Sorrel Mini Bundts - #BundtBakers

For the past week, I've been neck-deep in my least favourite Jamaican Christmas tradition - cleaning the house. I don't know whose grand idea it was to deep clean the house at Christmastime but I don't like you very much right now. I'm not being my regular whiny self either, folks. This is some serious cleaning. It's spring cleaning on steroids. EVERY SINGLE ITEM in the house is CLEANED. And while that's going on, the house might also be painted. Every curtain and drape, every single wine glass that we never use because we never drink wine, every single one of those 1 million plates that I think we need to get rid of because we don't use them ever and I don't want to wash them next year. Dear shot glass collection, you are on my hit list. And no, I do not have a dishwasher. While all the crazy cleaning is going on, Jamaicans might also be painting their homes. Why oh why do we do this to ourselves? Isn't Christmas hectic enough? I need a very long nap and a cup of sorrel with lots of rum.

Sorrel

Now, sorrel is definitely my favourite Christmas tradition. The plant is called Jamaica hibiscus elsewhere but if you ask for hibiscus here, you will get something quite different. You'll find it in various shades of red, with almost everyone preferring the darkest colour that you can find. The sorrel is placed in a large pot with water and lots of spices (my family uses ginger, cinnamon leaves, cloves, pimento, and orange peel), brought to a boil and then left to steep for a while. It's then sweetened and then copious amounts of rum is added. We don't add rum in my household and on more than one occasion, I have walked away from a friend's house extremely tipsy because I forgot that everyone else goes a little bit crazy with the rum. It might actually be unpatriotic to NOT add rum to your sorrel so fellow Jamaicans, don't arrest me. We just pretend to be teetotallers over here but we really aren't.

This month the Bundt Bakers are baking up Christmas Bundts and I decided to try out a sorrel bundt. It just isn't Christmas if there's no sorrel. I don't care about the fruit cake and the ham. (OK, I do care about the ham.) But the sorrel? It's a must have. The sorrel gives the little cakes a pinkish hue. I think it might have been a bit more pink if I'd made my batter a bit acidic - but that's an experiment for another time.

Thanks for hosting, Sneha! Lots of Christmassy bundts below. Keep scrolling!

Sorrel Mini Bundts

Ingredients 
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons oil
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup sorrel (prepared or steep 1/2 cup dried sorrel in 1/2 cup hot water overnight. Drain.)
Directions
Thoroughly grease 3 one cup capacity mini Bundt pans. Preheat oven to 350F.
Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves.
In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until well combined and then add the oil, egg, and vanilla. Mix until thoroughly combined.
Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture along with the sorrel. Mix until almost combined and then add the remaining flour. Mix well and then divide into prepared mini Bundt pans.

Bake 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a mini Bundt comes out clean.

#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.

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