Wheat Apple Bundt Cake

Last year I had made apple cupcakes for Neha’s friends and one of her friend had liked it a lot. Since then she has been requesting Neha to tell me to bake it again for her. But somehow, it was getting delayed. So, finally I decided to make it for her. I am not an expert when it comes to whole wheat cakes and my family is also not a big fan of whole wheat cakes. However, I wanted

to really get some experience with whole wheat cakes. Breads, I don’t have an issue with whole wheat and same is the case with cupcakes or muffins. But complete whole wheat cakes were still out of my comfort zone 🙂

I had a look at some of my favourite blogs and saw a couple of apple cakes. My first choice was to search in Akshatha Manjunath’s floursandfrostings.com. And honestly I was quite surprised to see a whole wheat apple cake in her blog. I know that she is not a big fan of whole wheat cakes and her cake really motivated me and gave me confidence to try out my version. Now, just to make things more interesting and appealing to folks at home, I decided to try it out in my Nordicware classic bundt pan. If you read my post on my first experience with that pan, you would know how sturdy and well-behaved it is 🙂 My next cornern was the huge size of the pan. It’s a humungous 12 cups pan. But I am happy to see that 250 grams or around 2 cups of flour (240 ml cup) gives a decent sized cake.

As I always reiterate, once you understand some basics of baking and understand how a cake batter should look like, you can always experiment. So, I decided to add some pieces of apple to the the cake and pureed the remaining apple pieces. Then I cooked the puree with brown sugar and butter and prepared a sauce. Please remember to taste the sauce, it’s simply simply awesome 🙂 In fact I was wondering whether to glaze the cake with such an apple sauce. Now, cool the sauce a bit, add the remaining wet ingredients.

Another important point to be remembered is, in case of whole wheat cakes, sieve the flour with the rising agents atleast 10-12 times. This sieving is to incorporate air in the flour and not to remove the bran in the flour. Sieve from a height of atleast 6 inches. You can add some chopped almonds or walnuts. I didn’t because my daughter doesn’t like it. You can also increase the amount of cinnamon powder. You may also add some nutmeg powder.

Remember to cool the cake in the tin for atleast 15-20 minutes. Also grease the Bundt pan very well, covering all the grooves. I have used my 240 ml cup. Oh, forgot to add… Hubby and Neha loved it. Gave them both 2 pieces and the entire remaining cake was packed for Neha’s friend. It really had a very good and distinct apple flavour. I would have surely enjoyed some walnut pieces too 🙂

Ingredients:

• Whole wheat flour 250 gm + 2 tbsp
• Salt a pinch
• Baking soda 1 tsp
• Baking powder 1.5 tsp
• Brown sugar 200 gm
• Apples 3
• Butter 50 gm
• Oil 3 tbsp
• Curd 3 tbsp
• Milk 1 cup plus 2 tbsp
• Cinnamon powder 1/2-1 tsp
• Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp

Method:

• Peel the apples and chop it into pieces.
• Make a puree of half of the pieces (say around 1 1/2 apples).

• Coat the remaining pieces with 2 tablespoon flour and keep it aside.

• Transfer the puree into a sauce pan and cook it on medium flame for 4-5 minutes.
• Add the brown sugar and cook for another minute or two.
• Add butter and mix well.

• Now remove from fire and add oil and mix well.

• Preheat the oven at around 150-160 degree Celsius for atleast 10 minutes.
• Grease a Bundt pan carefully with butter and dust it with flour. I have used a Nordic ware 12 cups classic Bundt pan. You can use a nine inch round tin too.

• Sieve the flour, salt, rising agents and cinnamon powder for atleast 10 times. This will help in aeration and make the cake lighter in texture.
• Add curd and milk to the apple puree-sugar mixture and mix well. Add vanilla extract if desired.
• Transfer the sieved dry ingredients into a big bowl.
• Add the liquid ingredients and fold gently.

• Now gently add the apple pieces coated with the flour and mix. Add 2 tablespoon of milk if the batter looks very thick.

• Pour the batter into the prepared cake tin and tap it gently to remove air bubbles if any.

• Bake for around 40-45 minutes or till a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Please check after 40 minutes or so. Depending on your oven, you might take longer too.

• Remove the tin from the oven and place it on a wire rack. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for atleast 15-20 minutes.
• Slowly transfer the cake from the tin onto the wire rack. If necessary loosen the edges with a small spatula. Do not use sharp objects.

• Allow the cake to cool completely. Slice and serve it warm. You can glaze it with some cinnamon glaze if desired.