Bundt #2 of BCS5: Caramel Apple Cake

Baked on October 14, 2012

Our local neighborhood association had its annual meeting on October 14th.  Part of the meeting included an "apple fest" where folks were to bring an apple dish.  Clearly, I had only one option, which was to make an apple bundt cake.  My first destination for a recipe was my favorite bundt cookbook, Kiss My Bundt by Chrysta Wilson, but sadly, no apple cake recipes were to be found there.  So, my next stop was the old school Bundt Cookbook put out by the originators of the bundt pan, Nordic Ware.  There, I was drawn to the Caramel Apple Cake.  And so, it was decided that was the cake I was bringing to the annual meeting.

Because I was running late (as usual) I neglected to take any pictures of the cake, until after the meeting.  (As you can see from the picture for this post.)  You can also see that the cake was well received, which was interesting to me, since I, myself, did not love this cake.  The caramel glaze really was not caramel-y.  Instead, it had an almost maple flavor.  I think it's due to all the powdered sugar in the glaze recipe.  If I were to make this again, I'd find something more traditionally caramel--butter, brown sugar, vanilla, and milk (or even better, cream).  So, that's my recommendation to you.  Find a better glaze.  (If you look at the picture, you can see the glaze is not the right color for caramel--that's all that powered sugar mucking things up.)

I don't remember much about this cake (see, this is a problem with waiting three months to write your posts), just that I thought it was okay.  Again, though, other people really liked it.  One neighbor even asked me for the recipe, as it was her favorite item there!  And another neighbor, when I mentioned on Facebook that I didn't love the cake, also gave it high praise--and she described herself as being "fussy."  So, there ya go.  Oh, speaking of that FB post, I see I said that if I were to make the cake again, I'd leave out the raisins (and I like raisins!).  So, that's good to know.

So, yeah, now that you're all excited to try this cake for yourself, here's the recipe.

For the cake:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 3/4 cups firmly packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs

2 cups, peeled, thinly sliced apples

1 cup chopped nuts (I think I used pecans.  And you should always toast nuts for the best flavor.)

1/2 cup raisins (like I said, I'd leave these out; let the apples shine.  Hell, maybe add another 1/2 of apples?)

For the glaze (Though again, I really, really recommend finding a different glaze! Unless you want a more maple-y glaze, then use this one.):

1/4 cup butter

1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 to 4 teaspoons milk

2 to 3 tablespoons chopped nuts

Directions for the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray pan with baking spray (or you can use the grease & flour method).

Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup; level off.

In a large bowl, blend all cake ingredients except nuts and raisins, beat 2 minutes at high speed.

I am certain I did not follow that step, but rather, whisked the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda together in one bowl.  And then, in my stand mixer, beat the butter for 2 minutes on medium, until light.  Then slowly added the sugar, and let it mix for another two minutes, until fluffy.  Then I would have added the eggs one at a time.  And then added the vanilla.  Finally adding the dry ingredients in batches.  At which point, I'm guessing I let it mix for 2 minutes, per the directions above.

Stir in nuts and raisins.

Spoon into prepared pan.

Bake 45 - 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool upright in the pan 30 minutes; invert onto a serving plate.

Cool completely.

Directions for the glaze (or try this one, it looks good):

In a small saucepan, melt butter.

Stir in brown sugar; remove from heat. (I know I kept it on the heat and let it cook for a little while, in an effort to get it more caramel-y.)

Add powdered sugar, vanilla, and milk; blend well.

Immediately spoon over cake.

Sprinkle with nuts.

Bundt #1 of BCS5 - Honey Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze

Baked on September 30, 2012.

I was motivated to start Bundt Cake Season 5 earlier than previous seasons, in part, because my colleague, AJ, sent me this recipe for Honey Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze (and a sprinkling of sea salt) and it looked delicious.  I was also motivated to get an early start to BCS5, because I ended up baking so few bundts last season (four total, though I only posted about two).  So, I was eager to get out my bundt pans and get baking!

