Apply Apple Cake

This is an excellent apple cake, and if my spouse had made it closer to the New Year, I would have considered serving it for that occasion.  As it is, we are end the end of the celebration of the harvest!  From The Artful Baker, which was Food 52's baking cookbook last month.

For the apple puree:

• 4.4 pounds (2 kg) apples, preferably tart, tangy & firm, such as Winesap

For the cake:

• 2 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons (8 g) baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon (2 g) fine sea salt
• 1+3/4 sticks (200 g) butter, at room temperature
• 1,5 cups (300 g) granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon (3 g) ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon (1 g) ground allspice
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 1,5 cups (390 g) apple puree (recipe below)

To serve:

• 1 tablespoon (10 g) powdered sugar

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 350 F (180 C).
2. To prepare the apple puree, peel, quarter, core and cut the apples into large chunks, place on a parchment-lined baking tray and bake for an hour, stirring once after 30 minutes. Remove tray from oven. Drop oven temperature to 300 F/150 C.
3. Transfer baked apples into a mixing bowl and puree with a hand-held immersion blender until smooth. Transfer apple puree on a half sheet pan, smooth the top with a spatula and bake, stirring and smoothing every 15 minutes to prevent a crust to form on top, for 50-60 minutes, making sure it doesn’t dry out completely. The puree will thicken but it should still be soft enough to dissolve in the cake batter. If it’s too thick, you may add a couple of tablespoons of water and puree with a blender to thin it.
4. Remove tray from oven, transfer apple puree into a bowl and let cool. Increase oven temperature to 350F/180C. You’ll have a bit over 1,5 cups (400-450 grams) of apple puree. Some of the puree will stick to the pan; fill it with hot water and let stand for a while for easy clean-up.
5. To prepare the cake, butter and flour a 10-cup (9-inch) Bundt pan and set aside.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
7. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, for about 2 minutes. Add sugar, cinnamon and allspice and beat on medium speed for 3 more minutes, scraping down the sides with a spatula as necessary. Add eggs, one at a time, making sure each one is fully incorporated before adding the next. Add 1,5 cups (390 g) of the apple puree and beat until fully incorporated, for about a minute.
8. Stop the mixer, sift the flour mixture on top and beat on the lowest speed just until incorporated. Transfer batter into prepared pan, smooth the top with a spatula and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, 45-50 minutes.
9. Let it cool in the pan for 30 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
10. Dust with powdered sugar before serving. Wrapped airtight, the cake will keep at room temperature up to 3 days.