TWD:Double Apple Bundt Cake

Lynne of Honey Muffin chose Double Apple Bundt Cake for us to bake this week. This was a good cake that stayed really moist and was full of nuts, raisins and fall spice flavors.

 Although we agreed it was tasty, it didn't quite measure up to our favorite apple cake. In this cake, we thought the shredded apple just disappeared on the cake and we missed the chunks of moist, sweet apples that are the star in our usual apple cake. We thought it would make a good muffin or coffee cake with a spice streusel topping to give it that little something to make it stand out.

After a few "tasting slices" of plain cake, we added a dollop of freshly whipped cream and a drizzle of homemade caramel sauce and it became a warm comforting fall dessert.

Double Apple Bundt Cake
From Dorie Greenspan’s “Baking: From my home to yours”

2 cups AP flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
1 ¼ sticks (10 tablespoons) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup store-bought apple butter
2 eggs
2 medium apples, peeled, cored and grated
1 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped
½ cup plump, moist raisins (dark or golden)
Confectioners’ sugar for dusting (optional)
For the Icing (optional) 
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
About 2 tablespoons fresh orange or lemon juice

Getting ready:  Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter a 9- to 10- inch (12 cup) Bundt pan. If your pan is not nonstick, dust the interior of the pan with flour, then tap out the excess. (If yo’ve got a silicone Bundt pan, there’s no need to butter or flour it.) Don’t place the pan on a baking sheet – you want the oven’s heat to circulate through the Bundt’s inner tube.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

Working with a stand mixer, preferably fitted with a paddle attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed, scarping the bowl as needed, for 3 minutes, or until the mixture is smooth, thick and pale. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for about 1 minute after each addition; you’ll have a light, fluffy batter. Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the apple butter – don’t worry if it curdles the batter. Still on low, add the grated apples and mix to completely blend. Add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the nuts and raisins. Turn the batter into the Bundt pan and smooth the top
of the batter with the rubber spatula. 
Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a think knife inserted deep into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack to cool for 5 minutes before unmolding and cooling the cake to room temperature. If possible, once the cake is completely cool, wrap well in plastic and let it stand overnight at room temperature to ripen the flavors.

If you’re not going to ice the cake, you can dust it with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

To make the optional icing:  Put the sugar in a small bowl and stir in a squirt or two of either orange or lemon juice. Keep adding the juice a little at a time until you have an icing that falls easily from the tip of a spoon. Drizzle the icing over the top of the cake letting it slide down the curves of the cake in whatever pattern it makes. Let the cake stand until the icing dries, a matter of minutes, before slicing.



To  see what in the other TWD  bakers thought visit our blog roll