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By Sarah Condley

Columnist

Brad and I were visiting one of our kids and taking supper, including dessert, with us. I browsed through the cake recipes I’ve been saving and found one for Apple-Honey Bundt Cake that sounded perfect. The recipe came from the September 2021 issue of “Food Network.”

I had apples in the refrigerator and honey in the cabinet. Since I like to bake, all of the other ingredients were on hand too.

The morning of our upcoming visit, I started making this cake. I usually grease baking pans, but since this recipe said to use vegetable oil, I did that.

When I bake with apples, I like to use a variety instead of just one kind. I peeled, cored, and shredded two Gala apples and one Granny Smith apple and let them sit on the counter until I needed them in the recipe. Since the apples were going into a batter that would be baked, I wasn’t concerned about them turning brown.

I poured the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices into a large bowl and whisked them together. I added the wet ingredients and sugar to another bowl, beat them with a hand mixer for four minutes, and then stirred in the vanilla.

Since the bowl the wet ingredients were in was smaller than the bowl the dry ingredients were in, I poured the wet into the dry, mixed on low speed, then stirred in the shredded apples. The batter was thick, so I had to scrape it into the bundt pan.

I placed the pan in the oven and let the cake bake 50 minutes before testing it with a toothpick; it wasn’t quite done, so it baked another five minutes before it was ready to come out of the oven. While the cake baked for those last five minutes, I stirred together 1/4 cup honey and 1/4 cup warm water. I took the cake out of the oven and brushed half the honey/water mixture over the top. The cake cooled for 20 minutes before I turned it out onto a cooling rack. Once out of the pan, I brushed the rest of the honey/water mixture over the cake.

When the cake was completely cool, I moved it to a platter. I mixed up the glaze, using just two tablespoons of water, and poured it all over the cake. More of the glaze ran down the sides and off the cake than I would have liked.

At our daughter’s house, we visited and played with our grandson, Owen, until our son-in-law got off work. Then we were ready to eat. Brad blessed the food, and we dug in. We didn’t take a break after the meal. We dove right into dessert.

Everyone got a slice of cake and started eating. We all thought the cake was good, but the glaze was too much. Honey in the first glaze and more honey in the second glaze, which reminded me of icing, was just too much honey. We all agreed it would have been better with some cream cheese icing.

Even though we didn’t care for the icing on this cake, I’ll say I “Nailed it,” but it’s not a recipe I’ll save because I have other apple cake recipes I like better and want to try.

Apple-Honey Bundt Cake

Ingredients

For the cake

• 1 cup vegetable oil, plus more for the pan

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom

• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

• 1 cup honey (any kind)

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 3 large eggs

• 1 teaspoon pour vanilla extract

• 3 apples (about 1 1/4 pounds), peeled and shredded

• 1/4 cup warm water

For the glaze

• 2 cups confectioner’s sugar

• 3 tablespoons honey (any kind)

• 2 to 3 tablespoons water

Instructions

• Make the cake:  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Brush a 12-cup nonstick Bundt pan with vegetable oil.  Whisk the flour, baking powder baking soda, salt, cardamom, allspice and nutmeg in a large bowl.

• Combine 3/4 cup honey, the granulated sugar, vegetable oil and eggs in another large bowl; beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Stir in the vanilla.  Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture until just combined.  Fold in the apples.  Scrape the batter into the Bundt pan.  Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 50-55 minutes.

• Meanwhile, stir together the remaining 1/4 cup honey and the warm water in a small bowl.  Remove the cake from the oven and brush with half of the honey mixture.  Let the cake cool 20 minutes in the pan, then turn out the cake on a rack.  Brush the top and sides of the cake with the remaining honey mixture and let cool completely.

• Make the glaze.  Whisk the confectioners’ sugar, honey and 2 tablespoons water in a medium bowl until smooth.  Add up to 1 tablespoon more water, if necessary, to thin out the glaze.  Transfer the cake to a platter and drizzle with the glaze, letting it drip down the sides.