My love for gugelhupf - or bundt cake as it is called sometimes, in particular in the States - has been well documented on the blog. I wrote about the possible origins of the gugelhupf (of course this means my perspective of the gugelhupf history because who knows who holds the truth of cake history and the chair of cake history has yet to be invented). I also wrote about the story behind the Franz Joseph Gugelhupf and there are all different kinds of gugelhupf recipes here on the blog. I cannot have enough of gugelhupf recipes in my life and I cannot get enough of eating gugelhupfs.





Today I want to share a raisin gugelhupf recipe which I developed a few weeks ago. I do not know how many times I made these gugelhupf ever since. I love the taste and the texture of this recipe. The gugelhupfs have a crispy outside; the inside of the gugelhupfs are very moist but they are not too dense at the same time. Describing or analyzing cake texture is really difficult and I am struggling to find the right words for it. You have to taste the food with all your senses and it does not matter how hard you try finding words for it, it always scratches the surface. It is the same in music. Have you ever read anything "smart" about Mozart's piano concertos (by the way, is there anything more beautiful than the second movement of the A-major , KV 488, piano concerto)? I have not and I doubt I ever will.


Back to the gugelhupf recipe. I really love these little raisin cakes and all my taste testers were thrilled about the cakes.  One of my taste testers liked my gugelhupfs so much that she kept two cakes in a tin for six days in order to save them for a weekend picnic and I was told that the gugelhupfs were still moist. I could not believe this but if I knew how much she liked the cakes I would have given her a batch of freshly made gugelhupfs for her picnic. Even though the gugelhupfs keep moist for several days I think the cakes taste the very best on the day that they are made since they loose the crispy outside over time.
If you do not own any mini gugelhupf moulds you can also use a muffin tin. I tested them out in a muffin tin and it worked out perfectly - the baking time is the same - but I must admit that the cakes taste a a little bit better when baked in gugelhupf moulds. Maybe it is because of the hole in the middle of the gugelhupfs which adds more of a crispy ouside. I can imagine that a donut tin would work as well but I have not tried it out ( I must confess that I do not even own a donut tin).  If you do not like raisins, dried cranberries are a good alternative.


NOTES: As you may have noticed I always write my recipes in grams. I think it is the best and most accurate way to measure ingredients (and very common here in Europe) but I am aware that some of you might not own a kitchen scale or you are used to the cup measurement method . In order to make my recipes more accessible and convenient I decided to convert the ingredients from gram to cup and add the conversion to the ingredients list. I hope this addition will be helpful to some of you.
Makes 10 Mini Gugelhupfs * or 10 muffins 

INGREDIENTS

  • 125 g / 1 stick and 1 tablespoon butter (softened)
  • 125 g / 1/2 cup and 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 2 eggs (medium)
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
  • 150 g /1 cup and 2 tablespoons of all purpose flour
  • 75 g / 1/2 cup raisins
  • 75 g / 1/4 cup of yogurt (full fat)
  • 50 ml / 1/4 cup milk (full fat)
  • Confectioners' sugar (for decoration)
* The size of my gugelhupf moulds are: 7 cm / 2.8 inches diameter and 4 cm / 1.5 inches height.

DIRECTIONS

  • Preheat the oven to 200 °C / 400 °F.
  • Butter and flour your gugelhupf moulds or muffin moulds.  If you use muffin moulds I recommend not using any cupcake liners because the liners prevent that the muffins will be crispy on the outside. Just make sure you grease your tin well. In case you use silicon moulds you do not have to grease your moulds.
  • Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add one egg at a time and whisk until well mixed.
  • Mix flour, baking powder and raisins in a separate bowl.
  • Add the flour mixture along with the milk and yogurt to the egg-butter mixture and stir until all ingredients are well incorporated but do not overmix the batter.
  • Fill the gugelhupf moulds 3/4 with the batter.
  • Bake the gugelhupfs or muffins for 15 to 17 minutes (or until a golden brown surface). If you insert a toothpick and it comes out clear the gugelhupfs are done.
  • Unmold the cakes and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar as soon as they are completely cooled.