Fresh Apple Cake

A few weeks ago at a family bbq, my aunt told me how one of her favorite desserts was this apple cake that a friend would make her every fall. Seeing as how the apple is New York's state fruit and I live close to several orchards in my area, I decided to come up with my own recipe for this apple cake!



In addition to lots of chopped apples, this cake has a good amount of applesauce in it. It makes the cake super moist and helps bump up the apple flavor. Adding the applesauce also allowed me to replace some of the sugar and oil in the recipe. Most of my family, especially the older folk, are generally pretty health conscious and try not to eat so much sugar these days, so I'm trying my hand at creating "healthier" desserts!





I brought the cake to another family bbq last weekend where it was gone in a second! In fact, a couple of my uncles even hoarded pieces of the cake to take home to enjoy for breakfast the next morning. Give it a try it while apple season is going strong!



Fresh Apple Cake
Makes one 10 inch cake
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50-55 min

Ingredients

1 stick (113g) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup (40g) vegetable oil
1/2 cup (105g) white sugar
1/2 cup (86g) light brown sugar, packed
2 eggs
1 cup (252 g) unsweetened applesauce
2 tsp (6g) vanilla extract
3 cups (375g) all purpose flour
1 tsp (2g) cinnamon
3/4 tsp (1g) nutmeg
1 tsp (4g) baking soda
1-1/2 tsp (4g) baking powder
1/2 tsp (2g) salt
3 cups (345g) peeled and diced granny smith apples

Directions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Spray a 10 inch bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together. Take a couple spoonfuls of the flour mixture and toss with the apples to coat. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, oil, and both sugars together on med-high speed until creamy and lighter in color. Scrape down the bowl and add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add in the applesauce and vanilla extract and mix well. The mixture will look a bit curdled, but it's ok. Scrape down the bowl, add in the flour mixture, and mix on low speed until just combined. Fold in the apples. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smooth out the top. Bake for 50-55 min, until a wooden skewer poked in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 20 min, then invert onto wire rack to fully cool.