Honey Whiskey Mini Bundts with Honey Whiskey Glaze #BundtBakers

Baking with honey and bourbon whiskey in the batter and adding a honey bourbon glaze gives these little Bundt cakes a sweet and almost smoky flavor that keeps you wanting just one more small piece. Till they are all gone. 

This month’s Bundt Baker theme, ably hosted by Laura of Baking in Pyjamas, is honey! I started searching for recipes with honey online, looking for an interesting twist, when I came across a recipe for a honey whiskey cake. Come to find out, there is an actual thing made by Jack Daniels, called honey whiskey. Who knew? That recipe called for a yellow cake mix so I kept the idea and created my own, using normal Jack Daniels and Ugandan honey, brought back from my trip there last February. The Ugandan honey is a deep amber color and has quite a strong flavor so it was well able to compete with the strong bourbon to flavor this cake.

Make sure to scroll to the bottom and see all the other lovely honey Bundt links from the group this month!

Ingredients – for a five-cup capacity mini Bundt pan making six mini Bundts
For the batter:
3/4 cup or 150g sugar
6 tablespoon or 85g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for buttering pan
2 eggs
2 cups or 250g flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup or 60ml honey
2/3 cup or 155ml milk, at room temperature
1/3 cup or 80ml bourbon
3/4 cup or 90g chopped pecans

For the syrup/glaze:
1/4 cup or 60g butter
2 tablespoons water
1/4 cup or 60ml honey
1/4 cup or 50g sugar
1/4 cup or 60ml bourbon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your mini Bundt pan by using a pastry brush to paint the inside and around the edges liberally with butter. Don’t be shy.

Sprinkle your pecans into the bottom of the buttered Bundt pan.

Combine your flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside. Combine the milk, bourbon and honey for the batter in a measuring vessel and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in the eggs, one at a time, beating well between them.

First egg

Second egg

Now add half of the flour mixture and half of the liquid mixture and beat well.

Add the balance of the flour and liquid mixture and beat well again.

Gently scoop or spoon the batter into your prepared pan, on top of the pecans.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning the mini Bundts out of the pan.

Cool on a wire rack while you make the syrup glaze.

Put all the ingredients for the syrup in a small pot and heat it until boiling. Allow to boil for a few minutes, until it reduces slightly. Turn off the fire and allow to cool for a few minutes.

That's the bourbon going in and the dark honey already in the pot.

Put your mini Bundts in a pan or plate with sides to catch the glaze that doesn’t soak in immediately and drizzle the syrupy glaze, at little at a time, over all of the Bundts.

Enjoy!

Check out all the lovely honey Bundts we have for you this month!

• A Taste of Honey by Margaret at Tea and Scones 
• Hipy Papy Bthuthdth Thuthda Bthuthdy Cake by Lauren at Sew You Think You Can Cook
• Honey Almond Bundt Cake by Terri at Love and Confections
• Honey Baba au Rhum by Kelly at Passion Kneaded
• Honey Banana Bundt by Jane at Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Honey Bundt Cake with Lemon Honey Glaze by Bea and Mara at I Love Bundt Cakes
• Honey Bunny Bundt Cake by Teri at The Freshman Cook
• Honey Caramel Apple Bundt Cake by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas
• Honey Glazed Blackberry Cornmeal Bundt Cake by Tux at Brooklyn Homemaker
• Honey Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake by Lauren at Gate to Plate
• Honey Roasted Peanut Butter Pound Cake by Renee at Magnolia Days
• Honey Whiskey Mini Bundt Cakes with Honey Whiskey Glaze by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Orange Hazelnut Bundt Cake by Zainab at Blahnik Baker
• Whole Wheat Honey Spiced Apple Breakfast Bundtlettes by Laura at The Spiced Life

#BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme.  Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on the BundtBakers home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient. If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send me (Stacy) an email WITH your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Cocktail Sausages

If you are looking for an easy appetizer that will disappear in record time, may I suggest these sweet and spicy bacon cocktail sausages! With chili sauce and bacon wrapped around little sausages they are then topped with brown sugar and baked till sticky.

This recipe is easily doubled or trebled. The only limiting parameter is the size of your baking pan because you don’t want to crowd them in too tightly or the bacon won’t get crispy. I was home alone so I just made a dozen. At a time. Ahem. The photos you see here are actually batch number two. The package of cocktail sausages was 300g so it didn’t take me long to get through them all. It is hard to resist these sweet and spicy bacon-wrapped morsels once you've tried them the first time.

Sweet and Spicy Bacon Cocktail Sausages

An easy but delicious appetizer with bacon, cocktail sausages and chili sauce. These are highly addictive. Be warned.

