions
  • Measure all your ingredients then preheat oven to 175C. If using softened butter, grease your bundt pan now. Do this by brushing the bundt pan with the softened butter using a small pastry brush, being careful to get the butter into each nook and cranny. Sprinkle flour over the butter and tap around lightly to distribute. Turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour. If you're using melted butter, DO NOT GREASE YOUR PAN YET.
  • Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well after each addition.
  • Turn mixer down to low then add lemon zest.
  • Add half of the flour mixture gradually using a spoon, mix well.
  • Mix the sour cream and lemon juice together then add to the batter. Mix until incorporated.
  • Fold in the rest of the flour mix. Set aside.
  • If you're using melted butter, make sure its not hot. Brush the bundt pan with the butter using a small pastry brush, being careful to get the butter into each nook and cranny. Sprinkle flour over the butter and tap around lightly to distribute. Turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour.
  • Pour cake batter into the pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. Meanwhile make the syrup.
  • Combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a small pan. Bring to the boil until sugar is dissolved and you get a slightly thick consistency. Cool down.
  • When cake is ready, remove from oven and cover with a large plate for 10 minutes. Use kitchen mitts to invert pan and remove cake. Your cake should slide out perfectly.
  • Make several small holes on your cake using a toothpick then brush the cake with the syrup. Leave to cool completely.
  • When cake is completely cool, make the glaze by placing the icing sugar in a medium bowl and whisking the juice in. Start with half and keep adding until you get the consistency you want just be careful that you don't make the glaze too thin, test it by checking how quick it drips from your spoon. You want a slow drip to get that nice drizzle effect.
  • Leave the glaze to set for 10-15 minutes then your cake is ready to serve.

There’s so much available citrus recently, so I have buckets of lemons, navel oranges and cara cara to consume, so pardon my very colourful citrus bundt cake series, I’m obsessed with how simple bundt cakes are to make and so easy to photograph! I’m working on a video talking about tips on baking the perfect bundt without tears, so if you’re having problems with your bundt cake, watch out for that video.

Now about the recipe, if you’ve made my lemon drizzle cake, this recipe should be straightforward. It starts by creaming the butter and sugar together, adding the yolks, the lemon zest, and alternating between the dry ingredients and the sour cream finishing with the dry ingredients and blueberries. I dredge the blueberries in the dry ingredients so they don’t sink, and also so I don’t overmix the batter. Then it’s just bake at 175C for 50 minutes or until done.

Again, just a couple of bundt cake baking 101. If you have an intricately designed bundt pan, similar to mine or even more, make sure you follow my tips on the recipe about buttering the pan well and placing a plate on top after baking. The plate traps heat and creates steam inside which helps release the sides of your cake. Don’t worry, your cake will not end up being soggy at all.

This cake is packed with so much good stuff! I used lemons, which are rich in vitamin C, and blueberries which is a superfood. All in all, this cake is delicious, bursting with flavour, easy to make and oh so pretty! I mean, check out that sexy glaze right there.

The recipe is very detailed, but if you have any issues, please comment below and if you post photos of your goodies online, I would love to see them, so please tag @mrs.fancypants.recipes on social media or use #mrsfancypantsrecipes. Lastly, if you don’t have a bundt pan, no worries! This recipe can be baked in 1 large loaf pan, too. Now put your aprons on and preheat your ovens. Happy baking!

 
Difficulty: Easy

Glazed Blueberry Cake

Makes 1 x 10-cup bundt cake or 1 large loaf cake

Ingredients

    For the cake
  • For the glaze:

Instructions

0/9 Instructions
  • Measure all your ingredients then preheat oven to 175C. If using softened butter, grease your bundt pan now. Do this by brushing the bundt pan with the softened butter using a small pastry brush, being careful to get the butter into each nook and cranny. Sprinkle flour over the butter and tap around lightly to distribute. Turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour. If you're using melted butter, DO NOT GREASE YOUR PAN YET.
  • Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Turn mixer down to low then add lemon zest.
  • Add half of the flour mixture gradually using a spoon, mix well. Add sour cream then mix until incorporated. Put the blueberries in with the rest of the flour then toss until the blueberries are covered in flour. Fold in the blueberries and flour into the batter. Set aside.
  • If you're using melted butter, make sure its not hot. Brush the bundt pan with the butter using a small pastry brush, being careful to get the butter into each nook and cranny. Sprinkle flour over the butter and tap around lightly to distribute. Turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour.
  • Pour cake batter into the pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. When cake is ready, remove from oven and cover with a large plate for 10 minutes. Use kitchen mitts to invert pan and remove cake. Your cake should slide out perfectly.
  • When cake is completely cool, make the glaze by placing the frozen blueberries, water and lemon juice in a sauce pan. Cover and cook on low heat until blueberries are very soft. Strain the juices and push as much liquid out of the blueberries as you can. Reserve the liquid and throw out blueberries.
  • Place the icing sugar in a bowl then add half the liquid. Mix until you get a glaze consistently, adding more liquid if needed. Drizzle on top of your cooled down cake. Finish with a dusting of icing sugar.

