Cinnamon-Hazelnut Cake – Baked with Love . . . But

So, it was husband’s birthday and a cinnamon hazelnut cake it was.

I have been baking cakes for a long time now. Won’t say they are professional bakers’ quality but decent enough to get a few compliments from friends. With baking skills in place, a cake for husband had to be on the cards.

“What cake would you want it to be? Vanilla, chocolate, marble, lemon, or cinnamon?”

“Cinnamon.”

Okay, cinnamon it shall be. But how do you silence the little bug in your brain that tempts you to make some alterations to a simple thing? It’s difficult and when it comes to cakes, every time I bake I want to experiment with something new. No, nothing outlandish or something someone might not have tried before but something I have not tried. It is a something NEW FOR ME.

This time it had to a combination of cinnamon and hazelnut.

The ingredients seemed perfect so where did I blunder? The cake tin of my choice. Initially I decided to make a loaf cake but cutting a loaf cake for a birthday did not make an appealing sight so I decided to make it a round cake.

A simple round cinnamon cake did not seem right either. So, I decided to make it a Bundt cake. But then I did not have a Bundt pan of the desired size. Time for improvisation. Took a 9-inch round cake tin and placed a ‘supposedly high enough’ ring in the center to create the ‘ring cake’ shape.

You see, this is what happens when you act on impulse when it comes to cakes. The batter filled up more than half way up the pan and when the baking started the separating element in the center was inundated. What resulted was a round looking cake from the top but a hole under the surface.

No problem as it was presentable enough to be cut and the taste was also good as one ‘admirer’ on Instagram put it, ‘cinnamon and hazelnut is a brilliant combination.’

Next time I better use a proper size cake tin and make a proper looking cinnamon-hazelnut bundt cake.