Apples, Fall, and Martha

Happy October!

Since we are all getting to know each other oh so well, I figured it was finally time for me to confess my one true love and complete obsession with..MARTHA! Oh yes, I am in love, no better yet,  utterly infatuated with Martha Stewart. Ohhhhh Martha how I adore thee, how happy you make me each month when your special present for me arrives in my mailbox, the Martha Stewart Living magazine. With each turn of the page for just a moment I feel a part of her world, the perfect world of Martha where I can cook anything, eat anything, and sew too. Then I close it and come back to reality where I remember I can't sew a button let alone a blanket! But none the less, she always has some GREAT recipes that I love to try out when I can.

October is finally here and I love the fall, I love apples, and now we all know I love Martha too. This month's issue of Martha Living magazine had an Apple Walnut Bundt cake recipe that I just had to try out:

TA DA!!!!! thank you, thank you...

How did it taste you say, um it was DELISH!!

Apple Walnut Bundt Cake

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living, October 2011

Yields: 1 bundt cake

Ingredients (serves 10)

Carmelized Apples

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon water
• 3 tart green apples, cored, peeled and cut into 1-inch chunks

Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3/4 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 3/4 cups packed brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Glaze

• 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
• 3 tablespoons apple cider

Instructions

Caramelized Apples

• Cook sugar and water in a medium pan over medium-high heat, without stirring, until sugar caramelizes, about 4 minutes.
• Reduce heat to medium-low. Stir in apples. Cook, covered, for 6 minutes.
• With a potato masher, slightly mash apples until broken down but still chunky. Continue to cook, uncovered, stirring, until liquid evaporates, about 5 minutes.
• Let cool completely.

Cake

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour a Bundt pan.
• In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and salt.
• Beat butter and brown sugar with a mixer on high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
• Add eggs, one at a time, mixing on high speed.
• Reduce speed to low, and add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with milk.
• Mix in caramelized apples and walnuts.
• Transfer cake to Bundt pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.
• Let cake cool in pan, set on wire rack for 10 minutes. Turn out cake onto rack, and let cool completely.

Glaze

• Once cake is cool, make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar and apple cider.
• Drizzle over the top of cake, letting it drip down the sides.

Is there a fall baking recipe that you have tried lately or want to try?

Do you have a favorite cooking magazine? Martha has two new magazines I want to start subscribing to, Everyday FOOD and Whole Living I need to get my toosh in gear and get a subscription to those ones as well!