Bird Food: Painted Bundt-ing Cake

Let your love for birds be reflected in the foods you make! Enjoy the first recipe in our "Bird Food" series, the Painted Bundt-ing Cake.

Painted Bundt-ing Cakes - The result of a delightful recipe!!

Prep Time: 50 min (+30 min of cooling time)

Baking Time: 40 - 60 min

Supplies

• 2 large mixing bowls

• 3 small mixing bowls

• Bundt pan (I used both a full-size metal pan and 2 silicone mini pan)

• Baking grease or Non-stick spray

• Measuring spoons and cups

• Electric mixer or spatula and whisk

Ingredients

• 3 cups All-Purpose Flour

• 2 cups Sugar

• 1 tsp Baking Powder

• 1/2 tsp Baking Soda

• 1 tsp Salt

• 1 cup Buttermilk

• 1 cup Butter

• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

• 4 Large Eggs

• Red, Blue, and Green Food Coloring (I recommend liquid food color for the most vibrant color, but gels will work too)

• Desired Frosting, Glaze, or Ganache

Tips Before You Bake

• Let eggs, milk, and butter sit out and reach room temperature before you start to combine ingredients

• You can substitute buttermilk by using 1 cup of whole milk, and 1 tbsp of white vinegar. Mix them together and let sit for 5 min before using

• After mixing one of the colors into the batter, make sure your spatula is completely clean before mixing the next one!

• THOROUGHLY GREASE YOUR PAN - This is THE most important part. Otherwise, you'll spend two hours and end up with a sad, broken pile of cake.

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325° and thoroughly coat bundt pan with grease or cooking spray

2. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt

3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine buttermilk, butter, vanilla extract, and eggs

4. Slowly add wet ingredients to dry, mix well for two minutes

5. Divide batter into three bowls

6. Slowly add drops of food coloring and mix thoroughly until the batter is the desired color. Repeat for each color

7. Pour in the blue batter and lightly shake the pan to settle, repeat with the green batter, then finally, finish with the red batter

8. Bake for 1 hour, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out cleanly. (If using silicone mini pans, bake for 40 minutes)

9. Let the cake cool for 30 mins, then carefully flip over and remove from pan

10. Frost with ganache, frosting, or glaze of your choice, let set, and serve

About the Painted Bunting

This recipe is inspired by one of North America's most colorful birds, the Painted Bunting. Native to the southeastern United States, the Painted Bunting brings joy to all who catch a glimpse. The recipe above was inspired by this charismatic species, and we hope you enjoy the food AND the bird. (Just do not try to enjoy the bird as the food.)

Painted Bunting - male

Range of the Painted Bunting

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Credits

Painted Bunting by Don Faulkner/Flickr under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Abundance Map - Fink, D., T. Auer, A. Johnston, M. Strimas-Mackey, O. Robinson, S. Ligocki, B. Petersen, M. Iliff, and S. Kelling. eBird Status and Trends. Version: November 2019. https://ebird.org/science/status-and-trends. Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York.