Professor Butter Beard’s “Modern Rome”
I have strolled the paths within the Roman Forum many times as both a tourist and a student. I have done my best to stay with the group and listen to the lecturer, but every time, I am drawn into an internal dreamscape and a conversation with the past. The tall stone columns draw my eyes upward towards the purest of blue skies and the whirl of the voices transport me into the sounds and smells of the ancient political and festival gatherings.
I believe that Joseph Mallord William Turner experienced that same journey. Although he lived in London for almost all of his life, he was an avid reader and traveler, specifically visiting Italy in 1819 and 1828 and returning with voluminous sketchbooks of Roman landscapes and ruins. Turner has been described by many of his admirers as a romantic. The art term “Romanticism” is the label for the period in western art between 1780 to 1830where emotions were on full display, in contrast to the traditional ideas of classical restraint. In this painting, “Modern Rome – Campo Vaccino,” the ruins of the Coliseum and specific Forums can be recognized and identified, but they are captured within the idealistic dream of the artist.
I would like to sit with Turner’s shepherds and their families sharing a lunch of apples, apricots and strong cheeses swimming in a warm bath of native olive oil requiring fresh bread to sop up all the flavors. In baking these little cakes, I opted for a bath of salted caramel, but I don’t believe the inhabitants of this Roman dreamscape will mind at all.
Apple, Apricot and Olive Oil Mini-Bundt Cakes with a Salted Caramel Glaze
6 Mini-Bundt Cakes
Cake:
2 Tbsp melted butter and flour to grease and dust the bundt pan
10 dried apricots, soaked overnight in ½ cup apple cider (or enough to cover) and then cut into a small dice
Additional ¼ cup apple cider
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. nut flour (I prefer hazelnut)
1 ½ tsp five-spice powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 medium to small Honeycrisp apples, cut into a small dice
½ cup white sugar
½ cup brown sugar
¾ cup good olive oil
2 large eggs and 3 egg whites
½ tsp vanilla paste or vanilla extract
Salted Caramel Glaze:
4 Tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup packed dark brown sugar
¼ cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp apple cider
½ salt
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
Kosher salt as a final flavor burst on the finished cakes
1) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Butter and flour the mini-bundt pan – usually six bundt indentations per pan with roughly a one-cup capacity.
2) Dice the soaked apricots and fresh apple and toss with the ¼ cup cider. Set aside.
3) In a medium bowl, whisk together the all-purpose flour, nut flour, five-spice, baking powder and soda and salt. Set aside.
4) In a standing mixer, combine the olive oil, the two sugars, the two whole eggs and the vanilla paste and beat with the paddle until combined and thickened. This should take about five to eight minutes. Do not overbeat, as you do not want to create too much air.
5) Gently fold the apples and apricots into the wet mix and then fold in the dry mixture.
6) Hand whisk the 3 egg whites until light peaks and gently fold the whites into the batter until just combined. This will add just enough air to lighten the batter.
7) Spoon the batter into the prepared pans. I use a large cookie scoop. Two scoops should fill the pan to about ½ inch below the top of each of the indentations.
8) Bake the cakes in the 325 degree oven about 25 minutes (depending on your oven) checking with a wooden skewer to make sure the cakes are done. The skewer should be inserted and come out clean when removed.
9) Cool the cakes on a wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes and then turn out to cool to room temperature onto the same wire rack before glazing.
10) Make the glaze while the cakes are baking. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a low heat. Add the brown sugar and whisk gently until the sugar melts and combines with the butter. Add the heavy cream and bring to a light simmer. Remove from the heat and stir in the cider and salt. Let this mixture cool to room temperate as your cakes cool. When ready to use the glaze, stir in the confectioners’ sugar and whisk until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cakes and let it drip down the sides. The glaze will set and slightly harden within a half-hour.
11) For an additional flavor burst, sprinkle just a bit of kosher salt over the glazed cakes. (I have used a pink salt successfully in the past)
