Bundt #3 - Apple Bundt

Sorry for the delay in getting this posted. The weather has been freakishly nice, lately, so we've been doing things that we don't usually do this late in the year (like spending much of last Saturday washing all of our windows).

Hopefully, if you've still got some apples around, this will have been worth the wait!

This recipe comes to us from Bundt Cake Bliss, and even inspired me to buy a brand new Bundt cake pan from the Nordic Ware Factory Store:

The recipe was pretty straight forward, and I took the recommendation of using multiple kinds of apple (I used Granny Smith and Macintosh).

One of my favorite kitchen purchases ever was a hand-crank "apple peeler-corer-slicer." I've had it for probably 20 years, and although I only use it 3 or 4 times per year, I think it's worth the space it takes up on my shelf.

You slide an apple onto the prongs, and then, as you turn the crank, it moves the apple through a peeler mechanism, as well as coring and thinly slicing it.

I realized, recently, that I did not actually own a standard apple wedger-corer - which also has its uses, and would be handy for this if I hadn't had my gadget. When I went out to buy it, I noticed that it describes what it does a bit deceptively:

Do you see that it says that it "Slices and Dices"? I'm not really sure how they think that the piece (below) does either of those things.

But, anyway... Back to the Bundt.

After making quick work of my apples, I added in spices. I opted for Nutmeg, instead of Mace (it was closer at hand, and I really like apples with cinnamon and nutmeg). 

Using the measuring cups Christopher bought which I really figured I'd never use, I got all of my wet ingredients together in one bowl...

...and then started combining things:

Remember how we've discussed that Bundt pans come in different sizes? This star is only a 10-cup pan, but the recipe was for a 12-cup pan. So I had to pay attention and guess at how much batter to pour in before layering in the apples. 

I won't lie - I think that the thin-sliced apples worked better for this than larger chunks would have worked, though it did mean some work to try to get the batter to move between the slices.

Because I knew there would be leftover batter and apples, I planned ahead and greased a large muffin tin. And I filled that with the rest of the ingredients.
 

One thing to be cautious of in this situation: The muffin-sized cakes are going to bake at a much different rate than the full cake. I had to kind of guess at the times, and keep an eye on the pan to make sure they didn't go too far.

Luckily, they turned out pretty well, and only had minor issues coming out of the pan. (Basically, the apples were too close to the sides, and so the batter hadn't joined top to bottom in that final one.)

On the other hand, the full Bundt came out of the pan with no trouble at all, so I just dusted it with a little powdered sugar and called it good to go.

The cake was really amazing. The apples gave it a ton of flavor - and moisture - and I was able to eat a little extra of it by telling myself that it was "healthy" (since it had fruit in it).

The muffin-sized cakes were crunchy around the edges, as well, which I really loved. And they stored well for a couple of days.

REMINDER: I'm still looking for recipes to work with! I've had a request for a pumpkin cake, and I've got a couple of ideas that I'm looking at. But if there's anything you want me to try out and write up, let me know!