Making a Gugelhupf

For some time now I have been wanting to make a bundt cake, there is something fascinating about the shape of the tin. The tins themselves come in all sorts of shapes and sizes and the resulting cakes make the perfect centrepiece for a tea table, simple and elegant. When CakeMart got in touch with me and asked if I wanted to try a product from their online baking accessories store I knew this was my chance to try a bundt tin. Whilst I was browsing I also noticed a tin for a gugelhupf. I had not heard of a gugelhupf before and had to find out more. A gugelhupf (guglhupf or gugelhopf) is the German, Swiss or Austrian term for a marble cake or bundt cake. Traditionally it is made with a yeast dough but there are also variations that use baking powder instead.  They are cooked in a special tin that gives them a ring shape and usually decorated with a sugar glaze. They are best enjoyed warm with a cup of coffee. I was really intrigued by the shape. I chose two tins, a gugelhupf tin and a bundt tin and decided to try the gugelhupf first.My son was most intrigued by the gugelhupf mould and decided it would make a great hat. I caught him sending selfies to his friends with it on his head that evening. Luckily I managed to rescue it and put it to the use which it was intended, making a gugelhupf. The box for the mould included two recipes, one for an orange gugelhupf and one for a marbled gugelhupf. I decided I would try the orange one and see how it turned out.

The recipe was quite easy to follow. I was surprised at how many eggs the recipe needed, a lot more than a normal sponge cake. The recipe also called for vanilla sugar, something I had not heard of. I found that it was possible to make your own vanilla sugar by mixing sugar with vanilla pods and seeds so I did this. You could really smell the vanilla in the sugar.

The resulting gugelhupf was a delicately orange flavour sponge. It was really tasty warm and cold and perfect with a cup of tea. I added some orange juice into the icing glaze which added to the orange taste and perfectly complemented the flavour of the cake. I was really pleased with the shape of the cake as well, it is unusual. I will definitely have to try some other variants on an orange gugelhupf soon. First I will be trying the bundt tin, so if you know any good bundt recipes let me know.

Orange Gugelhupf Recipe

Orange Gugelhupf

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Ingredients

  

• 375 g butter
• 300 g white sugar
• 70 g brown sugar
• 22.5 vanilla sugar
• pinch salt
• 6 eggs
• zest 1 orange
• juice of 1 orange
• 459 g plain flour
• 22.5 g baking powder
• For the icing
• 120 g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp orange juice

Instructions

 

• Grease the gugelhupf tin and preheat the oven to 160C, Gas Mark 3
• Cream together the butter and sugar.
• Mix in the eggs one at a time.
• Zest the orange and squeeze out the juice.
• Add half the orange zest to the mixture with the flour and baking powder.
• Mix together and add the orange juice.
• Place the mixture in the gugehupf tin and bake for 75 – 90 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.
• Leave to cool for ten minutes in tin then remove.
• Mix the icing sugar with the water and orange juice and drizzle over the cake.
• Use the remaining orange zest to decorate.