Bundt cake with apples and caramel

Ingredients:

Cupcake

• 3 cups premium flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 0.5 tsp baking soda
• 1 teaspoon fine salt
• 1 and 1/3 cups sugar + 1/4 cup for apples
• 1.5 tsp ground apple or pumpkin pie spice mix
• 4 large Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped (about 5 cups)
• 3 large eggs
• 0.5 cups vegetable oil
• 0.5 tbsp. sour cream
• Finely grated zest and juice (about 1/3 cup) of 1 orange
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• Special equipment: a cake pan with a hole in the middle, capacity 2.5 l.

Caramel glaze

• 0.5 cups of sugar
• 1 tbsp corn syrup
• 0.5 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cup pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
• 0.5 tsp vanilla extract
• A pinch of fine salt

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Generously grease a cake tin with butter and dust with flour.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, 1 1/3 cups sugar, and 1 teaspoon pie spice.
   
   Combine apples with remaining 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon apple pie seasoningIn another bowl, beat eggs and vegetable oil.
   
   Stir in the sour cream, orange zest, juice, and vanilla. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon until the ingredients are combined but still slightly lumpy.
3. Using a slotted spoon, scoop about 0.5 cups of apples into the bottom of the muffin tin. Pour about a third of the batter on top. Repeat, alternating batter and apples, finishing with batter.
4. Bake the cake until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and a wooden skewer inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes and turn the cake out onto a wire rack set over a baking sheet. Cool completely. The cake can be baked a day before serving..
5. Make the caramel: Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and 2 tablespoons of water in a small saucepan. Bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, shaking the pan but not stirring with a spoon, until the sugar turns into a dark amber caramel, about 15 minutes.
6. Remove the pan from the heat and carefully pour in the cream (be careful, the mixture will splatter). Add the pecans, vanilla, and salt. Cool until the caramel becomes thick and syrupy, then pour it evenly over the cake and cool until the caramel sets.
   
   Note
   
   We prefer to bake this cake a day ahead of serving to allow the flavor and texture to mature. If you're baking it ahead of time, top it with caramel the day of serving..