Lebkuchen Bundt Cake

When I was in year eight at secondary school, my German teacher brought in some festive goodies for our last lesson before Christmas. This is when I discovered Lebkuchen; a little german gingerbread style biscuit with enough spice in it to ward off any 'bah humbug' feelings you may be harbouring. I've bought these little biscuits every year since.

Yesterday, my friend Vicki and I were discussing the foods which we have to buy at Christmas - just because we always have. This is where the Lebkuchen bundt was born. If I could bottle the smell of this cake, I'd be a very rich lady. Spice up your life.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 350g golden caster sugar
• 100g soft brown sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g plain flour
• 2 tsp mixed spice
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 4 tsp ginger
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml vanilla yoghurt 
• 3 Lebkuchen biscuits, whizzed up in a food processor to a fine dust or 'flour'
• Icing sugar to decorate
• 1 Lebkuchen biscuit to decorate

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with Cake Release spray and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. Add the extract.
6. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
7. Pour the yoghurt into a jug.
8. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt mix. Repeat this until everything is combined.
9. Stir in the Lebkuchen 'flour'. 
10. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
11. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
12. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
13. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
14. When the cake is fully cool, mix the icing sugar with enough water to make a very runny icing. Tip over the cake and decorate with a Lebkuchen biscuit.

Where to buy this stuff:
Cake Release

Nordic Ware Cathedral Bundt
Lebkuchen

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.