Notes

  1. You can substitute yogurt or creme fraiche.

So you made my Lemon Drizzle cake but didn’t finish it? You’ll be the first, but don’t throw out your leftover cake just yet, make it into another dessert that you could enjoy!

Now, if leftover lemon cake isn’t your problem and you’re simply looking for a trifle recipe, that’s fine too! You can bake 1 recipe of my Lemon Drizzle cake in a large loaf pan and skip the syrup and glaze.

Mrs. Fancypants Lemon Drizzle cake, who could resist??? Click on the photo for the recipe.

Today I’m sharing with you my Raspberry & Lemon Trifle. This dessert has 4 components:

  1. Lemon cake
  2. Raspberry compote
  3. Lemon curd
  4. Plain natural yogurt

So we have the lemon cake recipe covered, now the raspberry compote is pretty straight forward. You’ll need frozen raspberries, sugar and water. Bring to the boil in a pot until the sugar dissolves then turn the heat off. So that’s easy too.

Most trifle recipes call for custard, to be honest, I used lemon curd because I have plenty of lemons and I wanted to make my trifle colourful and I definitely achieved that. This trifle is so pretty it looks like Christmas! The best part is, it takes less than 15 minutes to make this lemon curd, plus 5 minutes for the compote, all this while your cake is in the oven, and if you already have leftover cake, then this dessert will take you less than an hour to assemble. No one would think that when they see it though, I mean how pretty is it???

So when you have everything ready, it’s time to layer. I recommend dividing the cake, curd and compote into three. Then take 2 generous spoons of the compote out and into a bowl and reserve for later. Then you start layering the cake, lemon curd then raspberry compote, you will have 3 layers with the lemon curd on top. Let it set in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

Divide your cake, lemon curd and compote into three to make layering easy. You should end up with lemon curd on top just like above.

When you’re about to serve, mix the fresh raspberries and the reserved compote together. Dollop the yogurt on top of the trifle then finish with the raspberry mix. if you have some mint handy, take the baby leaves a sprinkle on top, otherwise, it’s beautiful the way it is.

So what do you think? Isn’t it pretty? And you didn’t have to throw out leftover cake, double win! Now, servings… This is a “small” trifle, but it still serves 5-6 people depending on how much you love dessert. And don’t we all love dessert?

If you make this recipe, have any questions, or comments, please feel free to comment below. If you post photos on social media, I’d love to see them so use #mrsfancypantsrecipes or tag @mrs.fancypants.recipes! Enjoy your trifle and happy baking!

 
Difficulty: Easy

Raspberry and Lemon Trifle

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

  • Lemon curd:
  • Raspberry compote:

Instructions

0/7 Instructions
  • Make the cake and cut it up into small pieces or if you have leftover cake, cut it up into small pieces.
  • Lemond curd:
  • Place all ingredients except for butter in a medium bowl on top of a double boiler. Whisk continuously until the lemon curd thickens and coats the back of the spoon. If you have a thermometer, cook to 75C.
  • Take off from the double boiler and whisk in the butter one by one. Set aside to cool.
  • Raspberry compote:
  • Place all the ingredients in a sauce pan, mix together. Bring to the boil until the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and cool down.
  • Assemble:
  • Divide the cake pieces, yogurt or cream, lemon curd and compote into 3. Take 2 heaping tablespoons of the compote and place it in a bowl for later.
  • Line the bottom of a small trifle bowl with 1/3 of the cake pieces. Layer 1/3 of compote then 1/3 of the lemon curd and 1/3 of the yogurt/cream. Repeat until you have 3 layers, the yogurt/cream should be on top. Let set in the fridge.
  • Before serving, gently toss the fresh raspberries in the reserved raspberry compote and spoon on top of the trifle.

Notes

  1. Here is the recipe for my Lemon Drizzle Cake, just make the cake base in a loaf pan if you're making from scratch.

Let’s be honest, intricate bundt cakes look so amazing. But there’s always that risk that because the design is so intricate your cake will get stuck. If you are a bundt cake pro, please keep doing what you’re doing, because why fix what’s not broken? Now if you’ve had bundt cake stuck in the pan several times and you’re ready to give up, please give this recipe a try before totally throwing your beautiful pan out.

