This recipe is adapted from the 200th Anniversary Edition King Arthur Flour Cookbook original pound cake. For a 9-inch bundt cake pan, reducing the classic pound cake ratios (1 lb each of the first 4 ingredients) to 12oz (3/4 lb) perfectly fills the pan without overflowing. I’ve played with many cake variations using the 3/4 lb cake base and I enjoy tweaking it based on seasonal ingredients.
I had baked a fresh peach bundt cake for my friends’ annual honey harvest party earlier this year, and that inspired this recipe. Thinking of peaches and honey, I got out the frozen Iowa white peaches I had from Early Morning Harvest, and I decided to create a version spiced with cinnamon for the winter season. Since the peaches had been frozen, then blanched to remove the peels, it made more sense to mash them this time. Also on hand, I used WW Homestead Dairy butter, Kalona Supernatural plain kefir, Early Morning Harvest pastry flour, and Grand River Family Farms fresh pastured multi-colored eggs.
The secret ingredient is air, which is incorporated during the step by step mixing process to help lighten the cake. Baking powder is also added for leavening, and cream of tartar is used when whipping the egg whites to help stabilize them.
I prepare my bundt pans with plenty of vegetable shortening and sugar, using a pastry brush to get the shortening into each of the pan’s nooks and crannies. I don’t use butter for the pan since it contains additional liquid, which would require flour to absorb. Using sugar in place of flour to prepare the pan yields delicious slightly crisp sugary edges. Be sure to let the cake cool only slightly (about 10-15 minutes - so it settles back down in height, but the sugar is still warm) before turning the cake out of the pan, and it should release easily without breaking and sticking to the pan.
Cake
- 12 oz unsalted butter, room temp (1 ½ C)
- 12 oz sugar (about 1 ½ - 1 ¾ C) (plus more for preparing pan)
- 12 oz eggs, separated (about 6 large)
- 12 oz flour (cake or pastry) (about 1 ½ C)
- 1/4 t cream of tartar
- 2 t baking powder
- 1/2 t salt
- 3/4 C mashed peaches (blanched and peeled first)
- 1/2 C plain kefir
- 1 t vanilla
Honey Walnut Glaze
- 1/8 C walnuts, toasted and finely chopped
- 2 T honey
- 1 C powdered sugar
- 1 T milk or half and half
- 1/4 t salt
- 1/4 t cinnamon
- Preheat oven to 350 F and prepare a 9-inch bundt pan by coating it with vegetable shortening and sugar. Set aside in a cool area of the kitchen.
- In a stand mixer with a whisk attachment, whip the butter until it is light and airy – it will lighten in color considerably.
- Add the sugar gradually, using 3 additions, whipping and scraping bowl between each addition. You want to keep incorporating air while giving the sugar time to dissolve.
- In the meantime, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Using 2 bowls, sift the dry ingredients back and forth 3-4 times to add air before you’re ready to use them. In a different bowl, combine the plain kefir, peach mash, and vanilla.
- Add egg yolks, 2 at a time in 3 additions using the same process as when adding sugar.
- Working more quickly than before to avoid developing the gluten, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, scraping the bowl between each addition.
- In the meantime, whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar in a separate bowl (you can use the empty one from sifting flour back and forth, the residual flour dust won’t hurt the egg whites). Whip the whites until you get medium-stiff peaks.
- After all the flour is incorporated, add the kefir/peach mixture and combine.
- Switch to a paddle attachment and incorporate about 1/3 of the whipped egg whites. This lightens the batter, so it’s easier to fold in the remaining egg whites without losing too much air and helps prevent streaks of unmixed egg whites. Fold in remaining egg whites by hand.
- Pour batter into the prepared bundt pan. When about halfway full, tap the pan to get the batter into each nook before filling all the way. Using a rubber spatula, smooth the batter up from the center so it is sloped to the outsides of the pan, bringing it upwards to fill in any details along the outside edges of the pan. As it bakes, it will expand in a dome from the center, leaving you with a flat-bottomed cake and all details of your bundt pan filled perfectly.
- Bake until the cake springs back when tapped lightly and a long skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.
- Glaze: in a pan, toast walnuts gently over medium heat, stirring/shaking almost continuously until aromatic and lightly toasted. Chop fine with a knife and set aside to cool. Combine remaining glaze ingredients and mix well until all sugar is dissolved and you have achieved a thick glaze consistency. Stir in the cooled walnuts. Wait until the cake has cooled and then top with the glaze before serving.
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