A long love affair with fall apples led me on my quest for the perfect apple cake. I've already got the pie thing down. When trying different cake recipes, I found the right combination, from using different techniques and varying quantities from several recipes, all mashed into one. My. Perfect. Version.This cake is moist, but with a great crumb, soft apples punctuated by fragrant nutmeg, and vanilla.
MAKES ONE 8 INCH DEEP DISH CAKE
Ingredients:
- 2 sourish apples (granny smith, jonathon, ect)
- 2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (at room temperature)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup Honey
- 1/2 cup almond milk (or soy or regular milk, i just prefer the almond)
- 2 large eggs
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- Preheat the oven to 350F. Lightly grease an 8 inch springform pan. Peel, core, and slice the apples. With half of the apples, turn the slices, and chop three or four times, to get a large dice.
- In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt until blended, set aside.
- In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the butter until smooth. Add the sugar and honey and beat until fluffy. Add each egg, one at a time, mixing in between, then the vanilla. Scrape your bowl and beat again **I know this seems like a lot of steps, when really, you just want to throw it all in the bowl at once, and mix like a maniac. But, I must stress, that going slowly in this order, really does ensure proper incorporation of all ingredients, and ultimately leads to a more tender cake, and one that doesn't fall in the oven, or rise improperly. So, please do resist the urge to mix everything together at once**
- Finally, beat in the milk. At this point, the batter will look kind of weird, like its curdled, don't worry, I promise it will come together when you add the flour. So, on that note, add the flour mixture, and beat until you get a smooth, creamy, beige batter. Woo hoo!
- Now stir in your chopped apples, and spread into the prepped pan. Arrange the apple slices, overlapping them slightly, in a circular pattern over the batter.
- Put the pan on the top rack of your preheated 350 degree oven for 40-50 minutes. Like with all cakes, this guy is done when a toothpick (or dried spaghetti noodle, is what I use) inserted into the center comes out dry. Allow cake to cool for a little while, and remove the sides of the pan. Voila! Its yummy, all by itself, no additional adornments needed... not even ice cream, which is a revelation for me...
Voila! Its yummy, all by itself, no additional adornments needed... not even ice cream, which is a revelation for me...:
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