Berry Spiced Bundt Cake

I love baking. In fact, even when I had one of those tiny micro-ovens, I would invite my friends and bake all sorts of sweets & savouries. Given how tiny the micro-oven was, I was in the kitchen a lot longer than normal. I honestly did not mind (my friends were okay with hanging around in the kitchen) the exchange of trays and long waiting times. Good ol' memories...
And while I miss those days, I am happy that I now have a bigger, fancier oven!

I decided to bake this bundt cake when I saw some juicy berries at the Eko Store over the weekend. I picked up my love for baking with fruits when I was living in France. You are probably aware that French cuisine uses a lot of fruits and they create culinary masterpieces using minimal ingredients. As my French friend once told me, "It's all about the technique. How you beat the egg, how you whip up the butter...it all adds to the taste."

I always go with simple.  For me, it's all about the flavours, textures and fragrance of ingredients first.
I am passionate about  using natural and bio goods. I do not use artificial colours in my food. I am not tempted to either. My colours are with fruits & vegetables that I use while baking/cooking and I prefer using minimum or no sugar in my desserts. I baked this cake with very little sugar. You are more than welcome to add more if you wish but I would recommend letting your berries do their job and if you feel the need, you can always drizzle some honey on top, later. When you can choose to eat healthy without too much effort, you should embrace that opportunity. This way you can indulge as much as you want without feeling guilty or worrying about calories.

So, to make this berry spiced bundt cake, here's what you need -

Ingredients
Measurements using teacup as always

1 cup plain flour/barley flour
1/2 cup almond flour
1 teaspoon vanilla bourbon powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup full-fat yoghurt (5 tablespoons extra if using barley flour)
80 gms unsalted butter (melt this in the microwave for 20 seconds)
4 strawberries sliced thinly
14 blueberries
10 raspberries
2 eggs
1 teaspoon olive oil
1/4 cup sugar
Grated pistachios as topping (optional)
Honey as topping (optional)

Method

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees C.

 In a big mixing bowl,  add the melted butter, cinnamon powder, vanilla bourbon powder and sugar.

Beat well.

Add the eggs ( one at a time) and beat in well.

Next, slowly fold in the plain/ barley flour.

Follow this up with yoghurt. Again gentle mixing, not too aggressive.

Next, add the almond flour.

Add the berries and fold them in.

Add the baking powder and soda and mix well.

Grease the bundt pan with olive oil and add the batter in.

Place the bundt mould in the pre-heated oven and allow to bake for 45 minutes.

Mine was done in 47 minutes. It depends on your oven so use the tester to check after 40 minutes.

Allow the bundt cake to cool down.

After it has cooled down, hold a plate on top. Invert and place the plate on a stable surface.

Gently pat from all sides so that the bundt cake slides out. It slides out smoothly thanks to (olive oil) greasing the mould before baking.

You may choose to decorate this cake with grated pistachios and drizzle some honey (incase you choose to go with less sugar in the batter).

Cut and serve a slice with vanilla/coconut ice cream or on its own or with a cup of tea.

Enjoy!