Buttermilk Bundt Cake (Nigella Lawson)

Buttermilk Bundt Cake (Nigella Lawson)

It was a national public holiday in Malaysia yesterday. A friend who just gotten married last month invited us over to her house for a small gathering.

At the mean time, over at I Heart Cooking Clubs, it's Pot Luck week and we can choose to cook anything from these chefs: Diana Henry, Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Giada de Laurentiis, Jamie Oliver, Tessa Kiros, Rick Bayless, Madjur Jaffrey, Yotam Ottolenghi, Donna Hay, and Nigel Slater.

And so, I chose to bake Nigella Lawson's famous (and fail-proof!) Buttermilk Birthday Cake (I baked it in a Bundt pan, so I named it Buttermilk Bundt Cake) to bring over.

Recipe from Nigella's "How To Be A Domestic Goddess" cookbook or here.

Ingredients:
(Makes one cake in a 23-cm ring mold cake pan)

1 & 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 & 1/2 teaspoons baking powder (I used 2 teaspoons)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (omitted)
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons buttermilk*
1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar (I used demerara sugar)
3 large eggs

* If you don't have off-the-shelf buttermilk, you can substitute with 1/3 cup plain yogurt mixed with 1/2 cup low-fat milk. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes before using.

How to:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Lightly grease a 23-cm ring mold cake pan. Note: I used a 10-cup Bundt pan, so I also sprinkle some flour after greasing it. By the way, the 10-cup Bundt pan is a bit too big. I've yet to find out which size will be more suitable.

2. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside.

3. Pour buttermilk into a measuring cup and stir in vanilla extract.

4. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl with an electric mixer at medium speed until light and fluffy.

5. Reduce speed and add eggs one at a time, beating for 30 seconds between additions.

6. Add alternating increments of the flour mixture and the vanilla-buttermilk, blending well after each addition; this should take 3 to 5 minutes.

7. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40 minutes (30 minutes if using layer cake pans) until the cake is beginning to shrink away from the sides and a cake tester comes out clean. If using a mold with a lot of patterning, leave to cool for 20 minutes.

8. Loosen the sides of the cake with a round-bladed knife and turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.