Apple Cake

If you’re looking for an apple cake that is exploding with apple flavor, you’ve come to the right place. Not only does this apple cake have apples folded right into the batter, it also has….APPLE BUTTER.

A lot of cakes use sour cream or milk for moisture. Apple butter is a beautifully moist substitute that has plenty of flavor. Apple butter is basically concentrated apple sauce. Therefore, it gives the cake more structure and flavor at the same time.

When you’re done using apple butter for the cake, you can use it on toast, pancakes….so many things!

This apple cake is perfect if you want an amazing dessert with very little effort. It only uses one pan, you don’t have to frost it, and it has the most beautiful apple flavor. If you have some apples you need to use up but you don’t quite have enough for a pie, this recipe is perfect.

Use apples that are suitable for baking. Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, and Jonagolds are some good ones. I’ve used Macintosh in the past and it turned out good because Macintoshes are amazing, but the cake was very very moist. Macintoshes have pretty high water content and this will definitely seep into the cake.

But my absolute favorite baking apple is the Idared. I got them in Ohio all the time from this one farm stand at the farmer’s market. I would tell the guy running the stand that I wanted to make an apple pie and he portioned out the correct amount of apples I would need every. single. time. This went on for 3 years. Now that I’m in Massachusetts, I haven’t seen any Idareds.

Depending on the apples you use, this cake can end up being very moist. I used Macintoshes, and although they aren’t great for baking they have amazing flavor. I’ve baked this cake at both 25 minutes and 30 minutes. At 25 minutes, the cake is very moist. At 30 minutes, it will still be moist, but it won’t be stick-to-your-knife-as-you’re-cutting-it moist. The crumb will also be steadier and you’ll have an easier time turning it out of the pan. The longer baking time also makes the top of the cake less sticky after cooling. When the top of my cake was sticky after a 25 minute bake, the powdered sugar dissolved into the cake. It’s up to you how long you want to bake it.

One trick I’ve heard (but haven’t tried) if you’re worried about the powdered sugar dissolving is sprinkling granulated sugar over the top first. It creates a barrier for the powdered sugar.

If you’re worried about the cake having too much moisture, you can bake it in a pie pan! Pie pans are perfect for serving snack cakes in my opinion. You don’t have to worry about the knife scratching your cake pan if you use a glass or ceramic pie pan.

I’m not sure, but my best guess is no. However, if you do use apples that have less water content it will probably go well. If you use a Macintosh, my guess is the cake will collapse because the moisture from the apples won’t give the layers enough structure.

• Short rib ragu
• Chicken and wild rice soup
• Yellow curry noodle soup