Parliament Tattoo Speculoos Bundt

Photo credit: Barba VanDømd

I adore Rebecca Vincent. She loves Harry Potter, has the most accurate moral compass of anyone I have ever met, is full of wisdom, and happens to do the best tattoos ever. Forever ever. I travel to London to have her scratch me with ink, which never feels like a chore. I love Parliament Tattoo and the other folk who work there, especially that little cutie Barba, who takes the best photos!

After a shit-house year, I decided to have a tattoo which represented comfort. When things were particularly bad, I started seeing robins everywhere; looking through the window, sat beside me as I ate lunch, one feeding another a foot away from me, in my work car parking space etc... They always made me smile because they reminded me of my legendary rabbit boy, Robin. I knew I had to have a little lad on my arm, so he'd be with me all the time. I've put the before and after pictures below just so you can see how amazing she actually is!

Whether I'm day tripping to London, or Rebecca comes to Manchester, I always take baked goods. It's the law. I've done a couple of Harry Potter themed cakes for her already, but this was Christmas time, so I decided it had to be 'Parliament Tattoo Christmas' themed. The studio is full of animal skulls, crazy foliage and religious paraphernalia, so I had to make something along those lines. I made a spicy Speculoos flavoured cake, with Jack Daniels Honey icing. Festive like.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 350g golden caster sugar
• 100g dark brown sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g Homepride plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 3 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 4 tbsp Speculoos spread. Lotus and Lidl both do this. If you can't find it, regular Lotus Biscoff spread will work just fine. 
• 250ml honey flavoured low fat yoghurt 

Topping:

• Icing sugar
• Jack Daniels Honey bourbon (optional - you can use apple juice or water instead)
• A shitload of cake glitter (optional)

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 c
2. Prepare a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch with melted butter 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. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices.
6. Pour the yoghurt into a jug, and add the vanilla extract.
7. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yoghurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. 
8. Dollop in the Speculoos spread.
9. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
10. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. It will be quite thick.
11. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. 
12. Leave the cake to cool for ten minutes before removing from the tin.
13. When completely cool, add the bourbon to the icing sugar, and mix to make a runny icing. You can use a bit of water if you like.
14. Tip it over your cake and let it drip down. 
15. Blast with glitter like you're decorating a grotto.

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.