Christmas bundt cake

delicious. tips

1. Sizes: Our bundt cake recipe uses the melting method, where fat and sugar are melted together before the eggs are added. That means it’s easy to scale up or down for large or multiple tins. Our base recipe uses four eggs, so you can halve or quarter it easily – divide the rest of the ingredients by the same amount. Or double the mixture and use eight eggs.

   Bundt tins usually specify the quantity they’ll hold in litres. Our recipe works for a 2.4 litre tin, but also a 2.1 litre bundt ‘quartet’ pan (which has holes for four medium cakes). Small bundt (bundtlette) trays, usually with six or nine holes, are 0.8-1.2 litres, so a two-egg batter would work. For the tiny bundt tins with a 0.3 litre capacity, a quarter quantity (one-egg batter) would fill the tray twice.

2. Wrap the cooled, un-iced cake and freeze for up to 3 months. Defrost at room temperature, then decorate.

3. Okay, so now you have your perfectly formed bundt cake with a clear-cut design, fragrant with flavour. It’s time to give it that final flourish and ensure jaws drop to the floor as you enter the room and put it on the table.

   It isn’t vital, but brushing the cake with a syrup while it cools will add extra moisture and flavour. Making a syrup requires nothing more than dissolving sugar in a hot liquid. Choose the liquid based on the flavours of your cake – either using the same liquid that’s gone into the batter or something complementary (syrup made with lime juice works well with a rum and ginger cake, for example). We recommend citrus juice, a 50/50 mixture of booze and water or a 50/50 mixture of booze and coffee. To make your syrup, put 100g caster sugar and 140ml of your liquid in a saucepan. Bring it to a simmer and cook for 3 minutes until reduced by half, then transfer to a shallow bowl to cool completely before brushing over the cake.

   A thick white icing poured over the top will instantly turn a bundt cake into a snowy mountain peak, so it’s a no-brainer at Christmas. Put 100g icing sugar in a jug and add 1 tsp just-boiled water. Sir well until smooth, then add a little more water, drop by drop, until the icing reaches a thick, pourable consistency. Drizzle over the cake and leave to set. You can use citrus juice or coffee instead of water if you have any left over from the cake batter. You could also replace 20g of the icing sugar with cocoa powder to make a chocolate icing.

   A simple dusting of icing sugar is one of our favourite ways to decorate a bundt cake. You can also top the cake with fruit and nuts. In-season citrus cut into wedges (or, if you have the time, segmented) is a great final addition. You can cook down frozen berries with a little sugar to make a quick compote for spooning over, or grate over a snow shower of white chocolate. If you’re using nuts, give them a good toast to boost their flavour. You can even go a step further and coat the (still hot) toasted nuts in golden syrup, then cook for a few minutes longer to candy them.