So, this is THE Apple Cake. 🍏🍎🍏
The apple cake to end all apple cakes. The one I keep coming back to again and again because it’s simple and juicy and the apples get a chance to shine. 🍎🍏🍎
This is the cake my husband wants for his birthday! We mostly have completely different tastes in cakes: he’s partial to plain, unadorned, almost dry cakes, whereas I love layers and frosting and all the sweet flavours.
But this cake? This cake we can agree on! Veerrrrry apple-y, not too sweet and it pairs amazingly with one of my favorite cake accessories: slightly sweetened whipped cream (aka Chantilly cream if you’re feeling fancy). Plus the crackle of cinnamon sugar on the top? Really hard to beat!
It might seem like there are too many apples for the amount of batter you have, but trust the process (and me)! The batter finds its way around the apples to hold everything together, so no need to worry. xoxo Donata
Ingredients
2 cups (250g) all purpose flour
2 tsp (8g) baking powder
1 tsp ground cinammon
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (125g) butter plus 3 tbsp, at room temperature
1/2 cup (125g) granulated sugar
3 eggs at room temperature
1 tsp vanilla
3,3 lb (1,5kg) apples (Boskop, Elstar, Honeycrisp or Pink Lady are good baking apples), peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch (1,3 cm) pieces
Baking spray
Cinnamon sugar (mix 1/4 cup (60g) granulated sugar with 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon)
For the Chantilly cream
1 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons superfine sugar
1 vanilla bean
Preheat oven to 400F (200C).
Combine the flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon and salt in a bowl and whisk well. Set aside.
In the bowl of an electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Fold apple pieces in.
Spray a 9 inch spring form cake pan liberally with baking spray. Add the apple mixture to your spring from. Smooth it out with a spatula until it reaches the edges and press down lightly to make the batter as even on the top as you can.
Bake for 50-60 minutes until a toothpick stuck into the doughy part of the cake comes out clean (you won’t be able to test the doneness on an apple piece!).
If you find the cake browning too quickly, cover it with aluminum foil. When done, remove from the oven.
Lightly poke holes into the cake parts with a fork and baste with 3 tablespoons of butter. Sprinkle with a generous amount of cinnamon sugar. Let cool completely in the form. Serve with Chantilly cream.
To make the Chantilly cream, split the vanilla bean lengthwise with the tip of a sharp knife. Scrape the seeds from each half of the pod using the flat side of the knife. Place the seeds into a large bowl; discard the pod. Add the cup of cream and the superfine sugar and whip with an electric mixer until soft peaks form, about 3 to 5 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and chill until serving.