WTSIM: Dried Fruit and Nuts - Double Apple Bundt Cake

When I saw that this month's Waiter There's Something In My ..., hosted by Andrew of Spittoon Extra, had a theme of dried fruit and nuts, I was in straight away. I love fruit and nuts of all varieties, and when I have the chance to put them into baked goods, the hardest part is choosing what to make!

It is Simon's birthday on Saturday, so my WTSIM entry is also Simon's birthday cake. My choice was Dorie Greenspan's Double Apple Bundt Cake from Baking - From My Home to Yours. This cake is loaded with fruit (both fresh and dried) and nuts - it contains grated apple, apple sauce (which I used instead of apple butter), pistachios (which I used instead of walnuts or pecans) and raisins. It also has lemon icing.

All of the fruit makes it a very moist, scrumptious cake. I got to try it by virtue of making a baby cake for myself, as I will be out of town tomorrow when the cake is served. It also smells heavenly while it is cooking and fresh out of the oven due to the warm apples. I was actully sad that I will only get my one muffin-sized piece!

This cake is not difficult to make, but it is a little time intensive because of the requirement to chop the nuts and peel, core and grate the apples. It also takes the best part of an hour to bake. However, I was easily able to make it from start to finish (including icing) in an evening.

If you want to try this cake, you will need:

2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

pinch of salt

130g butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup apple butter (I used apple sauce and it seemed fine)

2 apples, peeled, cored and grated

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pistachios)

1/2 cup raisins

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Grease a bundt pan and set aside.

Sift the dry ingredients togethr in a bowl and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the eggs , one at a time. With your mixer on low speed, add the apple butter, then the grated apple, and finally add the dry ingredients, and beat until just combined. Remove the bowl from the mixer and stir through the nuts and raising by hand.

Pour the batter into the prepared bundt pan, and bake in the preheated oven for 50-55 minutes. Cool the cake in the tin for about 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Once the cake is completely cool, ice with a lemon glaze made from icing sugar and a little lemon juice. Enjoy!

Thanks to Andrew for hosting WTSIM again this month, and I look forward to the fruit 'n' nut roundup, especially with winter coming on.