Bellini Bundt

 This cake came into being for many reasons. Firstly, I got three Nordicware bundt tins for Christmas - I suggested to my boyfriend that I would like one, and picked out three that I liked, expecting that he might get me one of them. He did get me one - and his mum got me the second one, and his brother and sister in law got me the third! So I wanted to make a cake to try out the first tin. I also had some leftover champagne in the fridge from new year's eve that I wanted to use up, and thought I would see if I could find a cake recipe to use champagne - and I knew that would fit with the Baking with Spirit challenge as the theme this month is frugal. When I found a recipe and realised it used yogurt, I was pleased as that meant I could also enter it in Alphabakes. And finally another reason I wanted to make a cake - I've got a new job. I am a writer for a City firm and I'm, well, going to be a writer for another City firm - but it's a promotion and should be very different to what I'm doing now. I'm known for my cakes at work and realised that if I only had a month's notice left, I wanted to leave people with the memory of some really nice cakes. I also thought offering my colleagues a slice of cake when I broke the news might be nice - one girl actually did say she was so shocked she needed a cup of tea, and a slice of cake!

So this bellini bundt - featuring champagne and peaches, like the cocktail - is the perfect cake to celebrate my new job. Also, a cake including fruit seems somehow a little bit healthier, which is also a good thing in January!

I found a recipe on this website on FoodLustPeopleLove.com via Foodie.com though I adapted it as I found it easier to use tinned peaches rather than fresh (purely down to when I was able to go shopping).

You need:

375g plain flour

225g butter

450g caster sugar

4 eggs

1 tsp baking powder

400g tin of peaches, drained

150g peach yogurt

150ml champagne

75g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C then cream the butter and the sugar.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each one.

Add the flour and baking powder and mix.

I couldn't find peach yogurt and instead used 0% fat mango, peach and passion fruit yogurt, which tasted very good.

I had two small tins of peaches which I drained.

Add the yogurt and peaches to the cake mixture and mix with a hand mixer so the peaches are broken up but not pureed.

Here's my leftover champagne, which kept its fizz thanks to a bottle stopper. Add 125ml champagne to the cake mixture and gently mix in.

This is the Nordicware bundt tin I received for Christmas. It has a lovely swirly pattern that I knew would look great on a cake. I sprayed it thoroughly with Dr. Oetker cake release, which worked perfectly.

Fill the bundt tin with the cake mixture and bake for about an hour until you can insert a skewer and it comes out clean.

Turn out and leave to cool. I was impressed by how easily the cake came out of the tin and how well the pattern showed up.

To make the glaze, mix a splash of champagne with the icing sugar and mix to a paste, and drizzle over the cake. You probably want to put it on a piece of greaseproof paper that you can throw away afterwards!

I love the shape of this cake and my work colleagues, who had never seen a cake tin like this before, thought it was amazing (one thought I had actually carved the cake into that shape!).

 Here you can see it from the side.

This cake was absolutely delicious - one person said it was the best I've ever made. The peach flavour was subtle but definitely there, and the yogurt made the cake really light and moist. This is definitely a winner!

I'm sending this to Alphabakes, the blog challenge I co-host with Ros of The More Than Occasional Baker, as the letter she has chosen is Y - in this case for yogurt.

 I'm sending this to Turquoise Lemons for the No Waste Food challenge as this uses up leftover champagne.

 As already mentioned, the theme for this month's Baking with Spirit, hosted by Janine at Cake of the Week, is frugal. This recipe uses up leftover champagne so while it's not cheap in the first place, it's better than letting the bubbly go to waste - and it doesn't cost anything extra if you had bought the champagne already for a party!

I am also sending this to Tea Time Treats, hosted by,Jane at the Hedgecombers and Karen of Lavender and Lovage, This month they are asking for any recipe that uses eggs; this cake uses four.