Apple Cream Cheese Bundt Cake

Apples are in season and very abundant where I live. The New York Hudson Valley region is replete with apple orchards. Warwick, my adopted home town is home to the annual Applefest Festival and over the weekend we celebrated not only Applefest but my five year anniversary of leaving NYC and moving to Warwick.  In celebration of that momentous event,  I decided to make an Apple Cream Cheese Bundt cake. Filled with fresh gala apples and a swirl of cream cheese in the middle. This is a very moist and dense cake. The praline frosting puts it over the top.  Note: My daughter Gabi is anaphylactic to peanuts and tree nuts so for those of you that wonder, you'll never see any peanut or tree nut based desserts on this blog. Sorry!

Apple Cream Cheese Bundt Cake
Yield: Serves 12

 

Ingredients:
Cream cheese filling:

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1/4 cup butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Apple Cake batter:

1 cup finely chopped pecans (I omitted the pecans)

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

3/4 cup canola oil

3/4 cup applesauce

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 cups peeled and finely chopped Gala apples (about  lb.)

Praline Frosting:

1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup butter

3 tablespoons whole or 2% milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar

 

Directions:

Prepare Filling: In a separate bowl beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric or hand mixer until blended and smooth. Add egg, flour, and vanilla; beat just until blended. Set aside

Prepare Batter: Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a bundt pan with butter and flour. Stir together 3 cups flour and next 7 ingredients in a large bowl; stir in eggs and next 3 ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. Stir in apples and pecans (I omitted the pecans). Spoon two-thirds of apple mixture into a14-cup Bundt pan. Spoon Cream Cheese Filling over apple mixture. Swirl filling through apple mixture using a paring knife. Spoon remaining apple mixture over Cream Cheese Filling. Bake at 350º for 1 hour to 1 hr and 10 mins (my cake was ready in 1 hr) or until a long wooden chopstick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (about 2 hours).

Prepare Frosting: Bring 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter, and 3 Tbsp. milk to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly; boil 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla. Gradually whisk in powdered sugar until smooth; stir gently 3 to 5 minutes or until mixture begins to cool and thickens slightly. Pour immediately over cooled cake.

Can you see the bits of apple?

Source: Recipe adapted from Southern Living Magazine.