Apple Cake with Maple Butter Glaze from Lisa Yockelson

Apple Cake with Maple Butter Glaze - made July 27. 2024 from Baking Style by Lisa Yockelson

3 cups unsifted bleached all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup canola oil
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 1/2 cups peeled, cored and coarsely shredded apples

Maple Butter Glaze
2/3 cup pure maple syrup
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into chunks
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly spray a 9-inch Bundt pan with nonstick cooking spray and lightly flour.
2. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the granulated sugar, dark brown sugar, and eggs on moderate speed for 2 minutes. With the mixer running, add the oil in a thin, steady stream; beat on moderate speed for 2 minutes. Blend in the vanilla extract and apples.
4. On low speed, add the sifted mixture in 2 additions, scraping down the sides of the mixing bowl.
5. Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour, or until risen, set and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean or with a few crumbs.
6. While cake is baking, make the glaze: place the maple syrup, butter, and salt in a small, heavy saucepan and bring to simmer over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the vanilla extract and remove from heat. 
7. Cool the cake in the pan for 10 minutes. Loosen with a small spatula then invert onto a cooling rack. Lift off the pan. Paint the warm glaze over the top and sides with a soft pastry brush. Cool completely and store in an airtight container.

This is the second dessert I made for Ronald McDonald House when I brought over the lemon bars. I wanted to make this recipe, not only because it's from one of my favorite cookbook authors and I've been wanting to try this recipe for awhile, but also because it uses maple syrup. One of my friends from Vermont gave me this real Vermont maple syrup. While I enjoy syrup on my pancakes as much as the next person, what I like even better is using food gifts as ingredients for what I bake. (Side note: one of the best gifts you can give a baker is some kind of ingredient they can use - you'd literally be giving a gift that keeps on giving.)

Since I was making this as a Bundt cake to give away and you can hardly give away a Bundt cake with a slice missing (seriously, please don't do that - it's tacky), I reserved some of the batter to bake into a small ramekin. That was my tester. Since it was smaller than the Bundt, it baked faster, but in essence, it was the same as the larger cake.

As you can tell from the ingredients, this is an oil-based cake. It doesn't contain butter so it's not going to give a buttery flavor or a fluffy texture. This was dense but moist. Not like a pound cake either which, while dense, also can have a soft crumb. I say all that so that you don't underbake this cake. If you do, the texture will be gummy rather than moist. The toothpick test may also be misleading as it can come out "clean" but still be a bit underdone. Best thing to do is actually time it (mine baked for exactly an hour but each oven is different) and go by appearance (top should look "dry" with a few cracks) as well as the toothpick test. 

Overall, I liked this cake. Although there are a lot of spices in it, it didn't taste overly spiced; it was just the right blend. No one spice overwhelmed the flavor profile and I liked the texture as well. This is more like an oil-based carrot cake but with apples. It's best made in autumn when apples are at their peak season but it worked well enough now for this cake.

Below is the slice from the Bundt cake but I only took it out for the picture so you can see the inside texture of the Bundt version then I neatly put it back into the sliced cake, covered it and delivered it to Ronald McDonald House.