Pretzel and Salted Caramel Bundt

Bundt nerves... I was off to meet Mr Nordic Ware, Marcus for our annual catch up at the Cake and Bake Show. I realised the week before that I had never actually made him a bundt, which seemed almost perverse, so I sorted myself out and got my pinny on. As if he had never actually tried my cake before... I could have been an utter charlatan who made things that taste of muck and dust.

I have never been so nervous whilst baking before! I decided to make a pretzel and salted caramel bundt after spotting a bag of giant pretzels in M&S, and being quite smitten by the idea of decorating with them. I then went on this mad spree of finding all sorts of pretzel related items, most of which I didn't actually use, and had to dispose of by eating them. Tough gig.

Second task was to get said bundt to Marcus in one piece, whist travelling to Event City, over the heinous Barton Bridge, in rush hour traffic. He then had to get it home to the Midlands without it looking like an utter wreck! I'm reliably informed that it got there just fine, albeit missing a few pretzels... luckily he had quite a few.

Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 450g golden caster sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g Homepride plain flour
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml toffee yoghurt (I used Muller Light)
• 12 medium sized pretzels

Topping:

• Carnation caramel
• All the pretzels. I used Giant (M&S), salted caramel (Tesco), and popping candy ones (M&S).

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 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 and bicarbonate of soda.
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. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
9. Pour the mix into your prepared tin. 
10. Poke in the 12 pretzels in the formation of the hours on a clock. Ensure they are just covered.
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, warm the caramel slightly in the microwave until it's slightly runny. 
14. Tip it over your cake and let it drip down. 
15. Decorate you have to use every pretzel you excitedly found whilst shopping. Hell, throw some glitter on too!

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.