Ingredients
1 dozen or about 90-100g cocktail sausages
2-3 tablespoons extra hot chili sauce (We love ABC brand from Indonesia.)
4 thin slices or rashers streaky bacon
2-3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

For serving: extra chili sauce for dipping, if desired

Method
Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C.

Put your bacon slices between two pieces of cling film and gently roll them out with a rolling pin from end to end. You can do a couple of slices at a time. This will stretch them so that they are even thinner so each little sausage can still be rolled in bacon twice around but it will still bake up crispy.

Cut each slice of bacon into thirds.

Smear a little chili sauce on one end of each piece of bacon. Roll them around the cocktail sausages and secure with a toothpick or, if you are feeling fancy, call them cocktail sticks.

Lay them out in a big baking pan and sprinkle on half the brown sugar.

Bake for six or seven minutes and then remove from the oven. Turn the sausages over and sprinkle on the balance of the brown sugar.

Cook for about six to seven minutes more or until the bacon looks crispy enough for your liking.

Remove from the pan and rest them briefly on paper towels to drain the fat away. I tend to use one sheet of paper towel (so the newsprint doesn’t get on the food) with newspaper underneath.

Serve with extra chili sauce for dipping, if desired. It’s a must at our house.

Enjoy!

You try to take photos without snitching one!  Can't be done. 

Jammy Gooseberry Oatmeal Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

Sticky gooseberry jam makes these oatmeal cookies even chewier. And everyone knows that a chewy oatmeal cookie is the best oatmeal cookie. 

This month’s Creative Cookie Exchange challenge was to use produce that we each have in abundance, wherever we are living right now. The UAE still grows a few things this time of year like okra and eggplant but I just didn’t see using either of those in a cookie. I decided to be adventurous and try a fruit that I had never cooked or baked with before, gooseberries, which are abundant in the United Kingdom this time of year, and are brought in to the UAE in prodigious quantities, at least in my local supermarket. A little research revealed that most gooseberries are too sour to eat uncooked without added sugar, so jam seemed like the logical answer. I’ll share the jam recipe at some point, but meanwhile, feel free to use whatever jam you’ve got handy for these great cookies. Something marmalade-ly with little chunks of fruit would get you closest to the taste of these made with my tartly sweet gooseberry jam.

Gooseberries!

I’d also like to point out that, despite their stickiness, clean up was a breeze thanks to my new silicone mats, a gift of the folks at Kitchen Executive Chef who are trying to spread the word about their great new product. Unfortunately, the mats are out of stock at Amazon right now but, according to a post on their Facebook page, they will be back in stock in just a few weeks.

Ingredients
For the cookie dough:
1/2 cup (firmly packed) or 100g brown sugar
1/3 cup or 70g granulated sugar
1/2 cup or 115g butter, softened
1/4 cup or 80g gooseberry or your favorite jam
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk
1 cup or 125g flour
1/2  teaspoon baking soda
1/2  teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2  teaspoon salt
1 cup or 100g uncooked quick rolled oats

For topping: 1/2 cup or 160g gooseberry or your favorite jam

Method
Cream your butter with the two sugars then add in the jam and mix well.

Now add in the egg and milk and mix again.

Add in the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and beat until smooth.

Add in the oats and beat until well mixed.  Chill the dough for half an hour in the refrigerator.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C degrees and grease a cookie sheet or line it with a silicone mat.

Drop one tablespoon scoopful at least two or even three inches apart on your prepared cookie sheet. These cookies are going to spread out.

Dip your thumb in some water and press an indentation in the top of the scoop.

Spoon in a half a teaspoon or so of the jam.

Bake 8-10 minutes, or until light brown.  For chewy cookies, do not over bake!

These are fabulous with a cold glass of milk. Enjoy!

Check out all the fabulous recipes my Creative Cookie Exchange friends have made with summer's bounty!

• Blueberry Pecan Rugelach from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Breskvice (Jam Filled, Peach Shaped Cookies) from Spice Roots
• Cherry Viennese Sandwich Cookies from Magnolia Days
• Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies with Zucchini and Almond from The Spiced Life
• Jammy Gooseberry Oatmeal Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Lemon Blueberry White Chocolate Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Lemonade Poppy Seed Linzer Cookies from Made with Love
• Nectarine Drop Cookies from A Baker's House
• Raspberry Crumble Cookie Bars from From Gate to Plate
• Rhubarb Shortcake Cookies from Rhubarb and Honey

The Creative Cookie Exchange theme this month is Creative Uses for Summer's Bounty! If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact Laura via email (thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com) and she will get you added to our Facebook group where we coordinate events.

You can also use us as a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts. You will be able to find them the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!