Rustic Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake

Our family is definitely into Fall cakes, muffins, and breads. I roast our own homegrown pumpkins, puree the squash(yes, pumpkin is a squash) and freeze in 2 or 3 cup bags. Thaw out the pumpkin in a strainer and you have delicious fresh pumpkin for your recipes.  

Roasting pumpkins can be found in this post: Delicious Homemade Pumpkin Puree

Makings for your cake.

I use bagged apples for baking, these are Galas.

Rustic Apple Pumpkin Bundt Cake                         Oven 350 degrees

Serves 8-10                                                                45-50 min

Ingredients:

2 cups of Flour (I use 1 cup of unbleached and 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour)

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp cardamom (optional)

½ tsp cloves

¼ tsp of ginger

10 Tbsp. of salted butter softened (1 ¼ sticks)

1 cup of sugar

3 large eggs

1 cup of pumpkin puree (canned or I use fresh baked pumpkin drained and pureed

2 tsp of vanilla extract

2 cups of diced apples (approximately 2 large or 3 medium) with peels.

1 cup of chopped pecans

1 cup of raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Measure dry ingredients into a sifter. (I sift twice since I use heavier flours.) Sift and put in a bowl. The green handled sifter is an antique---very useful. It has two lids so you can sift, flip and then sift again...VERY convenient and throughly mixes spices into the flour! It was my grandmother's. 

In mixer, cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg at a time, combining completely.

 Add the pumpkin and vanilla and blend well. Add flour 1/3 at a time until totally combined. 

Dough will be stiff, add chopped apples.

The apples will loosen up the dough. 

Dust your raisins with some of the sifted dry ingredients.

Fold in raisins and chopped nuts.

Generously spray or grease your Bundt pan. Spread batter evenly and bake for 45-50 min or until cake turns golden brown and tester comes clean. Remove and wait 5 mins. Run a knife carefully along the edge to make the cake easier to remove after the waiting time. 

Invert on a plate and sift powder sugar over---OR----

I make a simple syrup of 2 Tbsp of butter, 1/2 cup of chopped pecans, 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 cup brown sugar.  Lightly brown nuts in butter in sauce pan, add brown sugar and stir until smooth. Add 2 Tbsp of water, cook on low to make a thick syrup. (I cook this until the syrup doesn't roll off the spoon quickly but in slow drops, and then pour over the warm cake slowly.)  

Enjoy! I’ve taken this cake to so many parties/meetings and it always disappears. No leftovers, sigh!

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks ALWAYS for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

Thank you for your cooperation,

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them.

Thursday Favorite Things 
Best of the Weekend
Tuesdays at our Home
Celebrate Your Story
Talk of the Town
Wonderful Wednesday
Share Your Style
Silver Pennies Sunday
Over the Moon
Amaze Me Monday
Make it Pretty Monday
Happy Fall Link Party

#78 Pumpkin Recipes

Tuesday Turn About

Vintage Charm

 Sandi Magle

Delicious Homemade Pumpkin Puree.

We've always learned in school, the Pilgrims had pumpkin on the first Thanksgiving.

Pumpkins have assumed to have been from the Americas. When the Pilgrims landed the local Indians already had pumpkins and squash under cultivation. Early pumpkins or 'pompion' were hollowed out raw, filled with milk and spices and then roasted whole in the fire into a sort of pudding. No bakery pie pastry shells were involved as there were no ovens for controlled baking.

copyright free image

Nutritionally pumpkins were a welcome addition to the Pilgrims' meals. Rich in all kinds of minerals and vitamins, pumpkins had vitamin C which helped to prevent scurvy. Over half the pilgrims died the first year for lack of proper nutrition and resulting disease.

We have been taught--Pumpkins are a traditional food for Thanksgiving.

Today we use our homegrown pumpkins outside as decorations. After a heavy frost---I bring them in and they become a source of garden produce and then food.

This is one of last year's pumpkins, growing on our antique cultivator.

Another large one hid in the vines.

Roasting Pumpkin Puree is easy, and ecologically sound. 

