What's Up Cupcake?: Sweet Treats Saturday: Apple Cake

Now you will see why I was hung up on the logistics of a cake vs. a tart last week. This apple cake was definitely that - a cake. This is not to say that the other recipe was bad. It was, in fact, quite delicious. But this recipe had more batter to it, though still a good helping of apples. In fact, the hubby proclaimed this cake to be one of the best fruit cakes he's ever had. He's a minimalist when it comes to desserts and not a fan of fruity treats. I think the softness of the apples in this one was what really won him over.

This cake bakes for about 45 minutes, in a nice, thick batter, which softened the apples considerably. I think they blend very nicely into the cake, and when coated with the brown sugar glaze, it almost becomes a sticky toffee pudding type consistency. A spongy cake with a toffee-like glaze? Success! Add some ice cream and you have an excellent Fall dessert.

Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Glaze
Recipe from: Lick the Bowl Good

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups finely chopped apples
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped (optional)

Brown Sugar Glaze:
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
3 tsp butter
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp heavy cream

For the apple cake: Heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8in pan and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Stir with a whisk to mix everything together.

In a large bowl, mix the eggs with a hand mixer until light in color and foamy. Add the oil and vanilla and mix well.

Stir in the flour mixture with a spoon, and continue stirring the batter until the flour disappears. Add the apples and nuts (if using), and stir to mix them into the batter.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

Place the hot cake pan onto a wire rack. While it's cooling, prepare the glaze.

For the glaze: Combine all of the ingredients into a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the mixture comes to a gentle boil. Cook for 3-5 minutes.

Spoon the hot glaze over the still hot-from-the-oven cake. Let the glazed cake cool completely before serving straight from the pan.

I added walnuts to my cake and think it added a great crunch and nutty flavor to the cake. Actually, I have so many apples from my tree that I'm really ready to make this recipe again already. I had some friends over and we polished off the cake in one night (I swear, it was a large group of friends, not just huge servings... maybe...). Sadly, there were no leftovers, and now I'm looking for a reason to make some more. How about because it's a Saturday?

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