I have been searching for a good Honey Cake recipe for awhile.  My old CSA used to sell these amazing honey cakes for Rosh Hashanah, which had raisins and carrots in them(not dissimilar to carrot cake), but that CSA no longer exists, hence the search for a honey cake recipe of my own.

This cake, although it has neither carrots nor raisins (which I'm pretty sure were unique to that baker's interpretation, as I don't think most honey cakes have either) still looked really good.  And how can you go wrong with a dark chocolate glaze and a sprinkling of sea salt?  The answer is, you really can't. Also, clearly this Honey Cake was meant for me, because it was a bundt cake.

I brought this cake into work to share with my coworkers and the Dean (who usually avoids sweets and things that aren't healthy, in general) poked his head into my office and told me, "You could sell this."  That was high praise.  

As the description at Epicurious says, this cake is ideal for any occasion, so no need to wait for the next Rosh Hashanah to make this.

Here's the recipe (which you can also find here).

Ingredients

For cake:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
1 cup pure honey
3/4 cup lukewarm coffee (brewed, or instant dissolved in water)
1 1/2 teaspoons packed grated orange zest

For chocolate glaze:
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons well-stirred canned unsweetened coconut milk (not light)
2 teaspoons light corn syrup
4 ounces bittersweet (60% cacao) chocolate, finely chopped (I just used dark chocolate chocolate chips.)

Out of the pan, before the glaze.

For garnish:
Flaky sea salt, such as Maldon (optional)

Preparation

For cake:
Heat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. Generously spray pan, including center tube, with baking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking powder and soda, salt, and spices in a large bowl.

Whisk eggs well in another large bowl and whisk in sugar, oil, honey, coffee, and zest until well combined.

Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add the honey mixture, then stir with the whisk until the batter is smooth.

Pour batter into pan (it’s liquid enough to level itself in the pan), and bake in oven until springy to the touch and a cake tester comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes.

Let cake cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes.

Loosen cake from the pan with a thin rubber spatula, then invert cake onto the rack and cool completely.

For glaze:
Bring coconut milk and corn syrup to a simmer in a small heavy pan, stirring until combined.

Remove pan from heat and add chocolate. Let chocolate stand 1 minute, then stir until chocolate is melted and glaze is smooth.

Let glaze stand, stirring occasionally, until thickened slightly, but still pourable.

Transfer cake to a cake plate and slowly pour the chocolate glaze over the top of the cake, letting it drip down the sides. If desired, let the cake stand at room temperature until glaze is set.

Freshly glazed cake, pre-sea salt.

Just before serving, sprinkle glaze lightly with flaky sea salt, if using.

Helpful hint from Epicurious (check out their web site for other hints):

Measuring oil and honey: Both should be measured in a liquid measuring cup. The oil is listed first, because if you measure the honey in it afterward, without washing the cup, the honey will slide out easily, with barely any help needed from a rubber spatula. 

Let's Get this Bundt Cake Season Back on Track!

Sadly, I seem to be following in last season's footsteps.  But unlike last season, I have been making more bundts!  (Though there has been a two-month lull since my last bundt.  I do have plans to fix that tomorrow, however.)

Clearly, I'm not cut out to be a very good blogger.  Oh well.  Let's just see if I can get this blog back up to speed.

Hurricane Bundt

This is just a quick mini-post.  I know I still need to tell you about bundts one and two of Bundt Cake Season Five (and actually bundt three, since this isn't a full post), but this just calls for an out-of-order post.

Like many of my East Coast friends who were going to be potentially affected by Hurricane Sandy, I decided that the situation called for some baking, which in my case, meant a bundt.

Having lost power in last year's October snow storm, I figured we'd want something that didn't need refrigeration and would be easy to snack on.  I also wanted it to have some sort of redeeming nutritional value, so I decided to go with a cranberry-pecan bread, rather than a cake.

Since there was clearly going to be no glaze with this bread, it meant I could use my newer "wave" pan, as I've dubbed it.

It wasn't until I turned it out of the pan, that I realized how appropriate that pan choice was.  See for yourself.

Hmm, that shape looks familiar...

Yep, it's a hurricane-shaped bundt!

