As I mentioned in my post the other day, I made an apple spiced bundt cake. It is yet another recipe from the world's greatest cookbook, Once Upon a Tart. I can't begin to describe the deliciousness that is just waiting to be experienced within its pages. Every time I make something out of it, Kyle takes a bite, sighs and groans in pleasure and then opens his eyes questioningly. 9 times out of 10, the answer to his unspoken question is, yes - it's from Once Upon a Tart.

It is not a cookbook for those who adhere to the 5 & under ingredients. It does require you to actually cook. But in my personal experience, the difference in taste from 5 ingredients to 10 or whatever, is NOTICEABLE! And oh so worth it. And the ingredients are rarely totally obscure. They are things you can and will find in your local Kroger or whatever your grocer of choice. And as a point in its favor for the Floyd household, this book is basically vegetarian. It's not a true veggie cookbook, as it includes chicken and some other meats in its sandwich section, but most of the stuff is veggies, fruits, etc.

I'm getting to my point here...I promise. As I flipped through it the other day, feeling rather fall-ish and spicy, the recipe for the Apple Spiced Bundt Cake jumped out at me. And I knew it was a recipe that would need to be shared with others. I have no business making a cake of any kind and leaving it to be consumed by just me and Kyle. Disaster. Since Bible study was that evening, I felt it was a perfect excuse. So the baking began. And I will confess - it went less than smoothly. Putting it together wasn't hard, but for some reason, the minute the thing hit the oven, it began to overflow the sides of the bundt pan.

I had to put a sheet pan underneath it to catch the drippings, which began to accumulate like big apple-y bisquits. I actually scraped them off intermittently and ate them like a scone. Quite yummy! Jerome and Frank (the authors of the cookbook and owners of the Once Upon a Tart shop in NYC) said the cake would need to cook for 50 -60 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean. Hm. Well, at that point in MY world, the top was nicely brown, but the center was just completely goozy. I kept stabbing, licking the knife and sliding it back in and adding more time to the timer. I actually don't even know how long the thing ended up baking. MUCH longer than prescribed. And I have no idea what went wrong. I checked and rechecked every ingredient and I had done everything right! Was it cause it was rainy?? Who knows!

But then came the fun part. Rather than use a regular, smooth sided bundt pan, I had used (erroneously) a rose patterned "fancy" bundt pan. It's worked for me before on other stuff! Well. This was disastrous. And yes, I buttered and floured the mold. I turned the thing upside down onto my cake tray and lifted. AAARRGH! Half the thing settled onto the tray while the other half stayed neatly wedged into the Bundt mold. No good. I poked and prodded with my knifes, spoons, forks, anything I could find to dislodge the stubborn apples and dough. By the time I was through and the odd bits of pieces had been added to the tray, it looked absolutely horrific. And smelled totally divine. And TASTED totally divine. But looks-wise, it was winning NO prizes. I was so disappointed. Mortified, actually. And I call myself a baker!

About this time, Kyle walked in the door and commented on how good everything smelled. I eyed him with the face of one who's just wrestled a badger and lost. Defeat oozed out my pores. When he looked at the mound of apple spiced cake splonked onto the cake tray, he laughed out loud. I expected that and yet, it still made me wail! He said, Ash, seriously, it looks like it's one of those monkey bread things that is meant to be pulled apart. Take it to Bible study. It's fine. So, left with the option of staring at it glumly for the next day or so, I took his advice and brought it with us.

Folks, there was something about that cake. Maybe because it was so homely you just knew it had to taste good...and the smell was just tantalizing. People walked by and snatched a little bit, then a bit more, till there was a crowd of people standing around my unsightly cake, just digging right in with their forks, no plates or anything. And by the time the night was over, there was not a crumb left on that plate. It was gone. I was truly surprised. And relieved! So, that just goes to show you that you never know. Looks can certainly be deceiving. I should have taken a picture to include with this post, but at the time, memorializing the mess on that plate was the last thing on my mind. Maybe next time.