Here is a super easy cake involving apples and apple cider.  I loved this cake as it was simple to make and making an apple cider reduction gives the cake plenty of apple flavor.

I love apple pie, apple crumble, French apple or anything apple when it comes to a dessert and yet I don’t tend to make desserts with apples. When I worked in the commercial kitchen we would experiment by making apple cakes (which was more of a batter then a crust), I just never liked the ones we would make.

For the fall, I decided I wanted to try my own version of an apple cake so I created this recipe, I did use a few other recipes as guidelines and took the best of what I read to develop this cake recipe.

The key is the reduction of the apple cider, to reduce apple cider, take a cup of cider and cook it on the stove until it becomes 1/4 cup, here is the before

and after

I used granny smith apples as they are great for baking

I shredded the peeled apples, the old fashion way using a grater, it was so much easier then pulling out the food processor

I wanted to wring out the extra moister so I  placed the shredded apple in a towel and squeezed as much of the juice out that I could, do not omit this step

beat butter with sugar until light and fluffy, then add eggs, one at a time, make sure it is mixed well

In a separate bowl put “dry” ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt) and to cream add apple cider leaving the “wet” ingredients

Just like I did in my blueberry cake, alternat adding adding 1/3 of dry ingredients, mixed until blended, add 1/2 of wet ingredients and mixed it up, add another 1/3 of dry ingreditents and mix, add all of the remaining wet ingredients, mix again and end with dry ingredients

Add the shredded apple and zest from 1 lemon and mixed it by hand until everything was incorporated.  Don’t worry if your apple has some discoloration to it, it won’t matter once it’s baked up.

Put in an 8×8 pan, sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar on top and baked it for about 50-55 minutes…YUM!

Now for the glaze, while the cake was baking I did the same thing with the apple cider by taking a cup and reducing it to only 2 tablespoons.  I put the apple glaze in with confectioners sugar and used just slightly over 1 tablespoon of milk, if you like your glaze more runny add more milk and if you like a more thick glaze add less milk

here is a photo of the mixed glaze

Once the cake cooled off, slice your piece and drizzle some of the glaze on top (this can be optional as well)

I loved this recipe as you can see from my photo,  you do not see large chunks of apple or any apple at all, just looks like a cake.  The flavor of the apple is amazing, by reducing the apple cider, you intensify the flavor even more which helps bring out the apple flavor.

.

Thank you for visiting my site.  

If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment and if you enjoy my site, please subscribe.  To subscribe, go to the box listed on the top of the page “Subscribe Via Email” and input your email address.  

When you subscribe, you will be emailed a link to confirm the subscription, be sure to click on that link to activate your account.  

Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum

.