Luckily, we didn't lose power this time.  I'm crediting the bundt bread.

Bundt Cake Season Five Has Begun!

Yes, yes, I'm behind on Season Four, quelle surprise.  But, there's only one more cake in the season, so I'll get that post up eventually.  I'm hoping to turn over a new leaf with Season Five.  Also, since there were only three bundt cakes in Season Four, that may be why Season Five is the earliest starting season so far.

Anyway, here's the first bundt cake of the season, a Honey Cake with Dark Chocolate Glaze (sea salt is coming, but not yet sprinkled on the cake).  My friend, AJ, sent the recipe to me on Rosh Hashanah.   So, she gets some credit for the early start to this year's season.

Recipe and all that to follow.  Though, if you're in a hurry, you can find the recipe here:  http://www.epicurious.com/articlesguides/holidays/highholydays/honey-cake.

Bundt Cake #2 of BCS4: I kind of had to Frankenstein it together

A friend of mine had a birthday on November 10th, since she was turning 25 (yes, I know, so young) and had recently moved into a new place, she and her main squeeze had a party. Since she is a fan of the strawberry champagne (she also extols its virtues in a strawberry mimosa), it seemed appropriate to make her the Strawberry Champagne Celebration Cake. Because this was going to be for a party, I went for the full-size bundt this time. I also skipped the champagne buttercream, because, as I mentioned in that post, it turns out that I don't really like the stuff (buttercream frosting in general, not the champagne one specifically). I decided, instead, to make a Strawberry Champagne Glaze to go on it.

I made the cake (you can find the recipe here) and when I went to turn it out, I started getting nervous that I was going to have a repeat of the disaster of Bundt Cake #1 from this season. The first time I attempted to turn it out, only a small section came out--from just one side of the cake. I let it sit for 15 minutes and tried again, this time an almost equal-sized chunk of cake came out--this time from the other side. Remember, this was supposed to be going to a party. I was seriously starting to freak out!

If you look closely, you can see the two pieces.

And obviously, the cake still in the pan behind it.

Before I turned the cake out for the final time, I got a silicon spatula out, and ran it along the side of the bundt pan to help the cake loosen from the edges. Luckily, that worked! Then I just needed to "Frankenstein" the cake together, which I did by figuring out where the edges matched up, so when I turned it out the final time, the parts all fit together. Too bad I wasn't frosting the cake, because then I could have used the frosting to glue the pieces together. As it was, since the two pieces that came out first were flat-ish, it just kind of stayed together.

Because the cake left some of its crust, so to speak, in the pan, I decided against pouring the glaze on it, for fear it would end up soggy. So I brought it separately to be poured on individual slices.

Crysta Wilson has a recipe in Kiss My Bundt for a 7-Up glaze for her 7-Up Poundcake, so I used that recipe as my guide when making the Strawberry Champagne Glaze.

Strawberry Champagne Glaze

1/2 cup Strawberry Champagne

1 1/2 cup powdered sugar (I recommend sifting the sugar, as my glaze ended up a little lumpy)

Pour the champagne into a small bowl. With a whisk, stir in the powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time until fully mixed.

She recommends pouring a 1/2 cup of the glaze on the cake while it's still hot (that way it will absorb some of it) and then once the cake has fully cooled, drizzling the rest on it.

As with the first, more disastrous, cake of Bundt Cake Season 4, this cake was still delicious. And since it was dark at the party, no one really noticed its Frankenstein qualities. This cake is so good! You should definitely give it a try--you don't even need to splurge on the good stuff, Andre or its like will do just fine. This cake would be especially handy if you had some leftover champagne you wanted to use up, but weren't in the mood for drinking it (for some bizarre reason).

After two problematic cakes in a row, I was seriously starting to worry about the fate of Bundt Cake Season 4!

Bundt Cake #1 of BCS4: Bundt Cake Disaster!

