I did a bundt cake cook off at the end of last year, during the holidays. The contestants are Spiced Apple Walnut cake from Giada de LaRentis, Holiday cake with fruit and pistachios from the Sunday coupons and C&H sugar and a Coconut Bundt from Daphne Oz of the Chew. The Spiced Apple Walnut is a good Fall cake with the spiciness of cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. With the cup and a half of pure maple syrup it makes it a bit pricey but next time I will be able to reduce the cost a bit because it was way too much icing. The recipe below has a smaller amount of icing listed. I was able to use the original amount for this cake, the Holiday cake and I will be tossing the remaining so a smaller batch will be better. The second cake was the Holiday Cake with fruit and pistachios. This cake won over the Spiced Apple Walnut cake because the cranberries added a tartness giving the cake that needed lift. Next time I will increase the cranberries to a cup from 3/4 C so they appear more throughout the cake. Original recipe came from the Sunday coupons and C&H sugar. I did have to make this cake twice in order to discover it was better because I only had 1/2 C. of agave so I decided to use sugar to supplement the rest but instead I added a cup of salt and didn't realize it till I tasted it. Right in the garbage it went. The third cake is a Coconut Bundt from Daphne Oz from the Chew. I was not a fan. The glaze poured over the cake was way too sweet and it created a hard crust and the coconut wasn't as present as I would have liked. Maybe toasting the coconut would make it better.
SPICED APPLE WALNUT CAKE
Mix in a large bowl:
3 granny smith apples, pealed, cored, diced
1 ½ C. maple syrup
3 eggs, at room temperature
¾ C. brown sugar
¾ C. vegetable oil
1 T. vanilla extract
Mix in a medium bowl:
3 C. flour
1 ½ t. baking powder
1 ½ t. baking soda
1 T. cinnamon
½ t. ground nutmeg
½ t. ground ginger
½ t. fine sea salt
1 C. walnuts, chopped
Icing
½ C. powdered sugar
⅛ C. heavy cream
2 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 T. water
1 t. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350˚F. In a large bowl mix maple syrup, diced (peeled and cored) apples, eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. In a medium bowl mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt. Add the dry mix to the wet mix. Stir in chopped walnuts. In a small bowl, melt 1 T. butter, pour into bundt pan and grease all sides. Pour in a tablespoon flour and cover all sides of bundt pan with flour. Shake out any excess. Pour cake batter into bundt pan. Place in center of oven and bake for 60 minutes or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 15 minutes then invert onto wire rack and cool for one hour. Mix icing ingredients and beat with mixer till smooth and pourable. If it doesn’t pour at a touch more water, a teaspoon at a time. Drizzle over cooled cake with a fork. Allow to set up for 20 minutes.
HOLIDAY CAKE
Mix dry in a medium bowl:
2 C. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
½ t. salt
2 t. ground cinnamon
Beat Wet in a large bowl:
4 eggs
1 C. canola oil
1 ⅓ C. sugar
Fold in:
1 C. dried cranberries
¾ C. pistachios, coarsely chopped
2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped
1 T. lemon juice
Icing
½ C. powdered sugar
⅛ C. heavy cream
2 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1 T. water
1 t. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350˚F. In a medium bowl mix flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon, set aside. In a large bowl with an electric mixer, blend eggs, oil and sugar until well combined. Add half the dry ingredients to wet, beat, add remaining and finish mixing. In a small medium bowl add lemon juice. Peal, core and finely chop apples add to lemon juice, toss. Fold cranberries, pistachios and chopped apples into batter. Spray bundt pan with oil. Pour batter into pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes. Let cool 15 minutes. Invert onto wire rack and remove bundt pan. Let cool 1 hour. Mix icing ingredients and drizzle over cake with a fork.
Note: You can substitute a cup of Agave nectar in place of the sugar but I didn't try this yet.
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