Best Fall Dessert - Ever

Well, those of you who know me know that I love a good dessert. Maybe too much. I stumbled upon this recipe on allrecipes.com a few weeks back and since then, have made it five times. No, I didn’t eat all five of them although I could have. While saving one for our family, the rest went to friends and events all to rave reviews. This is the absolute best apple cake, with caramel icing mind you, you will ever put in your mouth. I have tweaked the original recipe until I think I might have it down to absolute perfection. Although I’m sure I will have to continue making it to be sure. :)

A cute story about this cake I will always remember. A good friend and her 10 year old daughter stopped by one day just as I was pouring the caramel glaze on top of this warm cake. I invited them into the kitchen for a taste. I had the cake sitting on a cooling rack with wax paper underneath to catch the caramel glaze drippings. Well, after cutting us all a slice, we couldn’t let that caramel go to waste, so the daughter and I began sliding our fingers across the wax paper and yes, you guessed it, licking our fingers. We weren’t proud. It was that good. Then I asked her if she wanted something to drink and while still savoring the deliciousness, she looked at me and said “oh no, that might make the taste go away.” Oh, I love this child.
Prepare your mouth for some serious taste bud pleasure.

Apple Harvest Pound Cake with Caramel Glaze
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
2 tsps vanilla extract
3 eggs
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp. salt
2 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1 cup chopped peans

1/2 cup butter

2 tsps milk

1/2 cup brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease a 9 inch Bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat the sugars, oil, vanilla and eggs with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; stir into the batter just until blended. Fold in the apples and pecans using a spoon. Pour into the prepared pan.
3. Bake 1 hour and 10 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. Set cake on a wire rack to cool.
4. While the cake is baking, make the glaze by heating the butter, milk and brown sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then remove from heat. Let cool in the saucepan for about 15-20 minutes before pouring over the cake. It will start to thicken just a little bit.
5. Immediately after taking the cake out of the oven and placing on the wire rack, pour about 1/3 of glaze in the “cracks” of the cake. Continue to let cool in the pan about 20 minutes.
6. Invert the cake onto the wire rack and drizzle remaining glaze over the cake. Be sure to put wax paper or your cake plate underneath to catch the drips.
7. Enjoy!