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Thursday, September 17, 2015

Carrot Graham Mini Bundts with White Chocolate Chips and Marshmallow Glaze - #BundtBakers



"Never toast marshmallows on an unlined cookie sheet."

That was my social media status on Sunday while I worked on these little Bundts. My little marshmallow incident reminded me of another incident from my childhood. I'm not sure how old I was but I should probably say a really young age so that I look better in this story. Let's go with 10 years old.

There's a cooking show on Jamaican television called Creative Cooking. While I prepared lunch or a snack, I would fancy myself on Creative Cooking and talk to my imaginary audience. One evening, Creative Cooking featured candy making. I was intrigued. I don't think I had ever attempted anything from the show before and my kitchen skills were pretty limited - I could boil hot dogs and make seasoned rice. But candy needed to be made.

I gathered pots and spoons and then went out to the lime tree to get some limes. I'm not sure how the limes fit in. I don't think they were part of the recipe. Maybe I wanted them to be lime flavoured? Or maybe I have conflated some memories? It's been a while. Anyway, the sugar started melting and I started stirring. I should also point out that I had not written anything down from the show. It was all from memory. At some point, things started going very wrong. I no longer had pretty melted sugar on my hands, I now had smoking melted sugar. Oh and the spoon that I was using had started to melt also.

Abort! Abort!

I panicked. Soon I had sugar stuck in the pot and on multiple spoons. I knew my mother would be home soon and she would probably kill me. So I grabbed the pot and spoons and tossed them into the back of the cupboard. Don't give me that look! I was TEN! I think. I didn't have a plan so the pot and spoons just sat there. Months passed and I had forgotten about the candy making disaster. I don't know if my mother had ever asked about the pot. She must have though and I'm pretty sure I lied. "The small pot? What small pot? That I use for hot dogs? Oh look! A fly. Let me get rid of it." Or perhaps, "Hmm. You're right. I haven't seen it in a while." Well, that would have been the truth. I couldn't see it hidden there in the back of the cupboard.

My luck eventually ran out (as it always did) and one day Mummy found the pot. Look, I am going to be honest. I do not remember much about "Discovery Day" but she spared my life so there's that. As I type this, my mother is actually on the phone with me. And funnily enough, she is complaining about a cast iron pot that my brother messed up. I'd ask her about "Discovery Day" but I see no reason to get her started on me. Ha! She's now talking about a spoon. It's like she knows what I'm typing over here. She has always been oddly "psychic" like that. While I was making notes for a blog post for next month, she randomly brought up the incident I was writing about. Time to distract her because I think she's heading down the "kitchen stuff my children have damaged" path.

Let's get back to 2015. The task for this month's Bundt Bakers is to create a s'mores cake. Confession: I've never had s'mores but I made s'mores brownies once. They were pretty amazing but I had carrot cake on the brain so a chocolate cake wouldn't do. I thought I'd make a carrot cake that had graham crackers and white chocolate chips and then top it with a toasted marshmallow glaze. I got my marshmallows toasted but didn't move quickly enough to get them all off my unlined/ungreased cookie sheet. The toasted marshmallow glaze was delicious but way too chunky to be used in the way I pictured it. And on top of that, I now had marshmallows stuck to my cookie sheet and spatula. Thankfully, Adult Kelly knows a bit more chemistry than 10 year old Failed Candy Maker Kelly. I boiled some water and poured it over my cookie sheet and spatula. Disaster averted. Toasted marshmallow glaze will have to wait though. I decided to stick with just a regular marshmallow glaze. In the middle of the night, I had the bright idea to top a mini Bundt with marshmallows and then toast the tops. Tasty. I didn't take pics though.


post signature

Carrot Graham Cake with White Chocolate Chips
Recipe by: Kelly   Adapted from: Cake: Smitten Kitchen Glaze: Saveur
Yield: 9 mini Bundts (1 cup capacity)

Ingredients
Cake
1 cup flour
3/4 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup + 3 T oil
3 eggs
3 cups grated carrot
3/4 cup white chocolate chips

Glaze
1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons water
2 cups mini marshmallows


Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease a nine 1 cup capacity mini Bundt pans.

Whisk together the dry ingredients. Then whisk together the sugars, oil and eggs in a separate bowl. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry then stir until just combined. Fold in the carrots and chocolate chips. 

Divide among the mini Bundt pans. Bake 15 - 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the mini cakes comes out clean.

Place the confectioner's sugar, vanilla and salt in a bowl. Over medium heat, melt the butter in the water then stir in the marshmallows until melted. 
Pour the marshmallow mixture into the sugar mixture. Mix until combined and use immediately.
Notes
  • There's a lot of carrot in these cakes so they are extremely moist. Handle with care. After cooling for a few minutes, I loosened the edges with a spatula then placed the mini Bundts in the freezer. That made them really easy to unmold without fear of the cakes breaking.
  • The glaze goes on thick but dissolves into the cake pretty quickly. .   

Here are all the S'mores themed Bundts. Thanks for hosting, Lauren!
 #BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all our of lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page.
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16 comments:

  1. So funny! Incredible how quick marshmallows can catch fire in an oven.

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  2. Cute story!
    Love the use of carrot in your bundt...brilliant!

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  3. Oh my goodness - love the walk down memory lane; and these little carrot cake treats sounds fantastic!!

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  4. Lol, cute story. I like your take on S'mores a lot, never thought to do a carrot cake version. Laura@ Baking in Pyjamas

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  5. I love that story, Kelly! Your mom is clearly a saint and you can tell her I said so. Meanwhile, your carrot carrot s'more Bundt was inspired!

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  6. What a beautiful story, and those cakes look delicious.

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  7. What a neat story. Love the cakes, too! :)

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  8. Oh Kelly you always make me laugh and drool....the cake looks delicious.

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  9. I love that you used carrot and white chocolate. that's a creative bundt!

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  10. Love those mini bundts and carrot cakes flavour is my favourite!!! Great!!!

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  11. Love those mini bundts and carrot cakes flavour is my favourite!!! Great!!!

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  12. Haha!! Love your story! You were an ambitious little girl, and it's definitely stayed with you. :)
    Carrot cake and marshmallow do sound like a match made in heaven. Great idea!

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  13. I also never had s'mores in my life, but loooved to make the bundt for this month. I see you had some fun too ;-) Great idea and very creative to use the carrot cake :-) Sunshine from Spain!

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  14. Mmmm looks moist and wonderful! :D Oooh what a lovely little bundt.

    Toodles,
    Tammy<3

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  15. Oh man, your unlined/ungreased baking sheet with the marshmallow made me cringe a bit. I can imagine the cleanup! And lol about the burnt sugar caked pot in the back of your mom's cupboard for who knows how long. Did the pot get cleaned once found or just tossed?? Haha

    Love the carrot/marshmallow combo of your mini Bundts! Sounds delicious :).

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