Did you know there’s a National Bundt Day? Neither did I. But there is. November 15th (that’s Sunday) is a symbolic day to celebrate the kick-off for holiday baking.
I found out about this from Chrysta Wilson, author of Kiss My Bundt, and owner of Kiss My Bundt Bakery in Los Angeles. Yes, a whole book and a whole bakery dedicated to bundt cakes. You won’t believe some of what she puts in these things.
You might have guessed Chrysta is from the South, where bundt is nearly a religion. But it didn’t become her profession until she moved to California.
As a community organizer, Chrysta used bundt cakes to bring people together for meetings. No one declines a meeting when there’s going to be home-made cake.
People kept asking for her cakes, so she started baking nights and weekends and selling them. “As I kept plugging away at my baking hobby, I inadvertently developed clients.”
Chrysta tells the whole story in her book, including the fact that she’s had no training except for shadowing her Aunt Dia during her childhood summers. Then she would recreate what she saw using her Easy Bake Oven, and sell the treats to neighborhood kids.
Her bakery is now making things the same way as Aunt Dia: Everything from scratch, with fresh ingredients and interesting flavor combinations. Only open since August of 2008, she has already served Grammy party events, American Idol season finales and Teen Choice Awards.
The book
When you focus on a single food, you can really get into a lot of detail on methods and variations. And boy, does this book deliver on that:
- A chapter each on vanilla, pound, chocolate, marble and savory bundts.
- A chapter on frostings, glazes and ganache.
- References, tips, baking times … even several vegan recipes.
You read that right: “savory bundts”. Such as sweet cornbread with honey butter, jalapeño cheese, and mac ‘n cheese baby bundts. Like I said, when you focus on one dish you can really stretch with variations.
Besides the amazing collection of ideas, and all the great tips — both of which are worth the time it takes to read this book — the thing I love most is her attitude about all the recipes. None of them are “the recipe” that you have to follow exactly. Her whole point is that you should play around with the flavors.
Chrysta even shows you how to modify recipes, so you can make up your own variations with confidence. “Once you get the technique down, you’ll start to see how easy it is to change a cake with a different frosting or glaze. And you’ll learn how easy it is to swap around an ingredient or two in the way I did to create this book and the menu for my bakeshop.”
That’s my kind of cookbook. You can pre-order Kiss My Bundt for $16.95, or look for it in stores starting November 27th.
Or if you need a recipe to celebrate Bundt Day this Sunday, you can try my apple bundt cake with maple glaze.
2 Comments
I miss the days where nearly all the updates on this site were recipes, instead of sales pitches and all the other stuff that has been flooding this website for the past month.
Because I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy, what I heard is, "I really like when you post recipes, and I'd like to see more of them."
You're right, though, there has been quite a bit of non-recipe stuff in the last month. (Though there has also been: chicken divan, pancake puffs, tortilla chips, seafood nachos, fruit smoothie, four different Halloween treats, apple bundt cake, maple glaze, and a four-part series on sourdough bread.)
Of course I mentioned the new book I just published. Then there was the newsletter I just started. (And if you only want recipes, then definitely don't sign up for the newsletter. That has lots of non-recipe stuff about food.)
And the political endorsement? I can't remember any other time I've had a chance to vote for (or against) something that so directly affected the food I can buy.
Finally, the book review you're responding to is not a sales pitch. I don't make anything if you buy it. I genuinely like the book, and it wouldn't make sense to talk about it without telling you where you can get it. (And it is full of recipes.)
So maybe this has been an exceptional month, with a lot of things happening close together that I wanted to talk about. To save you some time though, in case you hadn't noticed, if there's not a picture of food at the top of the page, there's not going to be a recipe down below.