Apple Cream Cheese Swirl Bundt Cake

Though our weather is not paying attention to the calendar, making this cake was a great welcome to the beginning of fall. I shared with friends and neighbors, which lit up my phone with ews and ahs on how amazing this cake is. A sweetened cream cheese filling with orange zest swirled into a batter filled with fall spices, apples and more orange zest, and topped with a confectioners’ sugar glaze. This cake is best eaten at room temperature, so after refrigerating remove prior to serving. Enjoy!


Swirl:
1 (8-oz) pkg. cream cheese
softened
1/2 C. confectioners’ sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 large egg
1 tsp. orange zest

Batter:
4 C. all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1-1/2 C. unsalted butter, softened
1-3/4 C. firmly packed light brown
sugar
4 large eggs
3 large Granny Smith apples,
peeled and cored
2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. orange zest

Glaze:
2 C. confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1/4 C. whole milk
3 Tbsp. dark corn syrup**

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Spray a 15-cup Bundt pan with baking spray with flour.

For swirl: In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese with a mixer at medium speed until creamy. Add confectioners’ sugar, flour, egg, and zest, and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape sides of bowl. Cover and refrigerate.

For batter: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, and nutmeg. In the work bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and brown sugar until fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Shred apples using the large holes of a box grater. Coarsely chop shredded apples. Add apples, lemon juice, vanilla, and zest to batter, and beat for 1 minute. Gradually add flour mixture to apple mixture, beating just until combined. Spoon half of batter into prepared pan. Spoon swirl mixture onto batter, avoiding edges of pan. Top with remaining batter. Using a knife, pull blade back and forth through batter to swirl layers together. Smooth top of batter.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean, about 75 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack.

For Glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together all ingredients until smooth; drizzle onto cooled cake. Refrigerate cake in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

**I substituted with 3 Tbsp. of brown sugar mixed with about 1/2 Tbsp. warm water.

Yields: 1 (10-inch) cake

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