It’s time to stop the pumpkin spice insanity! Is it just me or have have you also noticed the proliferation of pumpkin spiced products at this time of year? People are out of their ever loving gourds with pumpkin excitement. I blame Starbucks. They started the trend in 2008 with their Pumpkin Spiced Latte. Breaking news kids, Starbucks has added real pumpkin to their latte this year. Which begs the question, what exactly was in it before? Tim Hortons jumped on the band wagon with a pumpkin spice bagel and latte to guzzle it down with it.
Pumpkin spice m&m’s (just weird), Pumpkin spice Pringles (just plain wrong – cloves and cinnamon have no business sticking their nose into salty chips!), Pumpkin spice doggie treats (no comment!), and Pumpkin Spice scented motor oil (ok, now I’m just messing with you!).
My blogger friend Wendy, over at The Monday Box, loves all things pumpkin, but I don’t hold that against her. Check out her adorable 3-2-1 Pumpkin Spice Chai Latte Cake. She alerted me to the fact that Trader Joe’s has over 40 pumpkin related items this year. If you happen to be a pumpkin lover, head on over and check them out. 
Let’s celebrate fall the correct way, with apples. This gorgeous multi-grain apple cake was inspired by whole-grains maven Kim Boyce’s Apple Graham Coffee Cake. With three kinds of flour, the texture of this cake is outstanding. Graham flour adds flavour and a pleasant sandy texture, all-purpose flour helps to lighten the graham flour and whole wheat pastry flour adds a tender crumb and nuttiness. 
Kim sautéed sliced apples in butter, sugar and cinnamon and added them as a topping to the cake before baking. I decided to dice the apples and toss them, raw, in sugar-cinnamon and mix them into the batter.
I used my fancy Bundt pan, because really, who couldn’t use a bit more fancy in their life?
The final change I made to Kim’s coffee cake recipe was to add salted caramel. Everything is better with salted caramel, right? I made a quick sauce with brown sugar, butter, whipping cream and salt. I drizzled some of the sauce right into the raw cake batter and saved the rest to serve on the side. 
This is a very cozy cake, tailor-made for a cool fall day. The graham and whole-wheat pastry flours add a nutty grain-like flavour. Super moist, thanks to the apples and drizzled caramel sauce, this cake is made for snacking. Take that, Pumpkin Pie Pop Tarts!.
Thank you for sharing my 3-2-1 pumpkin cake! 🙂 I plead seasonal insanity. I agree completely that September-October hits and the pumpkin mania begins. “Quick,” everyone shouts, “consume pumpkin exclusively in everything!” The funny thing is that many people think pumpkin tastes like pumpkin spice mix. My family loves pumpkin muffies and I enjoy pumpkin soup. They can keep pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice mix. Apple anything is my husband’s favorite, even more than chocolate. Apple with salted caramel plus graham sounds warm and cozy to me. I am more than happy to join your “Stop The Pumpkin Insanity” campaign and enjoy your apple cake instead. 🙂 Your fancy bundt pan worked perfectly!
Wendy, is it possible we are living parallel lives? My husband also loves everything and anything apple and could care less about chocolate.
I think my hatred of pumpkin stems from when the kids were little and the day after Halloween, feeling slightly nauseous (from eating way too many mini treats), I had to deal with pumpkin carcasses. The smell of slightly fermenting carved pumpkins, as I hacked them up for the compost bin just did me in.