This Bundt Cake is from another century—and marriage
Harmony Hammond has seemingly done it all: She is an artist, writer, curator, and, most importantly, a trailblazer of New York’s feminist art movement of the 1970s. In another life, before coming out as a lesbian, she was married to a man named Stephen Clover. “Stephen was Swedish. We lived in Minnesota,” the now New Mexico-based artist recalls. Hammond, whose material includes rough burlap, straps, grommets, and rope, recalls a time when food was a medium of sorts. “I learned to cook Swedish favorites: meatballs, pancakes with fresh lingonberries, and bundt cake,” she says. Every Christmas since, she still makes this bundt cake for her family and friends.
Ingredients
- 2½ cups butter
- 4½ cups sugar
- 14 eggs
- 5 cups white flour
- 5 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
Instructions
- Cream butter and sugar in a very large bowl.
- Add 14 eggs unbeaten one at a time.
- Add 5 cups sifted regular white flour, half at a time and beat well.
- Add 5 teaspoons pure vanilla and beat well into the cake batter.
- Generously grease bundt mold. I use soft butter (best for golden crust on the edge of the cake when it comes out of the mold), but you can use Crisco, making sure grease gets in all crevices of and around the top edges of the mold. Place mold on a baking sheet that has a slight rim.
- Pour batter into a greased bundt pan that sits on the baking sheet. The batter will settle out evenly. Bake at preheated 325 degrees for close to 2 hours or until the cake’s top becomes a rich golden brown. (After the first hour, keep a close eye on the batter, checking the cake every 15 minutes by inserting a knife.)
- When done, remove cake from the oven, take it off the hot sheet and place it on a metal rack to cool. After 10 to 15 minutes of cooling, take a very thin and narrow metal spatula and insert all the way deep down along the inside and outside edge of the cake, following the curve of the mold.
- Invert mold on a large platter to release the cake from the mold (shake if necessary).
- Let cool. When completely cool, sprinkle with sifted powdered sugar. (Note: The unmolded cake will keep for days on the platter with the mold loosely placed over it, then if wrapped in foil or plastic, for weeks in the refrigerator. You can also freeze bundt cake. It doesn’t lose its texture or taste when defrosted.)