Happy Fall Ya'll!

It is finally Fall!  While reluctant to leave the warm sunshine of summer, I welcome the beautiful colors, fun events and holidays that come with autumn.  

On the first day of fall my daughter and I decided to celebrate the season by a trip to the local farm stand.  While they were not all in yet, they had some beautiful pumpkins on display.  The day was gloomy and the skies were threatening rain, but who cannot be cheered by these beautiful colors!

Check out these amazing gourds.

I just had to photograph this amazing specimen: 

I wish now that I had brought him home.  He would be an interesting beginning to a beautiful fall centerpiece.  Oh well, maybe he will be there when I go back to get my pumpkins next week. 

There are certain flavors that mean fall to me.  Of course, one of them is pumpkin, but another is apple butter.  When I saw an Apple Butter Pound Cake on the cover of  the September edition of "Southern Lady" magazine, I knew that I had to give it a try. 

Southern Lady's Apple Butter Pound Cake

1 cup apple butter

1 1/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar, divided

1/2 cup chopped pecans 

1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened

2 cups sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

5 large eggs at room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

3 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

Glaze (recipe below) 

1. Spray a 15 cup Bundt pan with baking spray with flour.  Set aside. 
2. In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium-high speed for 3 to 4 minutes or until smooth.  
3. Add sugar and salt; beat at high speed for 10 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. 
4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, stir together apple butter, pecans and brown sugar.  Set aside. (Note: the recipe has this as step one, but I thought it would be a time saver while waiting for the mixing in step 3.)
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Beat in vanilla, 
6. Gradually add flour, cinnamon and baking powder, beating until well combined.  (I think that next time I make the cake I will mix these three ingredients together and then add them to the batter already combined.)
7. Spoon one-third of the batter into the prepared pan.  Spoon half of the apple butter mixture over the batter in the pan. (NOTE: while the recipe does not state this, be sure to keep the apple butter in the center of the batter.  See reason below.)   Top with another third of batter, the remaining half of the apple butter and the remaining batter.  Using a knife, pull the blade back and forth through the batter to swirl apple butter layers.  Smooth the top using an offset spatula. 
8. Place in a cold oven. Bake at 300 degrees (I baked mine at 275 because the pan was non-stick) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, approximately 1 hours and 20 minutes.  Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes.  Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.  Drizzle with glaze. 

  Glaze 

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2/3 cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar, sifted

In a medium saucepan, combine butter, brown sugar, cream, vanilla extract, and salt. Bring to a boil over medium- high heat, stirring constantly, for approximately three minutes until the sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat, and let cool for 10 minutes. Whisk in confectioner's sugar. 

So now we are at that point in the blog where I show you a beautiful picture of the delicious cake I made with this recipe. Not this time.  My cake is delicious, but the cake you will see when you click on the website above does not look like the cake in my kitchen right now.  So brace yourself- this is not pretty....

But it is good!  If I make it again I will make sure that the Apple Butter mixture is only in the middle of the batter so that it does not seep out the side (dark areas on the cake above.) I will also not use a non-stick pan.  It is too hard to judge time and temperature when baking with a dark coated pan. I am not sure why the glaze is so dark- in the picture on the magazine it is much lighter. I think that the glaze would be good with a little bit more cinnamon or perhaps a little bourbon in it. 

Oh well, not everything can be a beautiful masterpiece, but as long as it is good, I'm happy with it!  There will be plenty of opportunities to bake lovely and delicious treats this season! 

Thanks for stopping by!  Happy Fall! 

~Cynthia