Apple Almond Spice Cake and Some Bundt Cake Tips and Tricks

The apple season is coming to an end at Old Farm New Farm with only some of the late season varieties still on the trees, namely red delicious and granny smith. I'd been ignoring the red delicious as they tend to be quite thick skinned and floury, and definitely my least favorite on the farm. However, on tasting a couple I was a bit surprised at how nice they actually were this season. They had quite an enjoyable mellow flavour and a notable almondy character. 

Though red delicious aren't traditionally a cooking apple I used them in this recipe as I was looking for an apple that was going to break down easily through the cooking process. And having already baked to many apple cakes this season I wanted a cake that wasn't immediately recognisable as apple and thought the lack of acidity in the red delicious would help hide the apple in this apple cake. 

Inspired by classic tea cakes I used cinnamon for spice and almond liquor to enhance the almond notes of the red delicious. The almond meal and grated apple added texture and moisture. The apple all but disappeared resulting in a cake with a very moist and delicate crumb. The most notable quote from the testers was 'Delicious!'.

Recipe: Apple Almond Spice Cake 

Oven Temp: 180°

Equipment: I used a Nordic Ware 6 cup Bundt tin

Ingredients

150g Cake Flour

2 tsp Baking Powder

60g Almond Meal

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

200g Sugar

125g Butter

1 Egg

170g Apple - Peeled, cored and grated

1/2 tsp Lemon Zest

1 tbsp Amaretto (almond liquor)

125ml (1/2c) Milk

Process

1. Whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon and almond meal. set aside. 
2. In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes. Add egg and continue creaming until homogenized and fluffy. Stir in Amaretto, apple and lemon rind.
3. Add flour mixture and milk. Stir briefly to combine.
4. Pour into a prepared bundt tin* and smooth out the surface. Bake for around 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
5. Invert cake*, cool and serve withing a dusting of icing sugar.

*See Tips below

Bundt Tin Tips and Tricks

1. To ensure your cake doesn't stick to the tin carefully grease or spray your tin getting into all the nooks and crannies. Then lightly dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
2. After taking the cake out of the oven releasing the cake is make or break. To increase your odds of a good release, wait about 5 minutes before trying to invert the cake. This window allows the cake to 'set' so it doesn't break apart but don't wait to long as as it cools the sugars harden and will stick to the pan. 
3. Another tip to help release your cake is to gently push the cake away from the sides of the tin with a small plastic spatula before inverting. 
4. When cleaning your bundt tin don't use anything abrasive, warm soapy water should do the trick.