As you may recall, Bundt Cake Season 4 started on October 31st. The Main Squeeze and I were among hundreds of thousands of people in New England who lost power in the evening of Saturday, October 29th in a freak snow storm that brought down lots of branches and whole trees (since the snow hit so early, most of the trees still had their leaves. That, combined with the heaviness of the snow, led to the downing of trees and the breaking off of tree limbs. In fact, our back porch was damaged from a large branch hitting it). We were lucky, because our power returned by Monday morning. Once the power returned, among the many things that I wanted to do to take advantage of once again having electricity was to bake a bundt cake and get Bundt Cake Season 4 started!

Months ago, I had found a recipe on the web that I wanted to use to start BCS4, but unfortunately, I didn't have at least two key ingredients, and I wasn't about to venture to the store when it was sure to be insanely packed. So, I found another recipe whose ingredients I did have: Lemon Ginger Cake from Kiss My Bundt.

I had forgotten that I used up my baking spray, but I figured, no big deal, when I first started baking bundts, I used the old butter and flour method, I'd just do that. I don't know what happened (I'm guessing I didn't grease the pan thoroughly enough), but I had my first experience of the cake not releasing from the pan. I kept letting it sit for 15 minutes and trying to turn it out, but no go. I even tried to ease it out using a silicon spatula. I finally had to take desperate measures. I think I ultimately had to use a knife to get it out.

It wasn't pretty. In fact, I think it's safe to say it was an aesthetic disaster. See for yourself:

Well, at least it tasted delicious.

Sadly, I had made a lemon ginger syrup to pour over it, to give it a stronger ginger flavor, but clearly, a syrup would have just have made it soggy.

Did I mention that we had invited friends who were still without power over for dinner? And after all the work that went into this cake, I wasn't about to just toss it. The Main Squeeze had an excellent suggestion: serve it in bowls. Which is what I did. With the syrup on the side for folks to put on their cake as they liked.

It really was quite tasty. Since it was a fresh ginger cake, without the ingredients that would have made it more spicy (like molasses ), the ginger flavor was on the subtle side. And this was after I added more ginger than the recipe called for. I also was probably a little too generous with the lemon zest, as I think the lemon flavor dominated the ginger flavor a bit.

If you're looking for a cake with more of hint of ginger than an intense gingerbread experience, then this is the cake for you. Omit the lemon zest if you'd like just a simple, fresh ginger cake.

Ginger peeling hint: The best way to peel ginger is to use a spoon. Seriously. That way you remove just the thin skin without losing any of the delicious root.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon of freshly grated ginger (I don't have a ginger grater, and my experience using a regular grater has been unsatisfactory, so I just chop it very finely.)

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cup whole milk (as always, I used the 1% I had on hand)

2 1/2 cups flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of salt

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 3/4 cup sugar

3 eggs, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Add grated ginger, lemon zest, and vanilla to milk. Set aside.

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Set aside.

Beat butter with an electric mixer at medium speed until creamy, about two minutes.

Slowly add the sugar. Beat on medium speed until the mixture is fluffy, about two minutes.

Crack the eggs into a separate bowl and add to batter one at a time. Then beat on medium speed for an additional two minutes.

Beginning and ending with the flour mixture, mix 1/3 of the flour mixture into the wet mixture at low speed, then 1/2 of the milk, alternating until all ingredients are mixed.

Transfer batter to a cake pan that has been coated with a baker's cooking spray that includes flour. (If you are using mini bundt pans, fill them 3/4 full.)

Bake until an inserted toothpick or cake tester comes out clean--about 40 minutes for a regular-sized bundt pan.

Invert cake onto a cooling rack or serving plate. If cake resists, cool in the pan for 15 minutes before inverting. (HA!) If it still resists, give it another 15 minutes (double HA!).

I don't remember now what I did for the syrup, but I think I went with something like this:

1/2 cup of water

1/2 cup of sugar

1-2 tablespoons of grated ginger

1-2 teaspoons of lemon zest

If you happen to have some Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, add some, that would be delicious--a couple of tablespoons, I'm guessing, would do nicely.

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan and place over medium heat. Bring to a boil and cook until slightly syrupy, about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool slightly.

If everything had turned out correctly, I would have poked holes in the cake with a skewer and poured the syrup over it.