My all-time favorite desserts are the simplest ones. I am not a fan of spending a lot of time making sweet things, only because I try to focus more on the main dishes but once in a while I do crave something special and sweet, particularly when I have guests to dinner or coffee. These mini bundt yogurt cakes are pretty and practical, but they also have been served in my house as part of breakfast instead of dessert. I recently had overnight guests and my friend’s daughter called these mini yogurt doughnut cakes because she loved the cake-like texture they had and were quite filling.
I make my cakes with mini bundt cake pan molds, which makes them cook quicker and come out so cute. 
If you don’t have these types of pans, it’s okay- use a small bread loaf pan and extend the cooking time but keep the temperature the same (as instructed below).
To start out, use two bowls: one for dry ingredients, one for the wet ones.
In the dry good bowl, add flour, sugar baking powder and salt. For the flour, I use a cake flour as opposed to an all-purpose whole wheat or regular flour, which makes these cakes too dense, in my opinion. You can find cake flour at most grocery stores or online, but my best recommendation is to look for a German or Polish wheat flour variety. They are easily found in the European foods aisle at most international grocery stores.
As for the sugar, I like to use raw cane sugar, but you can use a smaller granular sugar like turbinado. In this particular recipe, I’ve used pink Himalayan salt because that’s what I had on hand, but you can use any type of iodized or sea salt. Just mix all of these well. 
As for the wet ingredients, these are where you can get really creative in terms of flavor additions. The base you must have are the eggs, oil, and yogurt. I’m using Mountain High Yogurt, a halal-certified brand I’ve been talking about for many months now and made many recipes using this delicious, no-frills product.
Yes, yogurt should be halal-certified so that we know there isn’t any sort of added things like pork-based gelatin, for example.
For added flavor, I use one of a few things: extracts (no-alcohol), flavored syrups, or emulsions. In this recipe, I used a hazelnut syrup because that is the flavor I was aiming to achieve. Oil is added- I only use olive oil or grapeseed oil.
This is mixed all together and then the dry ingredients are added TO the wet ingredients, cup by cup.
This batter is then poured into greased (not floured) bundt pans.
These bundt pans are filled 3/4 the way up the top.
They will rise a bit, so they need some room to grow.
Once they’re baked (around 35 minutes), pop them out of the pan almost immedietely without letting them cool too much or they’ll stick to the pan.
I love the beautiful browning on the sides.
I wish you could smell the hazelnut in these…
See that indentation in the top part? It’s the perfect spot to add some beautiful, rose-flavored cream to it.
Either use a store-bought (all-natural) whipped cream or make your own (there is a recipe for this in my Summer Ramadan Cooking cookbook). The only addition I make to the base recipe there is that I add one capful of rose water to the mixture and wow, what an aromatic floral taste it has.
I add the cream to the middle of the cakes and then spread some flaked dried rose petals on top and on the sides.
If you add the cream when the cakes are still warm, it will melt a bit.
And if they’re chemical-free (don’t buy them unless they are), they should also be edible.
And so pretty.
I think these are such a great treat to bring to baby or wedding showers since they can be so elegant.
Mini Hazelnut Bundt Yogurt Cakes with Rose Whipped Cream
Dry Ingredients
- 2 cups cake flour
- 1 tsp. Himalayan pink salt
- 1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 2 cups cane sugar
Wet Ingredients
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup Mountain High, halal-certified plain Yoghurt
- 1 cup grapeseed or olive oil.
- 1 tablespoon hazelnut syrup
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350° F.
- Measure all dry ingredients into a metal or glass mixing bowl. Set aside.
- In a separate mixing bowl, measure out the eggs and Mountain High Yoghurt. Using a wire whisk, mix together well. Next, add the oil and whisk again until all wet ingredients are well-blended.
- To the egg-yogurt-oil mixture, add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, one cup at at ime. Then, using a whisk, blend these ingredients. Blend all ingredients until there are no lumps.
- Pour mixture into oiled (not floured) mini bundt or loaf pans and bake for 35 minutes. If using a loaf pan, you may need to bake up to 60-75 minutes or until a toothpick or flat knife comes out clean from the center and the top is golden brown.
- Turn cakes out of bundt pan after a few minutes of being out of the oven.