Orange rhubarb ripple bundt cake with pistachio sauce (#BundtBakers)

This post goes out to all the peeps who just love bundt cakes in all of their easily-sliceable, portable, tasty, cake-y glory. You will love this post. Hopefully. If all goes well.

For quite a while, I had been seeing posts about this thing called “Bundt Bakers” by other bloggers, featuring bundt cakes of all different flavors and shapes but featuring a single common ingredient or theme, like, say, lemon, or rocky road. Upon pursuing this curiosity, I found that there is actually a group called Bundt Bakers (no kidding) that bakes different bundt cakes every month according to a certain theme. The group was founded by Food Lust People Love in January 2014 (as far as I can tell) and has spent every month since then coming together to share a communal love of big bundts (and in that respect they cannot lie).

So of course I had to join in on the fun. Here I am for July 2015’s bundt challenge, hosted by the lovely blogger Shipli at SimplyVeggies. Her theme was “fruit and nut”, which is pretty self-explanatory. I gave my best shot, and here I am, with my greasy, cake-stained fingers.

And a food coma.

I flipped through Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky (one of my favorite cookbooks) for inspiration, and was just delighted to find a recipe for orange rhubarb ripple cake—more of a coffee cake than anything, being baked in a 9-inch round pan. It only took a little research to determine that yes, a metal tube pan (i.e. bundt pan) has precisely twice the volume of a 9-inch pan. However, the recipe from Vegan Desserts seemed a little too voluminous for my particular pans, so I ended up only multiplying the recipe by 1.5 instead of 2.

I know. So much math.

I had the fruit part down, so I only needed to add some nuts to fulfill the theme. Why not whip up some murky green (but absolutely delicious) pistachio sauce?

I couldn’t find any recipes for pistachio sauce that matched what I had in my head, so I consulted Martha Stewart’s recipe for peanut butter dessert sauce and swapped out the peanut butter with some homemade pistachio butter, made in the food processor. Easy enough. The result was a lovely green color and very sticky and gooey in consistency. So good. Worthy of its own post, really. I must give my letter of recommendation for this sauce, because it belongs on everything. It’s like the nut version of chocolate ganache.

But that’s not what is important. The sauce was for the cake, not my spoon, and so I dutifully poured it all over the prepared cake and hurriedly snapped a few photos before eating ten or so slices. 

I kid, I kid. I would never only eat 10 slices.

The result is a super flavorful bundt cake with lots of tart rhubarb and a bit of citrusy zest and lots of gooey pistachio wonderfulness. Don’t listen to my mom, who was a little unnerved by the green pistachio sauce. It’s amazing. I even gave away a few slices to some friends and received overwhelmingly positive feedback.

Unless they were just saying that to avoid hurting my feelings...

NO. IT CAN'T BE. source

Well, I kind of doubt that. I, for one, loved the cake, and I’m always right. So there’s that.

Here’s the recipe.

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Orange rhubarb ripple bundt cake with pistachio sauce

Adapted from Vegan Desserts by Hannah Kaminsky

Ingredients

Rhubarb ripple

340 grams • rhubarb, chopped • 2 ¼ cups

375 grams • granulated sugar • 1 ¾ cups plus 2 tablespoons

135 grams • water • ½ cup plus 1 tablespoon

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

Orange cake

366 grams • nondairy milk • 1 ½ cups

90 grams • orange juice • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

200 grams • granulated sugar • 1 cup

165 grams • olive oil • ¾ cup

8 grams • vanilla extract • 2 teaspoons

510 grams • all-purpose flour • 3 ¾ cups

6 grams • baking powder • 1 ½ teaspoons

5 grams • baking soda • 1 heaping teaspoon

4 grams • salt • ¾ teaspoon

Pistachio sauce

124 grams • pistachios • 1 cup

90 grams • coconut milk, full-fat • ¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons

36 grams • granulated sugar • 3 tablespoons

44 grams • corn syrup • 2 tablespoons

Directions

Begin by combining rhubarb, sugar, and water in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the rhubarb is nearly falling apart. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Cool to room temperature before making the cake.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 12-cup (standard-sized) bundt pan and dust with flour.

