Apple cake

As I mentioned in my post for the apple pie, I wound up with extra peeled, cored, and sliced apples. While I knew I was going to do something with them, I just wasn’t sure what that would be. Today I read through a few of my cookbooks and found a recipe for apple cake and decided that was what I’d make today. 

The recipe itself is a variation off of carrot cake, but here it is:

Ingredients:
1 ½ cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
½ tsp salt
3 cups peeled and chopped apples
1 cup coarsely chopped nuts (an option I did not include)

apple cider
brown sugar
honey
cinnamon
cloves
allspice
nutmeg

Heat oven to 350*F, grease bottom and sides of a 9x13 pan and lightly flour.

In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, and eggs with an electric mixer on low speed for about 30 seconds, or until blended. Add flour, cinnamon, baking soda, vanilla, and salt; beat on low speed 1 minute. Stir in the apples and pour into prepared pan.

Bake 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cake, still in the pan, on a wire rack, for at least an hour.

While the cake was cooling, I combined about 1 ½ cups of apple cider with 1 - 1 ¼ cups brown sugar in a small sauce pan. I added in honey and spices (I’m sorry, I didn’t measure any of this) and set it to boil, then reduced it to a simmer. I let this reduce for a while, about 15-20 minutes, keeping an eye on it and stirring occasionally. Once it had reduced down to where it coats the back of a spoon, I removed it from the heat. To the cooled cake, I poked holes in the top with a fork and then poured the apple cider glaze on top.

This cake is very sweet but perfect for the holidays. Instead of the glaze, you can make a cream cheese frosting using the following recipe.

1 package (8oz) cream cheese, softened
¼ cup butter, softened
2 - 3 tsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups confectioners sugar

In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, milk, and vanilla with electric mixer on low until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar, 1 cup at a time, on low speed until smooth and spreadable.