Strawberri Daiquiri Bundt Cake

I’m pretty sure I’ve got an addictive personality. I’m an all or nothing kind of person. Over the past two or three years I’ve really got into baking bundt cakes. I blame Rachel McGrath (aka the fabulous DollyBakes, the bundt queen herself!). After seeing her amazing creations on her website using NordicWare bundt pans, I thought I fancy buying a couple of those tins! Now I have a shelving unit with them piled up in our garage much to Mr SmartCookieSam’s disgust! Both he and my kids have said if I buy any more cake tins, they’re going to throw some out! My 16 year old son said to me yesterday that I hadn’t used one of the tins I’d bought when we were on holiday in Canada. Well I hate to disappoint him but that tin was a snowflake shape and I don’t want to be thinking of wintery themed cakes in August, thankyou very much!

Last week I went into TKMaxx with my Mum and daughter. My daughter wanted a new handbag but when she was paying for it, I wandered over to the Homeware section knowing full well they sometimes have Nordicware tins in and they’re usually half price! My eyes lit up when I saw the layered heart tin on the shelf for £19.99 (half price) and I picked it up! My Mum saw me with it and said “What do you want that for?” and “I don’t like hearts,” When someone says that to me the rebel in me wants it all the more! All I could think about for the next few days was getting that blooming cake tin and what I could use it for. As luck would have it I went back into TKMaxx and it was still there on the shelf! I nearly danced with it to the checkout!

On Sunday afternoon I got to use the tin for the very first time. Mr SmartCookieSam saw it and asked “When did you get that tin?” I said, “Oh I’ve had it ages and it’s been in the garage!” Normally we ladies do that with shoes and clothes (well I do that too!) It was Headingley and Meanwood Clandestine Cake Club’s event coming up and we were going to be meeting at White’s Bar in Headingley. The theme was Cocktails which is always a fab theme for cake club and everyone comes up with some delicious cakes. I had recently bought some of Sugar and Crumbs’ new summer flavours of their natural icing sugar and was keen to try out their Strawberry Daiquiri flavour.

I had to google what was in a strawberry daiquiri as I don’t think I’ve ever had one before. My daughter who has a part time job in a bar said she was pretty sure it had rum in it but had never made one. She wanted me to make a Godfather Cake but that would mean going out and buying bottles of Disaronno and some Jack Daniels. With the daiquiri I could buy a small bottle of Bacardi and know that MrSmartCookieSam would finish it off with some coke.

For the cake itself I went back to the Queen of Bundts for inspiration. Rachel McGrath has a recipe in the second Clandestine Cake Club book “A Year Of Cake” which is a Passionfruit Caipirinha Bundt. I adapted the recipe to make it Strawberry Daiquiri flavoured. Instead of lemon extract I used natural strawberry extract from Lakeland. I kept in the grated lime zest but substituted passionfruit yoghurt for strawberry yoghurt. There was also Bacardi in place of the ready made caipirinha cocktail mix. I hoped it would work in the cake. I’ve found in the past that you can’t always taste the alcohol, maybe I should have added it afterwards as a soaking syrup. You can but try.

Last Sunday afternoon saw me baking a few things as I was having a couple of my friends over for lunch the day after. The bundt was going to be done last as it needed the longest in the oven, after salted caramel brownies, peanut butter cookies and a Pimms Victoria Sponge. My son was hovering around the kitchen and asked if he could help with the brownies and the cookies. I don’t think using a heart shaped bundt tin was his idea of baking though, so by that time he sloped off upstairs.

An hour later and the cake was ready to come out of the oven. I always get nervous about bundts coming out of the tin in one piece especially when it’s for cake club. Though it nearly ended up on the floor as my dog walked into the kitchen as I was carrying the cake across from the oven to the cooling rack. One of these days he’s going to end up with hot cake on his head! Thankfully the bundt slid out of the tin perfectly and there weren’t any stubborn bits stuck to the side. I gave it a while to cool down and then started on dinner. After that I mixed up the icing sugar which had a heavenly scent of strawberries. It tasted very sweet so rather than making it into buttercream, I made a very watery glaze and let it trickle down over the sides of the cake. I put a plastic mat underneath but icing still ran over the edge of the mat onto the worktop. Mr SmartCookieSam doesn’t like it when I use icing sugar as it goes everywhere. He has a point.The next morning the cake was finished off with its decorations. I put whole, fresh strawberries inside the middle of the cake and cheated with ready made pink flower and leaf decorations bought in my local Morrisons. I can make sugar flowers but I didn’t have time to colour up the only white icing I had in the cupboard. Even Mary Berry uses shortcuts!