Amaretto Sour Bundt Cake

There's no place like home... So I tapped my heels together and made a sparkly little cocktail bundt to take to my friend's house! My challenge was the classic Amaretto sour. That warming mix of almonds, with the sharp citrus fruits; it's just scrumptious!

As well as being soaked in Amaretto, I added some ground almonds in place of all the flour, which makes a moist cake with almost a frangipane-like texture. This one was actually a gluten free version, which can easily be made by substituting the plain flour for Dove's farm plain flour. The only change I'd recommend to your normal baking is to use a tin with fewer nooks and crannies, as the cake itself is a bit softer, but just as delicious.

Cake:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 300g Homepride plain flour
• 50g ground almonds
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 250ml plain low fat lemon yoghurt 
• Zest of one lemon
• 100ml Amaretto

Topping:

• 300g icing sugar
• More Amaretto 
• Juice of 1 orange
• Glacé cherries
• Red cake glitter (optional)
• Segments of orange
• Cocktail umbrellas (essential)

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/melted butter and dust with flour.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. 
5. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and ground almonds.
6. Pour the yoghurt into a jug, and add the Amaretto, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
7. Stir in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
8. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
9. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
10. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
11. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
12. When completely cool, add the orange juice to the icing sugar, and mix with enough Amaretto to make a runny icing. You can use a bit of water if you like.
13. Tip it over your cake and let it drip down. 
14. Decorate with glacé cherries rolled in red cake glitter, segments of orange, and my fave naff umbrellas. 

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.