Deeply spiced, decadently rich Chinese Five-Spice Bundt Cake sweetened with molasses and date sugar and topped with a silky blond chocolate.
I like big Bundts and I cannot lie! Sir Mix-A-Lot would definitely get sprung and pull up tough with a glance of this deep brown, spicy number! Oh, shut up Becky...
If you're a fan of spiced cake, this Chinese Five-Spice Bundt Cake will definitely become a fave. Homemade gingerbread spice, plus the addition of Chinese Five-Spice, molasses and date sugar yields a decadently rich, deeply spiced cake!
Not that it's needed, but a few strategic, golden drips of Orelys ganache lends irresistible liquorice/licorice notes imparted by the muscovado sugar, to complement the overall flavour profile. The Dude has not stopped raving about this one.
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Chinese Five-Spice
I love using Chinese Five-Spice in savoury applications - it imparts a perfectly balanced combination of salty, sweet, bitter, sour - in short, umami - in one shot. In its simplest form, it contains star anise, Sichuan peppercorn, cinnamon, cloves and fennel seeds. I sometimes like to sneak in a little ginger and nutmeg, when the occasion requires.
The less is more approach is the way to go when using this spice mix. In my first test, the amounts for the five-spice were switched with the gingerbread. It wasn't bad, but my taste testers suggested I tone it down a touch. And, VOILA!
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Do You Date Sugar?
Indeed... we've been going steady for about a month now! 😉
About a month back, I picked up a bag of date sugar on one of my far too frequent visits to HomeSense/Winners. I've made my own date caramel/paste/sweetener in the past, but date sugar, which is one ingredient - I have not used as much in my baking.
The very first thing I made was caramel that went into a batch of ganache. Cake and waffles came shortly after. It adds great flavour to baked goods, but it isn't actually a 'sugar', so it behaves differently, as I've learned the hard way. Some things to keep in mind, when working with date sugar:
- As its properties are very different, date sugar does not dissolve or melt in the same way sugar does. Use it in applications where the residual grit doesn't greatly impact the texture outcome of the recipe. A good replacement would be date syrup.
- It's a great, but costly, replacement for brown sugar, at about double the cost and triple in the case of white sugar. I would argue that its nutritional value (high fibre, low glycemic, vitamins and minerals) is well worth the cost.
- Not willing to pay more? You can make it at home, as I recently did, using my dehydrator, food processor and coffee grinder!
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Mo Lasses
Ok, bad humour aside... my grandma has used molasses in her baking from as far back as I can remember. After all, we were surrounded by sugar, well, sugar cane to be exact, endless rows of tall, bamboo-looking stalks with green, leafy crowns.
I have fond memories of eating the fresh cane after my grandfather used a machete to skillfully remove the outer layer to reveal the sweet, juicy husk. I especially liked the sugar cane juice my grandmother made by extracting the juice from the unprocessed cane. At the end of all that work was a jug of one ingredient magic, light green in colour, sweet, refreshing and full of vitamins and minerals. But I digress, a little...
Molasses, a byproduct of sugar-making, is the thick, sticky liquid gold that remains once the juice is boiled and sugar crystals removed from the juice. The light/fancy and dark molasses commonly used in baking, are the results of the first and second boils, respectively. Blackstrap molasses, produced from the third boil, is the darkest, thickest, less sweet of the bunch and is said to hold many health benefits. We were force-fed it for medicinal purposes, as kids.
Molasses adds deliciously robust flavour and colour to baked goods - from cakes to cookies to breads and even savoury applications, like BBQ sauce and beans (YUMMM!). It blends beautifully with the spices and other ingredients to make this simply delicious Chinese Five-Spice Bundt Cake.
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Ingredients
For the ganache:
- 19 grams glucose
- 229 grams blond chocolate I used Orelys 35%
- 112 grams 35% whipping cream or coconut cream
For the cake:
- 240 grams hot water
- 262.5 grams fancy/light molasses
- 6 grams baking soda
- 199 grams all-purpose flour
- 15 grams gingerbread spice preferably homemade
- 5 grams Chinese five-spice preferably homemade
- 5.5 grams baking powder
- 1 gram salt
- 2 large eggs
- 105 grams vegetable oil
- 110 grams date sugar
Instructions
Make the ganache:
- Place a small amount of water in a pot and place over low heat. Scale the chocolate into a medium bowl and place it over the pot to melt.
- Scale the glucose and milk directly into a small saucepan and heat. Pour onto the melted chocolate and use an immersion blender to emulsify, for best results. Or stir with a whisk or spatula until emulsified, if you do not have an immersion blender. Set aside.
Make the cake:
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF. Prepare your bundt pan by brushing with cake release. Place prepared pan on a baking sheet. I used the 10-cup Crown Bundt from Nordicware. If using regular pans, it works well in three 7 or 8-inch pans.
- Combine the water and molasses in a large measuring cup until well combined, then whisk in the baking soda. Set aside.
- Sift together the flour, gingerbread spice, Chinese five-spice, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the eggs, oil and date sugar to a large bowl and whisk to combine. Whisk in the molasses mixture. Add the dry ingredients and combine until just smooth.
- Pour into the prepared bundt pan and bake for 40 to 50 minutes on the middle rack. If using regular pans, bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Check for doneness, remove from oven when ready and allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Place the rack over the pan and flip over to release. Allow to cool completely.
- Pour or pipe the ganache onto the cake and enjoy!
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