The last couple days have been full of starts. Reuben and I have started working out on Sunday mornings. You spit out your water!? That's right. Me. Morning. Exercise. We wake up at 7:30am, drive to the gym because there is always a parking spot out front at 8am, spend an hour sweating, and then treat ourselves to a bagel afterwards. I do it for the bagel... and have you seen the baked goods on here?!

I started a sourdough starter on Sunday night. It's a big sticky ball of goop right now and I'm not sure if I'm doing it right. I have to feed it and keep it alive for the next 5 days before I can bake with it. Then I need to continue feeding it every week! It's like a tamagotchi, but you can eat it. That's morbid. Have you had sourdough pancakes before though?! I haven't. But I find the idea so intriguing. Reuben said that if I can keep this starter alive, then we can get a puppy. Right...

We've started watching Mindhunter on Netflix this weekend. It starts off slow, but it gets so dark and creepy real quick. It's perfect for my dark show loving heart. It's a little too scary for me though. So I try to spend at least 15 minutes looking at puppies or cute babies on my phone before bed. 

I've also finally started working on my Halloween costume, meaning I've ordered things from Amazon. Confession, I sort of really hate Halloween. Sorry. I think Halloween is best reserved for children. I may be ruining Halloween for myself though. I put too much pressure on myself to come up with a creative costume... like the Pop Tart costume of 2015... ugh, I don't want to talk about. I'm also a huge scaredy cat and I don't want to see ghouls or zombies walking around. No fake blood. Please? Then there is the candy. There is always a giant plastic pumpkin or cauldron filled with candy. I ALWAYS eat too much candy, mostly mini Crunch bars or orange Starbursts, and then my belly aches and then I'm grumpy. Does this happen to you? Do you remember being a kid and eating so much candy and never getting sick? What happened to us?! Anyways, I think I have a good costume idea this year. If it pans out, stay tuned for some great Insta-stories!

Oh, right you are here for cake! I love this Fall-y cake. It's perfectly nutty, spiced, moist, and sweet for a quick bite in the morning with a hot cup of coffee or matcha. All the ingredients can be thrown into one big bowl for super easy clean up. I'm all about minimal step recipes and minimal dish washing. Have you seen my kitchen?! I have about 4 square feet of counter space to work with here. You'll also notice that amount of sugar in this cake is somewhat low. If you look at other bundt recipes, you'll see 2 or 3 cups of sugar! Insane! And then they dump a bunch of crazy sugary crap on top. I'm not about to give you all Halloween-candy-induced sugar comas here. The cake is just sweet enough and you actually can taste that there are pistachios in there. You can actually substitute walnuts, pecans, or almonds if you have a different nut preference.

Do you like the bundt pan? It's so mesmerizing! And so architectural, which I like. I was so proud of myself when the cake actually cleanly released from the pan! And so will you when you give this recipe a try! Good luck! Good luck on making a great Halloween costume!

Spiced Pistachio Bundt Cake

Cake:

2 cups roasted unsalted pistachios

3 cups cake flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cloves

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup honey

4 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

1 tsp vanilla

Glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar + more if desired

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 tbsp water

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Place pistachios into a food process and pulse until you have a sandy texture with a few small chunks of pistachio. Reserve 2 tbsp of for the topping. Add the remaining pistachios into a large bowl.

2. Add flour, sugar, spices, baking powder, baking soda, and salt into the large bowl of pistachios. Give it a good mix. Add honey, eggs, buttermilk, vegetable oil, and vanilla into the bowl and give it another good mix until everything is fully incorporated.

3. Prepare your bundt pan by spraying with non stick spray. Slowly pour the batter into the pan. Once filled, lift the pan off your work surface about 1-2 inches and then drop. Do this a few time to help get any air bubbles out. Place pan in the oven and bake for 50-55 minutes. Test for doneness by sticking a knife in the cake, if it comes out clean it is done.

4. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then flip the pan over on a wire rack and slowly remove the pan from the cake. Allow to fully cool on the wire rack before applying the glaze, about 45-60 minutes. 

5. Whisk together the powdered sugar, vanilla, and water until smooth. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar. Carefully pour the glaze over the cooled cake and sprinkle with the 2 tbsp of crushed pistachios.