Spiced Cran-Apple Bundt Cake

This was one of the tins I pined for before going to New York - I could have wept when I saw it in Williams Sonoma. The Nordic Ware Vaulted Dome tin is a thing of beauty (don't worry - it'll be available here soon). Although it's quite decorative, I thought it was crying out for some simple decoration, so I took inspiration from the lady sat next to me on our flight to New York.

She was returning from a trip to see her friend who was at University in Ireland, and was making the trip back to San Diego from Shannon via Manchester, and then from New York - on her own. She told me that she was horrifically hungover and felt so dehydrated she might die. When she ordered a 'cran-apple' I was like... a what now?! Yes, the tangy yet sweet mix of cranberries and apples is rather popular over the Pond. And then it was born... the idea that turned out to be a rather festive spiced cran-apple bundt, baked in a tin from the Big Apple. Perfect.


Ingredients:

• 225g butter
• 300g golden caster sugar
• 150g fine demerara sugar
• 4 medium eggs
• 1 tsp lemon extract
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 350g plain flour
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 250ml plain fat free yogurt 
• 1 Cox's apple cut into small cubes tossed in 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1 tsp caster sugar
• 5 tbsp good quality cranberry sauce
• 300g icing sugar
• A few chopped pistachios and dried cranberries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to gas 3/160 C
2. Grease and flour a regular sized bundt tin - 2.4l, 10 cup, 10 inch.
3. Cream the butter and sugars until pale and fluffy.
4. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
5. Stir in the extracts.
6. In a separate bowl, measure out the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and spices.
7. Pour the yogurt into a jug.
8. Sift in a third of the flour mix followed by half the yogurt. Repeat this until everything is combined. Don't over mix or it'll be like that old lump of coal in naughty kids' stockings.
9. Stir the diced apple into the mix. TIP: Coating the apple with cinnamon helps it to sit nicely in the mixture, preventing sinking.
10. Give everything a quick mix on a low speed for about 10 seconds.
11. Pour 3/4 of the mix into the prepared tin.
12. Smear over a layer of cranberry sauce, avoiding the edges.
13. Cover with the remaining mix.
14. Bake in the centre of the oven for about 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. It should be shrinking from the sides of the tin slightly.
15. Leave the cake to cool for 10 minutes, then remove from the tin.
16. Allow it to cool fully. Ice it while it's warm and you'll pay the price matey...
17. Mix the icing sugar with a little water until it's a runny consistency.
18. Tip it over the cake and immediately cover with your chopped pistachios and cranberries. 

Bloggers: Please respect the fact I am sharing my own ideas and basic recipe. Blood, sweat and many tears have gone into getting this right, so you may enjoy a perfect bundt. If you wish to re-blog a recipe from these variations, please credit my blog and link to this original post rather than pasting the recipe on your own page.
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