As this blog is entitled, Forty Cakes and I am on a mission to make 40 Cakes (in about 400 days)--I decided to take creative license in renaming this particular dessert. You see, most people would call this "Monkey Bread" which really makes no sense at all. There is nothing particularly bread-y about it. And nothing remotely monkey related--except that I made the bread for and with my little monkeys. They squealed with delight whenever the subject came up (and that alone made up for the guilt I was feeling the other day).
I got inspiration, the recipe and the guidance from Brown Eyed Baker and pretty much followed her directions exactly. And, as suspected, she didn't let me down. This cake was great-especially warm, right out of the oven. A cinnamon roll shaped as a cake. How can it get any better?
Monkey Cake
Adapted from the Brown Eyed Baker
Dough:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided, 2 tablespoons softened and 2 tablespoons melted
1 cup milk, warm (about 110 degrees F)
⅓ cup water, warm (about 110 degrees F)
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 package instant yeast
3¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
Brown Sugar Mixture:
1 cup light brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
6 T unsalted butter, melted
Glaze:
1 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1) Using the softened butter, grease up a bundt cake pan very well. Set aside (you can do this at first or after the first rising--it doesn't really matter.)
2) Put the flour and salt in the stand mixer bowl.
3) In a separate bowl, mix together the milk, water, melted butter, sugar and yeast.
4) Turn the mixer on low--with the dough hook attachment and stir the flour and salt for a bit. Slowly add the milk/yeast/butter mixture. Continue on low until the dough comes together. At this point, up the speed on the mixer a bit (medium) and let it do its job for about 6-7 minutes.
5) Put your dough ball in a well greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Allow it to rise for about 1 hour.
6) After an hour, marvel at your new dough baby. She is so soft and cuddly. You will love her. 7) After marveling, roll out the dough baby into a rough square. (Our square was very very rough....more like a rectangle/circle--but it worked.)
8) You are going to want to cut the dough into roughly equal pieces and roll those pieces into little dough balls. (Your baby dough ball is going to have babies!) 64 little dough balls.
9) As you can see, our balls are not the same size or the same shape. I promise you it won't really matter (except to the unlucky person who gets a small piece).
10) Melt your six T of butter and mix up your sugar cinnamon mixture (or have your monkeys do it--make them work for their cake!) 11) We started an assembly line. I was responsible for the grabbing each baby dough ball and adding it to the butter. Bean rolled them around in butter and then dropped it in the sugar. Rosie covered the balls in sugar and dropped them in the cake pan. It was amazing teamwork and there was no fighting!
12) You will want to fill up your buttered bundt pan with the dough baby balls. Rotating the pan so that you have an even layer of dough balls.
13) You are going to let this rise.....for at least an hour--but longer seemed to work just fine. I let mine sit covered with plastic wrap for about three hours. I came home to the dough baby balls bursting at the seams. (I wish I would have taken a picture--they looked so good.)
14) Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees.
15) Let cool in the pan for about 5 minutes. After that, flip the cake out onto a beautiful serving plate. Mmmmm...look how ooey and gooey it looks!
16) While it is sitting, mix up your glaze. Whisk together 2 T milk and 1 cup of powdered sugar.
17) Pour thin strands of the glaze over the cake, criss-crossing and looping over the entire thing. Allow the glaze to slide down the sides and into the middle.
18) Serve slightly warm and allow each person to pull of the dough balls for themselves. Pulling it apart is part of the fun!
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