 Scrub your pumpkin off, even if it is store-bought. Slice it open. You don't have to remove the seeds, just layer the pieces skin side up in a roaster as high as you like. Add 1 cup of water to the pan, cover tightly with foil. Roast at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours or more---test by piercing the thickest part of a piece and if it's tender, it's done or I just push down on the humps of pumpkin and if they are soft, they are done...and I leave it covered until cooled to finish roasting for sure.

Let cool, scrape the seeds and slime off first, discard.  Then scrape the flesh and with the skin removed, process in your food processor until smooth. If it is too thick, add a bit of water from the roasting pan to process. Measure, bag, label and freeze for recipes. 

It is delicious and I think far superior to canned pumpkin.

When thawing I drain excess water out by putting paper towel in a strainer, the resulting puree is more the consistency of canned pumpkin.

Even the decorative pumpkins get roasted for eating.

Fall Pumpkin Spice Apple Muffins  Post: HERE.

Pumpkin pies, breads, soups are all delicious and high in nutrition.

copyright free imag

So ---remember, there were no pies at the first Thanksgiving. Sigh!

Hope your preparations are going well and that you have

wonderful PUMPKIN PIE and all the trimmings.

copyright free image

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

Thanks  ALWAYS  for visiting!

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

Thank you for your cooperation,

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them. 

Thursday Favorite Things

Best of the Weekend
Tuesdays at our Home
Celebrate Your Story
Talk of the Town 
Wonderful Wednesday
Share Your Style

Sandi 

Fifty Thanksgivings!

Hubby and I celebrated our 50th Anniversary this summer. Well, it was a very low-key celebration. 

But, I can't help but think this will be our 50th Thanksgiving...and how blessed we have been to 

enjoy another Fall, our favorite season together.

Every season brings joy, trials, tribulations...and the season's move on.

There is calm and...

laughter,

with the bonds of old friends, family, 

and the beauty of nature flourishing in your backyard.

We enjoy the preservation and joys of simple things.

Sun filled Fall days and family gatherings to give Thanks.

Sunshine on the porch, a fuzzy throw to cuddle in the evening. 

Plants and flowers trying to survive the crazy temperatures. 

Inside, I bring out the rusts and golds in our blue and white kitchen.

Kitchen scents fill the air as the cinnamon and pumpkin meld in sweet perfection. Vegetables are harvested from the garden.

Heirloom family recipes are baked and the results savored and saved for holidays.

Soups fill crockpots and warm our inners on chilly nights.

Simple biscuits are perfection when rolled and baked with homemade pumpkin butter.

Who can resist apple pumpkin muffins?

Favorite platters are washed in anticipation of company coming.

Silver...shall I polish or not?

Heirlooms, loved by you or someone else take their places.

Dusk comes and lamps are lit earlier and earlier.

Throws and cushions fill our couches, and are welcomed on chilly nights.

Teapots hold warmth and welcoming to guests.

Favorite cups brimful with steaming hot tea.

Last blooms grace the tea table.

Precious linens are brought from storage for use.

Quilts are washed and aired for cold weather cuddling.

Dried gourds and Hydrangeas grace our tables.

Family heirlooms find their way to the buffet.

Christmas pig is busy fattening up for the holidays.

Giving thanks for the Earth's bounty and beauty.

Simple bowls filled with Fall.

Woods are oiled and polished.

Nuts gathered by the Grand find their way here and there.

I put together florals with dried and faux. I love all of Fall's colors, muted or bright.

A gorgeous real pumpkin graced the buffet.

Maybe I will polish our heirloom brass this year and use on the table.

Thanksgiving is the End of Fall in our home, and....

Christmas comes soon enough, and needs not to be rushed.

 ...the dead of Winter is just around the corner.

Snow and the Holidays will be here soon enough, don't you think?

Thanks for visiting!

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, unless otherwise designated. I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown or anywhere I shop.

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

Thank you for your cooperation,

I will post at the following Link Parties, I hope you visit them. 

Fridays Favorite Things
Home Matters
Best of the Weekend
Pink Saturday
Silver Pennies Sunday
Over the Moon Party

 Sandi Magle