Honey Baba au Rhum - #BundtBakers

I almost skipped this month's Bundt Bakers. I have been in somewhat of a funk lately. Normally, baking gets me out of funk. But I just couldn't push past it. Honey - this month's theme - was just not inspiring me. I gave up. Opted to just sit out and deal with some real life problems instead of drowning them in butter and sugar - or in this case, honey.

However, on Sunday, I glanced at some links that I had open on my phone's and decided to just try something. This something happened to be a baba au rhum but with honey replacing the sugar. Oh, I almost forgot that I made a ginger marble beet cake with honey but my baking powder flat-lined on that. It tasted great but I didn't want to revisit it.

So yes - baba au rhum. It's a yeasted cake that soaked in a rum simple syrup. The cake itself is not particularly sweet so the simple syrup works well with it. These are thirsty little cakes. I started with just a quarter cup of syrup and it didn't seem like I had used any at all. So I added another few tablespoons. If you try this, feel free to increase the syrup, if you want.  The recipe that I chose seems different from others that I read. It's closer to a batter than a dough.

See all those holes? They are just waiting for some more rum.

I may have lacked inspiration but my fellow bundt bakers certainly did not. Look at all the wonderful things that they did with honey. Thanks to our host Laura.

• A Taste of Honey by Margaret at Tea and Scones 
• Hipy Papy Bthuthdth Thuthda Bthuthdy Cake by Lauren at Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Honey Almond Bundt Cake by Terri at Love and Confections
• Honey Baba au Rhum by Kelly at Passion Kneaded
• Honey Banana Bundt by Jane at Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Honey Bundt Cake with Lemon Honey Glaze by Bea and Mara at I Love Bundt Cakes
• Honey Bunny Bundt Cake by Teri at The Freshman Cook
• Honey Caramel Apple Bundt Cake by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas
• Honey Glazed Blackberry Cornmeal Bundt Cake by Tux at Brooklyn Homemaker
• Honey Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake by Lauren at From Gate to Plate
• Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Pound Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days
• Honey Whiskey Mini Bundt Cakes with Honey Whiskey Glaze by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Orange Hazelnut Bundt Cake by Zainab at Blahnik Baker
• Whole Wheat Honey Spiced Apple Breakfast Bundtlettes by Laura at The Spiced Life

Honey Baba au Rhum

Ingredients

Baba

3 cups of flour

1 teaspoon yeast

3/4 cup milk 

3/4 cup butter

1/4 cup honey 

4 eggs

Syrup

1 cup honey

1 cup water

1 cup of rum.

Directions 

Whisk half the flour and all the yeast into a large bowl. Warm the milk (no hotter than the required temperature for your yeast) and add the butter and honey. Stir until the butter is mostly melted and then add to the flour and yeast. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly. Finally, blend in the remaining flour. 

Cover and let rest for an hour. 

Grease a 12 cup bundt pan or eight 1-cup mini bundt pans. Scrape the batter/dough in the pan(s). Cover and let rest for approximately 30 minutes or until the dough has risen 50%. 

Bake in a 350 F oven. The mini bundts will take 15 minutes while the large bundt should take approximately 25 minutes. 

After bundts have cooled, remove from the pans and make the syrup. Whisk honey in warm water until it dissolves then add rum. Pour syrup over bundts.

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#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send Stacy an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Beet Bread Pudding - Crazy Ingredient Challenge

When beets and eggs were announced as this month's Crazy Ingredient Challenge, I was quite excited. I had a list of things that I wanted to do. A marbled ginger beet cake (did it but didn't photograph it), a stuffed bread (still going to make it), and beet egg rolls.

I actually made the egg rolls first. I added beet puree to the egg roll wrappers and then wrapped then in a shredded beets and carrots filling. I loved the beautiful pink hue of the egg roll wrappers. However, when I baked them, they had changed from a beautiful pink to a muddy brownish-pink.

Why beets? Why? Why do you always do that to me? I made a beet swirl bread some months ago and the pink dough had also changed to brown after baking. I figured it was chemistry at work but I wasn't sure just how to slow the change. I also couldn't figure out how some persons did nothing special to their loaves yet they remained pink. I suspected that it had to do with the amount of time that I left my sourdough bread to rise.

After the egg rolls, I decided to work on a bread pudding. I thought that I would add some orange juice to the custard to make it a bit acidic and hopefully slow the chemical reaction that changes my beets. This bread pudding was good. Really, really good. I usually don't like bread pudding but I loved this. There are definitely some areas that are more brown than I like. But that is probably mainly because my bread got a little extra toasty. You don't get a strong beet flavour in these. You can tell there's a hint of something. But beets are really added colour and extra fibre to this dish.

Beet Bread Pudding  

Ingredients

4 - 5 cups of stale bread
3 cups of milk

2 eggs
1 cup pureed beets
3/4 cup  sugar (I used half brown and half granulated)
1/4 cup rum
1/4 cup orange juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Directions 

Cut the bread into 1/2 inch cubes. If the bread is not stale, toast in a 200 degree oven for a few minutes. Don't leave them too long! Place the cubes into a greased 9" x 5" loaf pan or pan of similar volume.

Blend milk, eggs, beets, sugar, rum, orange juice, cinnamon and nutmeg and pour over bread cubes. Let sit until the custard has been absorbed. The amount of time this takes depends on how dry your bread is. It could take as little as an hour.. You can also refrigerate overnight.

Bake in a 350 F oven for 50 minutes.

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