In what I hope to make an ongoing series, I’ve decided to start posting recipes from a database that I’ve been building up for about 8 months now. I intend for them to be recipes that I’ve found to work well and taste good, but I may occasionally post some that I haven’t had a chance to try, but look really good, so that someone else who is in more of a position to try it can do so (For example; entrees such as chili, or side dishes like potato gratin are things that I don’t often get a chance to try, since our meals are already planned out).

So, to start this off, here is a recipe for a bundt cake that I’ve made several times. It’s a spice cake, with a caramel glaze that could easily be made on its own without the cake and used as an ice cream topping or something. That’s an idea I had last time I made it, anyway. And in case it looks familiar to anyone, I pulled it out of the February 2007 issue of Bon Appetit.

 

Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

12 servings

Cake:

Nonstick vegetable oil spray

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

¾ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

1 ¾ pounds apple, peeled, cored, coarsely grated

1 ½ cups unsalted butter, room temperature

1 ½ cups sugar

½ cup (packed) brown sugar

1 teaspoon grated lemon peel

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

Glaze:

½ cup (packed) brown sugar

¼ cup unsalted butter

¼ cup whipping cream

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon fresh lemon juice

¼ teaspoon salt

 

For Cake: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325 degrees. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick spray. Sift flour and next 6 ingredients into medium bowl. Drain grated apples in strainer. Using hands or kitchen towel, squeeze out excess liquid from apples. Measure 2 cups grated apples.

Using electric mixer, beat butter, both sugars, and lemon peel in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in vanilla and lemon juice. Beat in flour mixture. Mix in grated apples. Transfer batter to prepared pan.

Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on rack 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare glaze: Stir all ingredients in small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to a boil. Reduce heat to medium; whisk until glaze is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove from heat.

Invert cake onto rack set over baking sheet. Using small skewer, pierce holes all over top of warm cake. Pour glaze over top, allowing it to be absorbed before adding more. Cool cake 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

EDIT: One tip for making bundt cakes. Whenever I make a bundt cake, no matter what the directions say, I always grease and flour the bundt pan to make sure that whatever is in there is gonna come out when it’s done baking. One thing about bundt pans is that over time, for one reason or another, the nonstick coating on the inside of the pan will come off, and even just a little patch not being there can cause the cake to stick to the inside and rip it apart as it’s coming out of the pan. It’s a bit of a hassle, but giving the pan a light coating of Crisco or something and then dusting over it with flour will create a fantastic nonstick surface and will allow the cake to pop out with little or no hassle.