Whisk together nondairy milk, orange juice, sugar, oil, and vanilla in a large bowl. Sift in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and fold together with a spatula, being sure not to over-mix.

Pour half the batter in the prepared bundt pan and smooth it out into an even layer. Top with the rhubarb mixture and add remaining batter. Swirl a knife through the layers of batter and rhubarb to give it a nice swirl effect.

Bake for an hour and 15 minutes, covering the top with aluminum foil after 40 minutes. The sides should pull away from the side of the pan slightly and the cake will be a nice golden brown when done. Cool for half an hour before removing from pan to cool completely on a wire rack.

To make pistachio sauce, start by placing pistachios in a food processor. Grind until the pistachios have turned to a thick, green butter. Transfer to a small saucepan and add coconut milk, granulated sugar, and corn syrup. Cook on medium heat until melted together, about 4 minutes. Continue stirring and cooking until the sugar dissolves and the sauce is smooth. Let cool to room temperature.

Pour pistachio sauce on top of cake. Slice and munch.

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GLORIOUS GREEN.

Before you leave, take a minute to check out some of the other lovely bundts made this month.

BundtBakers is a group of Bundt loving bakers who get together once a month to bake Bundts with a common ingredient or theme. You can see all of our lovely Bundts by following our Pinterest board.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme / ingredient.

Updated links for all of our past events and more information about BundtBakers, can be found on our home page. 

Almond Rhubarb Bundt Cake from Wendy at A Day in the Life on the Farm

Aloha Bundt Cake from Olivia at Liv for Cake

Apple Pecan Bundt Cake from Bea and Mara at I Love Bundt Cakes

Apricot-Almond Bundt Cake from Cali at Cali’s Cuisine

Banana Peanut Butter Bundt Cake from Jana at Jenny and Sweets

Banana Monkey Bundt Cake from Los Chatos Chefs at Los Chatos Chefs

Banana Pecan Bundt with Bananas Foster Frosting from Stacy at Food Lust People Love

Banana Split Bundt Cake from Andrea at Adventures in All Things Food

Blueberry Cherry Coffee Cake with Walnut Streusel from Lauren at Sew You Think You Can Cook

Cherry and Almond Bundt Cake from Lara at Tartacadabra

Cherry and Nuts Bundt Cake from Diego at La Mejor Manera de Hacer

Cherry and Sliced Almond Mini Bundt Cake from Teri at The Freshman Cook

Cherry Pistachio and Honey Bundt Cake from Ethel at eating in instead

Cinnamon Raisin Coffee Cake from Vonnie at My Catholic Kitchen

Eggless Mango Almond Bundt Cake from Shilpi at Simply Veggies

Generra Bundt Cake from Kelly at Passion Kneaded

Granola Bundt from Jane at Jane's Adventures in Dinner

Lemon Lime Pistachio Bundt Cake from Rocío at kidsandchic

Orange and Pecan Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache from Deepti at Baking Yummies

Orange Blossom Honey Nut and Blueberry Cake from Anshie at Spice Roots

Peach, Date & Pecan Bundt from Catherine at Living The Gourmet

Peach Coffee Cake from Julie at Eat, Drink, Be Mighty

Pineapple-Pecan Bundt Cake from Kathya at Basic N Delicious

Pineapple Sundae Bundt Cake from Colleen at Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice

Pomegranate and Pistachio Kugelhopf from Laura at Baking in Pyjamas

Roasted Banana and Black Walnut Bundt Cake from Terri at Our Good Life

Summer Fig and Pecan Bundt from Margaret at Tea and Scones

Vegan Orange Ripple Rhubarb Cake with Pistachio Sauce from June at How to Philosophize with Cake