This Mother’s Day I got some pretty great presents.  Two of these were a mini-bundt pans and a new bundt book.  The mini bundts are so cute.  They are supposed to be single serving, but they are a large single serving.  They take about a cup of batter per mini-bundt, which actually makes good size cake.

The book I got is called Kiss My Bundt.  It is a recipe book from a bakery in California that specializes in bundt cakes, which is a pretty funny idea.  I like it because it has some bundt ideas I haven’t seen before, like the Basil Lime recipe I made yesterday.  Luckily I had just bought a basil plant, so I was ready to go.  Although Alec, my dad, and my brother were all skeptical, they were very good cakes.  The flavor was not particularly basily or limey, but it was tasty nonetheless.  I made some butter cream frosting to put on the top.  The frosting would not have been necessary, but it made a nice addition.  If you have only a big bundt pan (the 10-12 cup) you can still make this recipe–just bake it longer.  I usually find that big bundts take about an hour, but start checking it at 45 minutes depending on your oven.

Basil-Lime Bundt

1/3 cup basil leaves without stems (I just grabbed a few big leaves off my plant.  I don’t think this needs to be all that specific.)

1 1/4 cup milk

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup butter, room temp

1 3/4 cups sugar

3 eggs, room temp

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 tablespoon lime juice (I used a lot more–juice from 3 limes)

1 teaspoon lime oil or zest from 4 limes (I had zest from three limes because that is all I had.)

Chop the basil and put it in the milk.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together, set aside.

Cream the butter with an electric mixer until soft and smooth.  Add in the sugar, mix well.  Add in the eggs, mix well.

At this point, add in the lime zest, the juice, and the vanilla, and mix.

Beginning and ending with the flour, add 1/3 of the flour mixture in.  Then 1/2 the milk mixture, then the flour, then the milk, then the flour, until all is mixed together.

Transfer the batter to the bundt pan(s) which have been prepared with Baker’s Joy.

Bake at 350.  The book says to bake it for 18-22 minutes.  I baked mine for about 30 and honestly I wish I would have left it in a little longer.

Let the cakes cool in their molds for 15 minutes.  Pop them out and let them cool to room temp on cooling racks.

Meanwhile make the frosting…

3/4 cup butter, room temp

3 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1-2 tablespoons milk

Cream the butter until soft and smooth.  Slowly add in the sugar.  Add vanilla, and enough milk to make it creamy and spreadable.  I also threw in some lemon extract to give the frosting a little something extra, but it certainly is not necessary.  It is easy as that.  It is ready to spread on your mini-bundts.

Happy Mother’s Day, and happy bundt making!