Here are a few key things to remember:

  1. Softened butter is my preference when it comes to greasing bundt pans. Softened means you can make a dent in the butter even with just a slight pressure. Use a small pastry brush and get the butter into each nook and cranny. Take your time.
  2. When you’re satisfied that every millimetre is buttered up, sprinkle flour on top of the butter and lightly tap to distribute the flour. Cover all of the buttered surface then turn your pan over and tap lightly to remove the excess flour. Your pan should look like the one below:

3. Now like any cake, you know the cake will come out if the cake is pulling away from the pan.

Note the photos below:

Now here’s the golden ticket! This tip is a bundt cake game-changer! Once you remove the pan from the oven, cover the pan with a bigger plate and let sit for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, invert the pan and your cake should slide right out.

If you don’t have a bundt pan, this recipe works in a large loaf pan too! Some key notes if you’re using a loaf pan:

  1. It’s the same baking time and temperature.
  2. You don’t have to use butter and flour to grease the pan, I simply use spray oil and line the tin with baking paper.
  3. You don’t need to cover the pan with a plate after removing from the oven, just cool it down completely in the pan.

Finally, I adapted this recipe from Spruce Eats’ Sour Cream Lemon Cake. What does “adapt” mean? I added some of my own touches like:

  1. I use metric measurements when baking because I weigh everything, but I’ve tested the US measurements in this recipe too.
  2. I prefer using creme fraiche instead of sour cream (and yogurt) because after testing all three, I found the cake using creme fraiche had the nicest crumb, flavour and moisture even without the syrup and glaze.
  3. I added another lemon for zesting to amp up the flavour in the cake itself
  4. I added a lemon-vanilla syrup mostly to use up the other lemon and in case you overbaked your cake, this will save it.
  5. Lastly, I used the juice from the other lemon in the glaze.

Surprisingly, the lemon flavour in the cake is not overwhelming, it’s just absolutely delicious and fresh. Now you know everything there is to know about this lemon drizzle cake. Time to take your whisks out and preheat your ovens and try this recipe! Please comment below if ou have any questions, and tag @mrs.fancypants.recipes on your Social Media posts. Happy baking!

 
Difficulty: Medium

Lemon Drizzle Cake

Makes 1 x 10-cup bundt cake or 1 large loaf cake

Adapted from Spruce Eats

Ingredients

    For the lemon cake
  • For syrup
  • For glaze

Instructions

0/15 Instructions
  • Measure all your ingredients then preheat oven to 175C. If using softened butter, grease your bundt pan now. Do this by brushing the bundt pan with the softened butter using a small pastry brush, being careful to get the butter into each nook and cranny. Sprinkle flour over the butter and tap around lightly to distribute. Turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour. If you're using melted butter, DO NOT GREASE YOUR PAN YET.
  • Sift flour, salt and baking powder together. Set aside.
  • In the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment on medium-high, cream sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
  • Add eggs one at a time, incorporating well after each addition.
  • Turn mixer down to low then add lemon zest.
  • Add half of the flour mixture gradually using a spoon, mix well.
  • Add the creme fraiche (or yogurt or sour cream) then mix until incorporated.
  • Fold in the rest of the flour mix. Set aside.
  • If you're using melted butter, make sure its not hot. Brush the bundt pan with the butter using a small pastry brush, being careful to get the butter into each nook and cranny. Sprinkle flour over the butter and tap around lightly to distribute. Turn pan over and tap lightly to remove excess flour.
  • Pour cake batter into the pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. Meanwhile make the syrup.
  • Combine all the ingredients for the syrup in a small pan. Bring to the boil until sugar is dissolved and you get a slightly thick consistency. Cool down.
  • When cake is ready, remove from oven and cover with a large plate for 10 minutes. Use kitchen mitts to invert pan and remove cake. Your cake should slide out perfectly.
  • Make several small holes on your cake using a toothpick then brush the cake with the syrup. Leave to cool completely.
  • When cake is completely cool, make the glaze by placing the icing sugar in a medium bowl and whisking the lemon juice in. Start with half and keep adding until you get the consistency you want just be careful that you don't make the glaze too thin, test it by checking how quick it drips from your spoon. You want a slow drip to get that nice drizzle effect.
  • Leave the glaze to set for 10-15 minutes then your cake is ready to serve.

Notes

You can make this in a large loaf pan if you don't have a bundt pan. Here are some notes if you're doing this:

  1. It's the same baking time and temperature.
  2. You don't have to use butter and flour to grease the pan, I simply use spray oil and line the tin with baking paper.
  3. You don't need to cover the pan with a plate after removing from the oven, just cool it down completely in the pan.