Apple Spice Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze

Recipe from Bon Appetit/Epicurious.com and Husband-Tested in Alice's Kitchen

Lick Creek Band rehearsals always begin with a little dessert and social time. Then we get down to making music. As it happened, rehearsal fell on my birthday this year, so I decided to make a cake. We really liked this cake. It comes with a caramel sauce that is drizzled over the top and soaks in to make the cake moist. As the cake was cooling, I found my husband with the tray of leftover caramel sauce in his lap and an apple in his guilty hand. He was dipping his apple into the sauce and eating it on the spot. So, technically, this is a double dessert…cake plus caramel apples. When making this cake, your house will smell divine!

Cake
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1 3/4 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, coarsely grated (2 cups grated apple)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
Glaze
1/2 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
1/4 cup whipping cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt

For cake: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 325F. Spray 12-cup Bundt pan with nonstick spray. Sift flour and next 6 ingredients into medium bowl. Drain grated apples in strainer. Using hands or kitchen towel, squeeze out excess liquid from apples. Measure 2 cups grated apples.
Using electric mixer, beat butter, both sugars, and lemon peel in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Mix in vanilla and lemon juice. Beat in flour mixture. Mix in grated apples. (The batter will be almost as thick as cookie dough.) Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted near center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in pan on rack 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare glaze: Stir all ingredients in small nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until sugar dissolves and mixture comes to boil. Reduce heat to medium; whisk until glaze is smooth, about 1 minute. Remove from heat. Invert cake onto rack set over baking sheet. Using small skewer, pierce holes all over top of warm cake. Pour glaze over top, allowing it to be absorbed before adding more. Cool cake 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.