Spiced Apple Bundt Cake

It's apple season! After my family and I went apple picking I made a massive caramel apple pie but we still had a crazy amount of apples. I know I am not the only one who lets their kids pick way too many apples.

for the apple pie recipe: https://www.vineyardbaking.com/post/caramel-apple-pie)

So many apples, which means... MORE BAKING!

JUMP TO RECIPE

I didn't even plan on making this bundt cake. It was not on my schedule of future baking plans. But life happens, and somehow we had spontaneously invited a few families over one mid September afternoon.

I had nothing to serve. Seriously nothing! I had about 3 hours before everyone would come over and it would have been absolutely embarrassing if I didn't have some sort of cake. Inviting friends over on a weekend afternoon during the typical German 'Coffee & Cake' hour requires cake. Without some sort of baked good it would have been a travesty. I had to get to work. But I also wanted to tidy up, work out, and just kind of relax. I honestly wasn't in the mood to stand in the kitchen for 3 hours. It had been a hard work week.

My bundt pan has a cool spiral to it, but this recipe will work for any standard bundt pan.

As I was saying, it was a hard and tiring week, which is exactly why I came up with this Spiced Apple Bundt Cake recipe. Just 20 minutes of actual work and then you can do whatever you like. And that 20 minutes of work is really 10 minutes of peeling and chopping apples. If you have kiddos then put them to work. This recipe is for beginners and not technical at all, however this cake will please the masses. It is simple, quick, little clean up and your kitchen will smell incredible!

One of the best parts about this recipe is that they are standard baking ingredients. Without any planning, I already had EVERYTHING in my pantry.

Here you can see the products that I buy in Germany. Even though the baking soda is American, it was bought at a German grocery store, in the international aisle! That always cracks me up! In that section are pop tarts, marshmallows, cheese whiz (GROSS), and a few other random 'American' goods.

I forgot to add the spices, apples and walnuts to the picture. These apples are apples that we picked at an apple orchard in Mainz. While they are a bit red do not let that fool you. The are super sour and perfect for baking. If you are using store bought apples then make sure to grab Granny Smith apples which are green.

Chop them up into small pieces. They do not have to be perfect. You can see some of my pieces are larger than others and a few still have their peel on them. Don't stress, once it is baked you can't even tell.

Using a naturally sweet apple will make this cake too sweet. I love sweet desserts but what makes this cake incredible is the balance between sweet, tart and spice. Not spice like hot sauce but spice in terms of the cinnamon and nutmeg. All three of those elements work in perfect harmony in this simple to make cake.

One more element of this cake that we have to talk about is the nuts. Most cake recipes just have you throw in your chopped nuts directly into the batter. You can do that, but if you truly want to wow your guests then make sure to take the extra 3 minutes and toast your nuts. Toasting your nuts before baking them really helps to bring out that nutty flavor.

This batter is pretty standard. Beat sugars and oil together, add eggs then your honey and vanilla. Add in your dry ingredients and that's it!!!

Then you have to fold in your apples and walnuts into the batter.

Those are all my tips I have you. This cake is SO easy. Once your batter is ready just pour it all into your prepared pan.

Once your cake is fully baked, make sure to let it rest in the pan for about 45-60 minutes.

I was once rushed and stressed and thought 20 minutes would be fine. I thought I could invert the pan and my cake would just slip out. It was not fine. Do not do it. My entire cake fell apart once I removed the pan. It wasn't this cake but another type of bundt cake. My youngest daughter was a newborn and I thought I would bake while she napped. Of course that didn't go as planned and I was stressed for time and exhausted and frustrated and I told myself 20 minutes was enough. I lifted my pan off my cake and within a minute the cake broke into about 6 different pieces. It was many years ago, but I will never forget that feeling of despair. That nothing that day would go the way I thought. I know it was just a cake and I now I laugh about it. I learned from my mistakes and I have grown. But, to all my moms out there and especially to all my new moms, it's ok to cry and eat broken cake.

After your cake has rested for that 45-60 minutes you will notice that it has sunken in a bit. Don't freak out. This is normal and ok!! Remember this will be the bottom of your cake.

Actually you can break off the pieces along the edge that bubbled out and sample them before you flip your cake. Those bits are the best! A bit crispy on the edges but soft and moist from the cooked apples.

Invert your cake and let it cool a bit more on a cooling rack before you serve. If you serve the cake while it is still warm, it will still taste incredible, but your powdered sugar will melt or your icing will not stick.

I love being able to see the pieces of apples within the cake. The different shades of color add so much dimension to this cake.