Apple Bundt Cake

I love bundt cakes. I really do. It's such a simple way to make an elegant cake with minimal effort. All it needs is some powdered sugar or a simple glaze and its gorgeous. I have really been in the mood for chocolate pound cake lately and since that's my recipe for a never-fail dessert, I planned on making it for last fridays pizza party. Just as I was checking my cabinets for ingredients, Max came upstairs and declared that he has far too many apples and just doesn't want them anymore. Of course, I glanced over at my fruit bowl also exploding with golden delicious and northern spies from our last trip apple picking,* and quickly realized if I didn't bake something our of them we were going to end up with a lot of wasted apples. With that the chocolate pound was put on hold and I pulled out The Food Librarian's recipe for her Mom's Apple Cake. With a couple quick ingredient changes I came up with a recipe that would be perfect for my Salted Caramel Ice Cream.

The cake was super simple to make (the batter tasted good too), and it came out great! So most and delicious, what little we had leftover was gone by the end of breakfast saturday morning. (mostly cause every time I walked past it I couldn't help but a slice a piece off).

*I always end up with about 20lbs of apples which is like 10lbs more than I could possibly eat before they go bad, but I can't help myself I love going apple picking and they are only 70 cents a pound! Oh well, more apple baked goods it is!

Apple Bundt Cake

I have a pretty large bundt pan so I doubled this recipe to fill it but you could easily just fill it halfway and make a smaller cake. Always a good idea if you don't want a giant cake daring you to eat it every morning.

4 large granny smith apples, peeled, cored, and diced (I used a mix of 5 or 6 small-medium sized golden delicious and northern spies since that was what I had on hand)

3/4 cup olive oil (preferably lighter colored)

1 cup unrefined pure cane sugar

2 eggs
1 t real vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 t salt

2 t cinnamon

1 t baking soda
1 c walnuts (I didn't add these this time cause I wasn't in the mood for a run to the store but I'm sure they would be great as would some dark chocolate)

Preheat oven to 350

I used my electric hand mixer for this because I'm lazy but it's probably not necessary. A good whisking would probably do the job just fine.

Beat eggs with oil until foamy. Add sugar, vanilla, and sifted dry ingredients. Fold in apples and walnuts (if using).

Grease your pan (even if its non-stick, there is nothing worse than trying to un-stick a stuck bundt). I'm not a fan of non-stick sprays so i rub a bit of butter throughout the pan and dust it real like with flour but you could also put a little olive oil on a paper towel and wipe it thoughout the pan.

Pour batter into the pan evenly and bake for 45 min. (mine took about an hour since I doubled it but it also depends on your oven so check it around 40 minutes.)

Picture By Katherine Hamilton