Honey Apple Bundt Cake

Two Saturdays ago, Zac's sister gave me a glass cake stand/party platter/trifle dish/punch bowl. Which basically means it's awesome and I am trying to find every excuse to use it. This past Saturday I came home with a box full apples from an event at my internship and I have been trying to use apples in everything.

I actually had to wash and clean all 250 apples that were for the event...it took forever!



So I had a cake platter...and tons of apples. Clearly, the only solution was to make a Honey Apple Bundt Cake. This recipe I found is amazing. The cake was super moist and the fresh apples made it even better.

I did make some adjustments:
*1/2 cup white plus 1/2 cup light brown sugar in place of 1 cup white sugar.
*Used 1/2 a cup of honey instead of 3/4 cup.
*I sifted all the dry ingredients together.
*I diced my apples instead of shredded them. Makes for great texture. (In my opinion at least).
*I made my own honey cream cheese frosting consisting of 2/3 cup of cream cheese (room temp and fat free), 1/3 cup sour cream (light), 1/2 cup confectioners sugar, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract, and 1T of honey. (This is my favorite cream cheese frosting recipe that has come after many trial and errors...consistency is really great).

I  actually realized the recipe asked for shredded apples a little too late (shh!), but I really like the texture of the diced apples.

When I took the cake out of the oven and flipped it over, I couldn't help but think of the Red Velvet Nothing Bundt Cake my Aunt brought for her son's B-day Dinner last summer at Cheesecake Factory and the cream cheese frosting that made it so good...So I made some too and draped it all over the cake and it was gooood. Definitely an inspired choice.

 We loved it, and it looks absolutely delicious. Definitely something I would make again.

Happy Honey Apple Bundt Cake Day Indeed :)

Oh...and tonight, I made a break through with Zac and quinoa! He normally really dislikes it, but he utterly enjoyed my quinoa topped with sauteed mushrooms and brown butter. Greatest. Feeling. Ever.

Mission Organization and Nigellissima Mishaps

When it was only 8:53am this morning and before I made it to school I had spent at least 30 minutes of my morning looking for my cellphone, my laptop charger, my wallet, my deodorant, and my jacket. I am not sure how it all started but ever since Zac and I moved to our apartment in Springville, a terrible curse of not-being-able-to-find-anything-we-need-at-the-moment fell upon us and we spend a considerable amount of our day just looking for stuff...everday! Last night it was my pizza cutter which is still M.I.A. How do you lose a pizza cutter? I always kept it in the same place! AHH! It really is driving me crazy.

So...I have decided I am going to Organize EVERYTHING. I was really inspired by MPMK and will be probably utilizing most of their tips and pointers. 

Zac and I will be moving this July and I want to go through ALL of our stuff, de-clutter, trash/donate/sell what I can, organize, and label everything.

High hopes that this will all be done, but once I am graduated in April I will have some solid time to contribute to this major project. It's gonna happen.

...

One of my birthday presents from Zac was Nigella's new cookbook Nigellissima. It came out last year in Europe but Zac had to pre-order it since it didn't get released in the U.S. until February. Her book looks great. Very rustic and as always, simple and straight forward.

I tried her yogurt pot cake and it was terrible! It was starchy and every bite was painful to endure. After beginning to think my admiration for Nigella needed to be in serious check, I decided to look at the recipe again and realized that I TOTALLY botched it. I doubled the recipe's flour content and used cornstarch instead of flour, and forgot the milk. Hallelujah! Nigella didn't fail me, It was all a big mistake. So I tried again and it was indeed as delightful as the goddess herself professed. This time I powdered it and drizzled it with Martha Stewart's lemon glaze off of her Glazed Lemon Pound cake recipe and it was divine!

I had a bit of an accident transferring it to my new cake stand (thanks to an awesome birthday present from my SIL)..hence the giant rifts. 

 Cupcakes from the Cocoa Bean...The Key-Lime one was crazy good...tasted just like pie!

the BYU vs. Gonzaga game