A few weeks ago, the lovely people at Nordic Ware UK approached me and asked if I would like one of their fabulous, fabulous cake pans. Even before I’d finished reading the full message, I replied with YES!

Whatever the question, when Nordic Ware asks it, the answer is always Hell Yeah! I’m a huge fan of their products anyway (as you can see here and here for starters) and have been so for years so it was no problem to do a little promoting for them on the blog.

The quality is stunning and the nonstick properties magical. I simply would never buy another brand of bundt – that is how good they are (and no, I am not being paid a thing to say any of this!).  As they sent me a surprise package, I asked my Facebook readers to guess which tin they’d sent and regular reader Julie Dodds got it right. She requested “something orangey” so I set about devising a recipe just for her.

 

Gluten Free Orange & Vanilla Bundlettes

 

When the pan arrived, I came down with a stinking cold that lingered over a fortnight and I had an exciting moment when I slipped a disc in my back during a particularly enthusiastic coughing fit. Oh new realms of pain! It meant that my plans to get creative in the kitchen got pushed back and things fell behind on the blog.

Fortunately, I’m good and healthy now and have even started going to the gym again so I don’t end up in this position again anytime soon as I’m sure it was down to being so unfit and not looking after myself that I ended up in that sorry state. Although the one good thing about not being able to make them straight away is I later found out that Julie is gluten intolerant and had I cracked straight on, the recipe wouldn’t have been suitable for her!

Enter these sweet little Gluten Free Orange & Vanilla Bundlettes.

 

Gluten Free Orange & Vanilla Bundlettes-2

 

Regular readers know my Daddums is Coeliac and as a family, we are re-learning how to eat, let alone bake for a gluten-free person. One of the biggest challenges when baking is the very short shelf life, as gluten seems to proffer keeping qualities. Scientific explanation on a postcard, please! Without it, the baked good stales rapidly.

I don’t find that to be a problem at all with the magical gluten-free flour from Juvela (as per my GF Victoria Sponge post), but I’ve struggled with off the shelf, supermarket brands. I do like a challenge though so I came up with this recipe utilising Doves’ Farm self-raising flour (they are in no way associated with this post – I simply know it’s easy for UK readers to get). It’s a good idea to bump up the moisture content of GF cake batters as the flour absorbs a lot more liquid than the ordinary ones do and here, I did this with some of my homemade creme fraîche.

Not to mention a luscious topping with orange chocolate ganache. When made and eaten on the same day, these adorable little baby cakes are light and fluffy, soft and moist. The next day, they will need drowning in custard (hardly a bad thing lol). Luckily, this Nordic Ware tin only makes 6 at a time and when you taste these little cakes, reminiscent of pandoro or panettone because of that heavenly combination of citrus and vanilla, you won’t find it too much of a challenge to wolf the lot down.

I hope you like your recipe Julie! And thank you to Pauline of Nordic Ware UK for another fabulous pan. xxx

Gluten Free Orange & Vanilla Bundtlettes
Mini orange and vanilla scented bundt cakes topped with an orange chocolate ganache. Gluten Free and delicious.
Servings: 6
: 394 kcal
Author: Just Jo
Ingredients
  • 2 medium eggs
  • 150 g golden caster sugar
  • Seeds of one vanilla pod
  • Zest of an orange or 2 tsp orange extract
  • 220 g gluten free Doves' Farm self raising flour
  • 125 g creme fraiche
  • 110 g butter softened
For the topping
  • 90 g orange flavoured chocolate* drops or a chopped bar
  • 50 g double cream
Instructions
  1. Spray a six hole mini bundt pan (bundlette pan) with oil or brush with butter and preheat your oven to 180˚C.
  2. Cream butter and sugar together.
  3. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and orange zest or extract.
  4. Fold in the flour then follow with the creme fraîche.
  5. I find it's easiest and quickest to put the batter in a piping bag and fill the cake pan with that for bundt cakes - it's much easier than trying to spoon in equal amounts to each hole. Give the pan a sharp tap or two on the worktop to level the batter out and then bake for 22-25 minutes.
  6. The cakes will rise very well and have a beautiful golden, orange hue when cooked - a skewer should come out with a few moist crumbs on only.
  7. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes then invert over a cake rack and they should practically fall out of a Nordic Ware pan!
  8. When cooled to room temperature, scald the double cream in a small saucepan then beat in the chocolate until well combined, thick and glossy. Spoon over the cooled cakes and serve immediately. They are very much best eaten the same day.
Recipe Notes

*= if you can't get orange flavoured chocolate, then use white chocolate and simply add 1 tsp orange extract to the cream as you heat it.
If you don't have a Nordic Ware bundlette pan, you could use a muffin pan and make around 10 little cakes - you will need to reduce the cooking time to around 16-18 minutes. Or maybe try mini loaf pans and let me know how you get on - they would be very cute in loaf form.

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