Ciambellone

This is an Italian-style Bundt cake that is a staple in households in Italy.  My mother has been making it for years and I have tried to duplicate it for years. The success of a great Ciambellone is the method.  I have used these ingredients before but have not paid attention to the method and the cake wouldn't rise very high, even when I used more baking powder. This is the right way to make a great Ciambellone. In this version, I have mixed two cups of the batter with cocoa and swirled it into the remaining batter.  Enjoy!

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 scant teaspoon salt
1 cup canola oil
1 cup of milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
4-5 tablespoons of cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray 10 inch Bundt pan with cooking spray.

With whisk beaters, use electric hand mixer or stand mixer to beat eggs on high until well combined.  Slowly add sugar to eggs while beating and continue to beat sugar and eggs for about 8 or more minutes.  You want the eggs and sugar to be a firm mixture.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.

Add the flour mixture slowly to the thick egg mixture, folding the flour gently into the egg mixture.  I used a rubber spatula to do this in order to keep the mixture light.

Stir in the oil until well combined.

Mix milk with vanilla in a cup and then add the milk/vanilla liquid into the batter.  Stir until you have a thick, dense, uniform batter--do not over stir.

Pour all batter, except two cups full into the Bundt pan.  Mix cocoa into the remaining batter until well combined and uniformly dark.

With a spoon, drop cocoa batter into the white cake batter around the cake, then swirl with a knife to give a marble effect.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until cake is firm and knife etc. comes out clean when inserted in cake.

Cool cake, then remove onto serving dish.

Success! At last I have mastered the Italian tradition.  Please let me know how your Ciambellone turns out.

Variations to this recipe are not including the cocoa and making a plain vanilla Ciambellone or you can mix mini chocolate chips into the mix.

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The Grammy's

The 2013 Grammy awards were in a word "entertaining".  Taylor swift opens with an Alice in Wonderland performance of "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together". 

Speaking of performances, Justin Timberlake was phenomenal in his Grammy comeback where he apologized "I must confess it's been a while and for that I must apologize".  Did Justin ever make it a big bang or should I say a big band experience  Justin took us back to the big band days with his new single "Suit and Tie" being joined by Jay-Z for part of the performance. He followed "Suit and Tie" with another song from his album The 20/20 Experience (being released in March), "Pusher Love Girl".

Here are The 55th Annual Grammy Award Winners.

The fashions this year were dictated by a "strict" dress code for the ladies.  The Grammy's of years past have had some pretty skin- baring fashions on the red carpet from Rihanna's white dress with fur strips hitting and missing body parts to JLo's plunging green sheer dress of the past.  Most of the artists did modify their style by wearing dresses that covered up the necessary parts.

JLo actually made a comment about the list of requirements for what to cover up being something she could not even read to her children (buttocks, breasts and "other" parts had to be covered).  JLo was covered up for the most part in a black gown; however her left leg was totally exposed a la Angelina Jolie.  Rihanna's criss-cross halter top sheer red dress this year seemed in theory to cover all from head to toe, except she kind of broke the rules with the sheer part showing a little too much on top, take a look here--no surprise there.  And speaking of Rihanna's wardrobe, she was wearing Chris Brown quite well also--the couple were not hiding that they are back together with Rihanna posing with her head against Chris Brown who had his arm around her--here we go again! I'm sure twitter was ablaze about this reunion. 

Like Rihanna, Katy Perry is known for her risque outfits.  Last night was no exception in her fitted mint green Gucci gown with a keyhole neckline that showed cleavage and breasts galore.  Then there was Adele who wore a short dress with red floral appliques all over it that reminded me of poppies.  Why didn't Adele wear a longer, slimmer gown in a solid colour with maybe a little sparkle like she did last year?--a worst dress nominee this year from me (I wonder what Joan Rivers will say about this).  Then there was Beyonce who wore a pant suit with what looked to me like leggings--leggings at the Grammy's?  At least she was well-covered.  I liked Taylor Swift's J. Mendel gown which was a white Grecian style.  Her look was complete with the goddess/Heidi type wrap around the head braid which kept her look young.

Check out all the Grammy Fashions at the MTV site.

Which fashions did you enjoy?