TWD: Classic Banana Bundt Cake

A little something from Wikipedia:

A Bundt cake is a dessert cake cooked in a Bundt pan forming it into a distinctive ring shape. Bundt cake is pronounced "bunt", the "d" being silent.

The bundt may have originated from the German Gugelhupf, a ring shaped cake. The word bundt appears as early as 1901 in The Settlement Cookbook, written by Lizzie Kander of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Bundt is used instead of bund in a recipe for "Bundt Kuchen."^[1] The aluminum Bundt pan is a variation of ceramic cake forms and was trademarked in 1950 by H. David Dalquist, founder of Nordic Ware, based in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, who developed it at the request of members of the Hadassah Society's chapter in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ^[2] They were interested in a pan that could be used to make bundkuchen (sometimes called kugelhopf or Gugelhupf), a popular German and Austrian coffee cake. Similar cakes were made in Europe in Germany, Austria and Hungary with similar traditional kugelhopf pans. The old-world pans, with fluted and grooved sides, made of delicate ceramic or cast iron, were heavy and therefore difficult to use. He modified some existing Scandinavian pan designs and fashioned the pan out of aluminum.

Since introduction, more than 50 million Bundt pans have been sold by the Nordic Ware company.

The women of the Hadassah Society called them "bund pans". The German word bund in bundkuchen originated from bundling or wrapping the cake's dough around the pan's center hole^[3] (in German the final d is pronounced like a t). Dalquist trademarked the word bundt, and Pillsbury licensed the name in 1970 for a line of cake mixes.

National Bundt Pan day is November 15.^[5]

And there you have it...a little history on the bundt.

Mary of The Food Librarian already knows the history of the bundt because she loves, loves, loves the bundt cake! It is pretty perfect. It's portable, feeds quite a few people, not too messy and baked in one pan.

I love them too and with school starting up soon...I'll be making and naming them again. (For the PTC meetings :) )

Thanks Mary for picking this simple but dee-lish cake for this week's TWD.

I subbed plain Greek yogurt for the sour cream and dusted the top with powdered sugar. I am taking this baby camping with us this weekend so it's cooling it's heels in the freezer.

Don't forget to stop by here to check out what the others have baked.

Thanks for stopping by.

And the secret ingredient is....

....Rosemary!

Whoulda' thought? I admit, I consider rosemary to be more of an herb for savory uses...not so much the sweet things. But I have reconsidered.

I found this recipe for Rosemary-Lemon Sandwich Cookies over on the Better Homes and Garden site. I had (still have) such an over-abundance of meyer lemon juice that I was searching for something lemony and different to use them up. I didn't want lemon bars again...or lemon bread. (I made 2 of Ina's loaves) I was looking for something different.

These cookies are wonderful! Not too sweet with just a hint of the rosemary coming through. They are basically a tender lemon sugar cookie sandwiched with the to-die-for mixture of lemon curd and mascarpone cheese.

I didn't make my own lemon curd because I had a jar of TJ's curd in the pantry.

I could down this mixture in one sitting...no problem!

I made the cookies a head of time and then just put them in a ziploc in the freezer for an opportunity to present itself. The opportunity was last night. A appetizer and cocktail get together with some old friends from high school. I brought these little gems along with the mallow cookies I made (another post, another time). Both were a big hit.

I loved that these were made in one bowl....less dishes! Super easy. I think next time I might actually sprinkle a little coarse salt on the top of the cookies before putting them in the oven. It would have cut the sweetness of the filling a little and brought out the rosemary a bit more.

....because I will be making these again, for sure!

Thanks for stopping by.

**Update....a friend suggested these cookies could be made into thumbprints! I agree. Indent the cookies before putting them in the oven and when they come out and cool....fill with the lemon curd/mascarpone filling. HEAVEN!