Apple-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake with Praline Frosting

  It's apple season.  You already knew that.  I had some darn good apple recipes last year, especially the Apple Cake with Buttery Caramel Sauce and those to-die-for Apple Pie Bars.  I thought I'd focus my efforts this year on making a great apple pie (two failures down, still working on it), but when I saw this cake on the cover of September's Southern Living, I knew I had to make it, and I paid full newsstand price.  Just so happened it was part of a whole feature on apple recipes, which I am still working my way through. (I tried the skillet apple pie - not great.)

But this sweetie was all the cover photo promised it would be.  Tall and spicy, sweet and nutty.  Brown-sugar-cream-cheesey.  Absolutely perfect for fall, and you know Bundts are the best portable/potluck cake going.  So if, say, your school holds an Election Day bake sale, like ours does, this would be just the thing.  I made it for our little family farewell party the night before Ed left on his annual elk hunting trip.  And - good planning - enjoyed most of the leftovers while he was gone!

Apple-Cream Cheese Bundt Cake with Praline Frosting (print recipe)
Cream Cheese Filling:
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
2 T all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla extract

Apple Cake Batter:
1 cup finely chopped pecans
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp ground allspice
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup canola oil
3/4 cup applesauce
3 cups peeled and finely chopped Gala apples (about 1 1/2 lbs.) - I used Cameo or whatever I had just picked at the orchard

Praline Frosting:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
3 T milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

1.  Prepare filling:  Beat first 3 ingredients at medium speed with an electric mixer until blended and smooth.  Add egg, flour and vanilla; beat just until blended.

2.  Prepare batter:  Preheat oven to 350.  Bake pecans in a shallow pan 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant, stirring halfway through.  Stir together 3 cups flour and next 7 ingredients in large bowl; stir in eggs and next 3 ingredients, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Stir in apples and pecans.

3.  Spoon two-thirds of apple mixture into a greased and floured 14-cup Bundt pan.  Spoon Cream Cheese Filling over apple mixture, leaving a 1-inch border around the edges of the pan.  Swirl filling through apple mixture using a paring knife.  Spoon remaining apple mixture over Cream Cheese Filling.

4.  Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan on a wire rack 15 minutes; remove from pan to wire rack, and cool completely (at least 2 hours.)

5.  Prepare frosting:  Bring 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1/4 cup butter and 3 T milk to a boil in a 2-qt. saucepan over medium heat, whisking constantly; boil 1 minute, whisking constantly. Remove from heat; stir in vanilla.  Gradually whisk in powdered sugar until smooth; stir gently 3 to 5 minutes or until mixture begins to cool and thickens slightly.  Pour immediately over cooled cake.

Recipe from Southern Living, Sept 2011