My love affair with Carmel Apple Bundt Cake began 10 years ago around the time my husband and I bought our first house. Shortly after we moved in I began working with the youth at church and made friends with a woman named Heather who also worked with the youth. Heather was a true lover of desserts. She often said that she would pick her dessert first and plan the rest of her meal around what would compliment it!
Some other women and I would occasionally meet at her house for planning meetings and they always ended with some fabulous concoction that Heather had whipped up in her kitchen. Often it was chocolate , but not always! We would conduct our business and then sit around for hours enjoying friendship and yummy desserts.
One fall evening after our planning meeting Heather introduced me to Carmel Apple Bundt Cake....all warm, golden brown and drizzled with homemade sauce. It was moist and savory, tasting of sweet apple, spicy cinnamon and covered in one of my favorite things in the world....carmel. I fell in love at first bite! It was the epitome of everything I loved about fall baked into one luscious treat! Before I left I made sure that I had a copy of Heather's recipe.
The next year Heather and her little family moved out of state to be closer to her parents and we lost touch as people sometimes do. But my love affair with Carmel Apple Bundt Cake continued. With the change of the seasons I would blissfully pull out my recipe, mentally thank Heather for bringing this bit of golden goodness into my life and prepare to bake. And it always tasted just as good as it did that first night.
Then one year the unthinkable happened! It was six years ago and we had moved into our current home that spring after a six month sojourn in an apartment during building. The leaves were changing colors and we had a bit of a crispness to the air. It was the perfect day for my favorite fall dessert. I went to get my recipe for Carmel Apple Bundt Cake and it was gone! Somehow I had lost my recipe during the multiple moves.
That was the day my love turned into obsession! I have devoted myself to finding a recipe every bit as wonderful as Heather's. Every year I gather a new stack of promising recipes and start to bake. Some have come close and many, many have failed! Yet I press on hopeful that one day I will recreate the perfect Carmel Apple Bundt Cake.
Lately I have begun to wonder if it is a matter of finding THE recipe that will live up to Heather's version of one of my favorite fall treats......Or is it a matter of finding a recipe that lives up to my MEMORY of that first Carmel Apple Bundt Cake. I am beginning to think it is the latter. It's kind of like that first blush of love, no matter how wonderful REAL love is we always think back with nostalgia on our first sweet taste of puppy love.
And so the search continues! This year I have three hopefuls. I made one last night and it did not live up to expectations, so I will move on to the next, hoping against hope that I will find the ONE. And in the mean time I am posting the recipe for one of the keepers....a runner up to the original. I found it in an issue of Better Homes and Gardens a few years back. And I will keep you updated on the search. Enjoy!
P.S. I did not take the picture above. I ate all mine before I thought to take a picture of it and had to download a picture from the Internet. Sorry!
Apple Spice Cake with Carmel Glaze
3 cups flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 ½ ground nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground chipotle pepper
¾ tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp salt
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 ½ cups cooking oil
1 cups sugar
3 eggs
1 Tbsp vanilla
3 cups diced green apple (approximately 3 large green apples)
Preheat oven to 325. Lightly coat a 10 inch fluted pan with spray and sprinkle with flour.
Mix wet ingredients and add dry ingredients. Mix in apples. Spoon into pan.
Bake at 350 for 1 hr and 15 min until tooth pick comes clean. Do not over cook!
Glaze:
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup butter
¼ cup whipping cream
Bring to boiling while stirring occasionally. Boil gently 2 min. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 tsp vanilla. Let stand until thickened. Drizzle over warm cake. Serve with vanilla ice cream.
