Spiced Tea and Apple Bundt Cake

It's November, there's a chill in the air, and there's white stuff on the ground, I think it's time to make some delicious cold weather comfort food. 

Wait, what? White stuff on the ground? In Southern California?

While rain was in the forecast overnight, when we looked out the window in the morning, we were surprised to see it had turned into hail! 

And with the cold weather, today is perfect to make our first batch of Grandma's Spiced Tea this season. I love Grandma's spiced tea. It signals the start of the Christmas season for me. 

And it makes the house smell so wonderful while it's simmering.

Theresa has been wanting to make an Apple Bundt cake for a little while now and thought it would be the perfect cake to go along with our Spiced Tea. 

She found a great recipe for Apple Bundt Cake from iambaker.net. First she creamed together the sugar, oil, vanilla, and eggs. 

Chi is prepping the apples. She always peels them by taking the skin off in one long strand. 

That's only 3 apples, but it looks like a lot when it's cubed up. For her recipe she's using 1 Granny Smith apple and 2 Honeycrisp apples. 

Normally Theresa would use the hand mixer for 2 minutes, but today she's just going to just mix it together by hand, and stop just after it comes together. 

To the batter, she added all the cubed apples. It's a very stiff batter, but I guess that's appropriate. The apples are going to release a bit of water once they're cooked. 

While that is in the oven for 65 minutes at 325F, we're going for a bike ride. The skies in LA are always a little more clear after it rains. 

The house was already smelling amazing from the spiced tea. Upon returning from the bike ride, the smell of baked apple cake was now mixing with the cinnamon and cloves from the spice tea. If only a candle could accurately capture that smell. 

Theresa is checking her cake with a toothpick, and it came out clean! This cake is ready to come out of the oven and cool. 

After dinner, it's time to dig in. The cake held up very well. Normally we'd expect to see it fall a little bit after coming out of the oven, but not this one. 

With the thick batter, the cubed apple stayed distributed through the cake instead of all sinking down to the bottom. This cake and Grandma's spice tea. I already know it's going to be amazing. 

Smile everyone!

First the tea. It's Christmas in a cup. 

Then the cake. 

The kids love it. 

T and the parents love it. 

Thanks for the picture Alli. I love the cake too! The inside is nice and moist and the outside has a nice and crunchy texture. 

After dinner to kick off our Christmas season, we're watching The Grinch. 

Theresa has a whole list of Christmas movies for us to watch this season!

May our upcoming days be merry and bright, and may all our Christmases be white (maybe)!