Krispy Kreme Kopykat Kake
Over on Facebook's Cast Iron Bundt Bakers Anonymous group, people have been falling in love with a boxed cake mix: "Krispy Kreme doughnut cake mix." Out of curiosity, I've tried to come up with a homemade version of this, based upon the various Krispy Kreme "copycat" recipes floating around online. Here's the result so far:
Pans needed: 1 large heavy bundt cake pan (especially a cast iron bundt pan). 1 large bowl for mixing the ingredients. (This is all done in one large bowl!) One small bowl for cracking open the eggs – this is so you can remove any accidental pieces of egg shell before they get into the batter.
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons salt
Wet Ingredients
- 1 1⁄4 cups sugar
- 3 eggs
- 10 tablespoons (1 1⁄4 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1 1⁄2 cups whole milk
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
- 1⁄2 cup shortening
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Preheat your oven to 425° Fahrenheit. That may seem like a high temperature for a cake, but this is correct and intentional.
Mix ingredients in order, adding wet ingredients to dry ingredients. Mix well into batter, and add to prepared (greased and floured) cake pan.
Baking with a cast iron or heavy metal cake pan
A thin cake pan, such as light aluminum or non-stick, needs to be greased and floured to prevent the cake from sticking. However, if you are fortunate enough to own a cast iron or thick, heavy cast aluminum cake pan, do not grease and flour the pan. Yes, that's correct: do not grease the pan! Instead, place the dry cake pan into the oven. Preheat oven (and the pan) to 425° Fahrenheit. That may seem like a high temperature for a cake, but this is correct and intentional.
As the oven is heating, prepare your ingredients, mixing them in order so the wet ingredients are added to the dry ingredients. Mix together into a batter.
When the oven temperature reaches 425 degrees, carefully remove the cake pan from the oven. Do not turn down the oven temperature or turn the oven off. Add 2 tablespoons of Crisco or shortening, and brush the inside of the pan so the entire baking surface is covered. When finished coating the pan, add the extra hot oil to the cake batter, and stir it all together. Pour the batter into the hot cake pan.
Place the pan into the oven, and immediately turn the oven temperature down to 350° Fahrenheit. This will let the temperature decrease as the cake bakes. Bake for 45 minutes.
After baking, let the pan cool on the stovetop or a trivet for twenty minutes. The cake will continue baking as it rests in the hot iron pan, which is why the twenty minute rest period is necessary. After twenty minutes, the heavy iron cake pan will still be very warm or hot. This is the time to remove the cake! Use heavy gloves to avoid burning yourself on the iron pan. Use a thin blade or knife to loosen the edges of the cake from the pan (including the inside, in the center). Flip the cake onto a platter and remove the cake pan.
An aluminum bundt pan releases its heat faster than an iron pan. An aluminum bundt pan can be flipped and removed after twelve minutes.
Sugar Glaze
- 5 tablespoons butter
- 1 1⁄2 cups powdered sugar
- 1 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla
- 2 to 3 tablespoons milk
Melt butter in saucepan (preferably a cast iron saucepan) at low-medium heat. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Add milk to thin the mixture. Keep stirring and adding milk, a little at a time, until the proper consistency is reached.