Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake

A delicious moist bundt cake with swirls of cinnamon sugar and topped with a delightful cinnamon crumble 

Hello 2018! I am so excited for the New Year! I took some time over this past week to think about all the different things I want to accomplish. Recipes I want to make. Tutorials I'd like to share. I am really excited to bring more delicious content to By Jaclyn this year. I am also hoping to increase the number of videos I share here, so you can really get a feel for different recipes and tutorials. 

Okay, lets talk about this cinnamon swirl bundt cake. You have to admit that it is a beautiful looking bundt cake. The swirl of cinnamon and sugar adds beautiful visual interest and a punch of flavour.  While the cinnamon crumble adds a wonderful crunchy texture to the cake. This cinnamon swirl cake is the perfect coffee cake. 

Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake

Ingredients

Filling 

1/2 c brown sugar 

2 tsp cinnamon

Bundt Cake 

2 c flour 

1/2 tsp salt 

1.5 tsp baking powder 

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 c butter, at room temperature 

1 c sugar 

2 eggs 

1/2 c milk 

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 c sour cream 

crumble 

1/2 c butter, melted 

1 c flour 

1 c brown sugar 

2 tsp cinnamon 

Directions

For the cinnamon filling: In a small bowl mix together brown sugar and cinnamon for the filling. Set aside.

For the Cake: Pre-heat oven to 350F. Grease a bundt cake pan, set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, fixed with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs, one at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl after each addition. Add in vanilla. 

With the mixer on low, add in half of the flour mixture. Mix in the milk. Followed by the remaining flour mixture. Stir in the sour cream until just combined. 

For the crumble: In a bowl combine flour, brown sugar and cinnamon. Stir in melted butter. Course crumbs should form.

Fill your bundt pan with half of the cake batter. Layer the cinnamon filling on top. Top filling with remaining batter. Add cinnamon crumble on top.  Bake for 40-45 mins or until toothpick comes out clean.

Orange Chocolate Panettone

Panettone is a delicious Italian holiday tradition. This panettone had a wonderful orange citrus flavour and is studded with chocolate. Panettone makes a delightful gift and an even better french toast! 

Panettone is a traditional Italian Christmas bread and over the years the various flavours have seemed to get more elaborate - one year our panettone had ice cream inside! You can't leave my grandmother's house around Christmas without her gifting you at least one. My favourite have always been the ones studded with chocolate.  Panettone also makes for a delicious french toast - a perfect festive Christmas morning breakfast.

Last year, I made these mini orange cranberry white chocolate panettone. They were delicious and the perfect individual size. This year, I wanted to try making a traditional sized panettone. Since I do not own a panettone pan, I used one of my 8 X 3 inch cake pans with a tall collar of parchment paper to add height to the pans. This worked out great! 

I love the combination of orange and chocolate together. The perfect amount tart and sweet. I used a semi sweet chocolate in my panettone but a sweeter milk chocolate would also work well. To really up the chocolate flavour I dipped the top of the panettone in additional chocolate. The panettone also freezes well - so you can make it in advance if need be. I would recommend freezing it before you dip it in the additional chocolate.  

Orange Chocolate Panettone

Ingredients

2 packages instant yeast

4 c all purpose flour

1 tsp salt

3/4 c warm milk

1/4 c butter

1/2 c sugar

3 eggs

2 egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest 1 orange

4 oz semi sweet chocolate, chopped

1 egg

2 tbsp milk

3/4 c, semi sweet chocolate chips

Directions

Grease a large bowl with butter, set aside. In a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, mix together flour, yeast and salt on low speed for 5 minutes

In a small saucepan over medium heat combine milk, butter and sugar. Heat until all the butter is melted and mixture is warm. On low speed, slowly pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture. Mix until just combined. Add in eggs, egg yolks and vanilla. Stir in orange zest and chocolate until just combined. The dough should be sticky to the touch

Transfer dough to prepared bowl, cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise in a warm, draft free area until doubled in size (approx 90 mins).

Grease and line an 8 inch cake pan with parchment paper, creating a cuff around the top of the pan.

Once dough is doubled in size, punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Roll into a ball and place in prepared pan. Cover with clean tea towel and let rise until doubled in size (approx 90 mins).

Beat together remaining egg and 2 table spoons of milk to create egg wash. Brush top of panettone.  Bake at 350F for 35-40 minutes or until the top is golden brown.

Allow panettone to cool for 10-15 minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Melt chocolate chips, and top panettone with melted chocolate.

8 Tips for Decorating with Royal Icing

Tis the season for sugar cookies! I love sugar cookies because they are perfect for any occasion, however, I definitely make more than usual around the Christmas season. I thought I would share some of my tips for decorating with royal icing. I shared my recipe for royal icing in a previous post but I thought today I would take the time to share some more tips for decorating with it. I know it can be super frustrating when the image you have in your head doesn't quite translate into the perfect looking cookie. These are a few things I try to keep in mind when decorating cookies - year round.  

Tips for Decorating with Royal Icing 

 1. Icing consistency is key

Your desired icing consistency will depend on if you are flooding, outlining or adding detail to your cookie. Add additional water slowly (think 1/2 a teaspoon at a time) until your desired consistency is reached. I typically use a 10 second consistency icing to outline and flood my cookie. I will use a slightly thicker consistency when adding detail to my cookies.

2. Keep your icing covered when not in use

Royal icing drys out quickly, be sure to keep it covered either with plastic wrap or a clean damp tea towel. This prevents it from crusting over or drying out.  

3. Use gel colours to tint your royal icing

Gel colours will not effect the consistency of the icing.  Remember a lot goes a long way. Your icing will also darken over time so you will need even less then you think you do. I add my gel colours to my icing using a clean toothpick. Be sure to use a new clean toothpick each time as you don't want to contaminate your gel colours.

4. Always make more of a colour than you think you'll need

It is really difficult to exactly match a colour that you have previously made. Making more of a colour than you think you will need eliminates the stress of running out of a particular colour of icing and having to try and match it. Save yourself the headache and just make a bit more to begin with. 

5. Sketch or write out a game plan

If I am creating multiple different cookies in a set I will often sketch out a rough idea of how I am going to decorate my cookies. This allows me to see how many different colours I will need to make and the number of steps 

6. Simplify when possible

Once you create your game plan, look for ways to simplify your design. I always look to see if I can eliminate a colour or step and still achieve the overall results that I am looking for.  I try to limit my designs to 3-4 colours. I find this creates a more cohesive set and as a bonus it reduces the amount of colours & piping bags I have to create 

7. Give yourself enough time

While you could make and decorate your cookies all in one day, I like to space it out. I work backwards from the number of steps in my game plan to determine how many days I will need to make my cookies without going crazy! Ha. I typically take 3 days to make a set. One day to make the dough and bake the cookies, one day to flood the cookies and another to add the detail. Trying to add details to soon or flood a warm cookie just leads to frustration.  

8. Storing your Royal Icing

If you ran out of time, or made more icing than you need. Not to worry. You can store your icing. Royal icing made with meringue powder stores wonderfully, in an air tight container on the counter. I put a layer of plastic wrap directly on top of the icing to keep it from crusting over, and then put my lid on top. It will last for over a week on the counter. The icing will start to separate and probably won't be at a perfect consistency when you go to use it again. Just pop it back in your mixer for a few minutes for it reincorporate and add small amounts of additional water as necessary to get it back to your desired consistency.

Happy decorating!