Butter Croissants and Coffee

One of the most best aromas on a beautiful morning

Samosa Chaat

Snack a little

Seekh Kabab

Try something different!

Decadent Chocolate

Do not forget to indulge once in a while

Steamed goodness

Various cooking methods bring variety in your palette

Friday, August 21, 2015

Fresh Apple Cake

Apples are in season. My neighbor, Kathy, made this amazing apple cake one weekend, and was kind enough to share two pieces with us. She even included a print of the recipe for us, in case we wanted to know if we were allergic to any of the ingredients, like nuts. Being Indians, I guess we're lucky not to be allergic to most ingredients. The cake was so moist and it had a beautiful glaze over it. We loved it so much that we decided to make a whole batch next time we got apples. And it was simply amazing, just like Kathy's! Special thanks to her.
The recipe was from the Deen family.

No pictures for this post. Sorry. Will post it when I bake this again.

Ingredients:
Honey Glaze:

    1 cup confectioners' sugar
    2 tablespoons honey
    2 tablespoons milk

Apple Cake:

    3 cups diced Granny Smith apples, about 2 apples
    1 cup lightly toasted chopped walnuts (I used pecans)
    2 teaspoons vanilla extract
    2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
    3 cups all-purpose flour
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    1 teaspoon salt
    2 cups sugar
    1 1/4 cups vegetable oil
    3 eggs

Method:


Glaze: Add all the ingredients to a small bowl and stir until smooth. Set the bowl aside.
If you don't have readymade confectioner's sugar like me, just powder some regular sugar in a spice grinder, until its fine like dust.

Cake: Preheat the oven to 325°F. Lightly grease a Bundt pan or tube pan. I used a large rectangular pan for lack of these.

In a bowl, mix together the apples, walnuts, vanilla, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Using an electric mixer beat the sugar and oil, in a large bowl, until its well creamed for about 10 minutes. Break eggs into this one by one, beating well with each addition. Add in the dry ingredients and mix gently until well incorporated. About 10 folds and that's it, just stop and walk away. You don't want to mix it too much and activate the gluten. Now fold in the apple mixture.

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a tester inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.

Allow the cake to fully cool in the pan, about 1 hour, and then turn it out onto a plate.

Drizzle the apple cake with some of the honey glaze, serve and enjoy!