Apple Spice Cake

A plain name for a not so plain cake.

Topping - this gets baked on the bottom of the pan, make it first and let it cool down a bit so you can handle the apples.

1 XL Fuji Apple, peeled - cored and sliced about 2-3mm thick
3 tbsp Butter
3 tbsp Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 cup apple cider/unfiltered juice
1 tbsp cinnamon

Melt butter and sugar in a 12" non-stick omelet pan. Add the juice and cinnamon and reduce until thickened over med-low heat (light simmer). Add apples and increase heat until they are well coated and just barely soft. Remove from heat and let cool while making the batter.

Batter - Two step batter, liquid and dry.
Pre-Heat the oven to 350°F
Coat 2 8" square baking pans (or their equivalent) liberally with butter. Line the bottom with parchment paper and coat the paper with butter (I just flipped the paper upside down after fitting it to the bottom of the pan).

Dry ingredients: mix/sift together in a large bowl
2 cups King Arthur All purpose flour
1 cup King Arthur White whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg

Wet ingredients:
1 cup melted butter
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 jumbo eggs
1 1/3 cup turbinado sugar
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup of the Apple cider/juice

Beat eggs then add everything else except the butter and mix together, slowly add cooled (but still liquid) melted butter (hot butter in the eggs will just cook the eggs - that's NOT good - yuk, no I did not make that mistake).

Gently fold liquid into the dry ingredients. DO NOT OVER MIX. Once the batter is just barely incorporated stop.

Take the cooled apple slices and arrange them on the bottom of the buttered pans on top of the parchment. This is going to be the top of the cake, you can be as artistic as you want or you can just make a layer. Once the apples have been arranged pour the remaining sauce evenly over the apples. Carefully spoon the batter on top of the apples. If you pour it in the the apples will float away and it won't work.

Bake for ~45 minutes. They are done when a toothpick can be inserted and pulled out clean. Remove them from the oven. Before they cool invert the cake on a rack. If they cool down it will be very difficult to remove them from the pan and to remove the parchment paper. How long it takes to bake will depend greatly on how thick the cake batter is in the pan. Also baking times will vary based on the type of pan used, do not over cook the cake.

Optional glaze for the top of the cake or to make up and drizzle over some vanilla ice cream to serve with the cake.
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp brown sugar
(melt together)
1/2 cup apple juice
reduce over heat as in the apple toping above.

Enjoy one of the most moist and delicate cakes possible.