Apple Cake

My first blog anniversary on Oct 15th.. YAY!  I cannot believe it will be a year already since I started blogging. It has been a wonderful and exciting journey. Thank you to my friends Meredith Lawida and Patty Connelly for your support. I greatly appreciate your tips and advice on my posts and photography. Thank you to my cousin Shital Lakhani, who stood by my side countless days and nights while we worked through the initial challenges of blogging. She has been a great inspiration and a constant support. Thank you to all my readers for your love and support!

I have made many blogger friends and have learned so much from all of them. I am fascinated by all the amazing blogs out there and it is very inspiring to read their wonderful posts. One of my favorite blog is Smitten Kitchen. I have tried many of Deb’s recipes and they are all amazing. One of the recipes that I had been waiting to try is her ‘Mom’s apple cake’. Recently I happened to watch Deb, live on Food52 making this cake. There were thousands of viewers from around the world and it was so exciting to see and hear Deb talk about this recipe.

I have to admit that apple picking has fallen out of our Autumn rituals. Soccer has taken over our weekends and there seems to be no time left right now for any additional activities. I hope that will change one day and we will be able to go apple picking as a family. One thing that I try not to miss is the Sunday farmers market in town. They have the season’s best local vegetables, fruits, baked goods, jams, honey and fresh mozzarella. Last couple of weeks, I started seeing a variety of apples and I thought it was the best time to make this apple cake.

What better than celebrating my first blog anniversary with a cake thats been liked by so many people! In the live show, Deb made it sound so simple, that I had to jump on the first opportunity I had to bake it. Obviously when you start making it, all of a sudden your kitchen is a big mess, but it is all worth it!

This recipe calls for 6 apples, any variety, peeled, cored and chopped into 1 inch cubes.

Toss cinnamon and sugar to the apples and keep aside. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar, vanilla and eggs.

Mix wet ingredients into dry ones; scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated. Now Since, I do not have the tube pan that the recipe calls for, I used my bundt pan. And since I watched Deb live making this, she mentioned that you layer the apples differently if you are using a bundt pan. So, I started by adding half of the apples on the well greased bundt pan.

Then poured half of the batter over the apples.

Spread the rest of the apples and then top it with the remaining batter. All this with the plan(high hopes) of turning the cake upside down successfully! I have a convection oven so I usually reduce the temperature and also watch the cake more frequently than what the recipe calls for. As the original recipe states  “* Tip: The apples love to hide uncooked pockets of batter, especially near the top. Make sure your testing skewer or toothpick goes not just all the way down to the bottom, but does a shallow dip below the top layer of apples to make sure it comes out batter-free. Should your cake be browning too fast, before the center is baked through, cover it with foil for all but the last few minutes in the oven.”

I had my speed cook convection oven at 335 degrees and it took exactly an hour for the cake to be done. I did not have to cover it with foil.

Now the fun part, trying to take the cake out of the bundt pan. I let the cake cool for about an hour. And then ran a butter knife in between the pan and the sides of the cake to loosen it up a bit and then flipped it over in a dish. Some pieces of apple were stuck to the bottom, that I simply scooped up and put them back on the cake. The cake came out nice and moist so it was no problem sticking the apple pieces back on top of the cake. It also made my cake look more rustic! Thank you Smitten kitchen for this terrific recipe.

Update (10/16/2017): Here is my apple cake Instant Pot recipe!

Here is my adaption to the Original recipe from smitten kitchen:

5 from 1 vote

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Apple Cake

Prep Time

10 mins

Cook Time

1 hr 30 mins

Total Time

1 hr 40 mins

 

Delicious apple cake loaded with delicious apples and a hint of cinnamon make a great dessert to share with family and friends.

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cake, dessert

Servings: 12

Calories: 408 kcal

Author: Archana Mundhe

Ingredients

• 6 apples I used a mix of variety
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 5 tablespoons 65 grams granulated sugar
• 2 3/4 cups 360 grams flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon fine sea or table salt
• 1 cup 235 ml vegetable oil (I used avocado oil)
• 2 cups 400 grams granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup 60 ml orange juice (I was out of OJ, so I used apple cider)
• 2 1/2 13 ml teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup 130 grams walnuts, chopped (I did not add walnuts)

Instructions

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan. Peel, core and chop apples into 1-inch chunks.Toss with cinnamon and 5 tablespoons sugar and set aside.
2. Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, orange juice, sugar, vanilla and eggs. Mix wet ingredients into dry ones; scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.
3. Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples (and their juices) over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean.*

Recipe Notes

Since I used bundt pan, I started by spreading half the apples, then half of the batter. Then spread the remaining apples with juices and rest of the batter. Keep checking the cake after about 45 mins. Mine was done in an hour at 335 degrees in a convection speed cook oven.

Nutrition Facts

Apple Cake

Amount Per Serving

Calories 408 Calories from Fat 90

% Daily Value*

Fat 10g15%

Saturated Fat 1g6%

Cholesterol 54mg18%

Sodium 217mg9%

Potassium 302mg9%

Carbohydrates 75g25%

Fiber 3g13%

Sugar 48g53%

Protein 6g12%

Vitamin A 140IU3%

Vitamin C 6.9mg8%

Calcium 78mg8%

Iron 2.1mg12%

* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.