Apple Cake Recipe

This scrumptious apple cake recipe comes from my mother-in-law, Fran. She’s an excellent cook and has a library of great recipes! I’ve never been disappointed with anything she has made. When my husband Mark and I were living in San Francisco his mother had a tradition for birthdays – your choice of homemade cake. Mark would always go for chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, but there was nothing else for me but her apple cake. It’s rich, decadent and full of apples. I also love the brown sugar frosting called penuche, it is rich and complements the apple cake beautifully.

Apple cake

I changed a few little things from the original recipe just because I love to experiment with different ingredients. I replaced half of the butter portion in the cake mix with half apple sauce, cutting on fat but not flavor. Then I used whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular white flour, sneaking in something healthier. Last but not least, I replaced white sugar with half raw sugar and half organic cane sugar. Just for fun, I used freshly picked Golden Delicious apples that I bought from the Walker Apple Farm in Sebastopol, California. Needless to say, it was delicious. As seen above, this cake does not look like your normal kind of cake – it is chunky, gooey, and rich.

I made a version of this last year for one of my good girlfriends, Sam, she’s a vegan so I used all the same ingredients but replaced the eggs with apple sauce and used an olive oil based margarine instead of butter. If you are interested in the portions for the vegan version just email me and I would be happy to share.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup apple sauce
• 1 cup raw sugar
• 1 cup organic cane sugar
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
• 5-6 medium apples, cubed
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Penuche Frosting

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 cups of powdered sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Mix all cake ingredients together
3. Add diced apples to the mixture
4. Pour chunky mixture into an 8×8 baking pan and bake for 35-40 minutes (baking time may vary, just keep an eye on it)

Directions for frosting

1. In a medium sauce pan melt butter on a medium heat, stir butter until it slightly caramelizes (should have a light brown yellow brown hue)
2. Stir in brown sugar and boil, constantly stirring
3. Reduce heat to low and stir for two minutes
4. Let cool to 120 degrees
5. Mix in powdered sugar
6. If frosting becomes hard to mix, microwave for a few seconds
7. Spread on apple cake and enjoy!

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