For Thanksgiving this year we made the Gateau Invisible recipe from Serious Eats with miso caramel and it was amaaaaaazing but also very fiddly so my hope is that this recipe is like that but less fiddly. It’s probably not great sense on my part to direct you away to a different recipe but it was seriously so good. I will say now that even in my first run through of this recipe I’m not going to put raisins in. I don’t like raisins generally but also I feel justified because I’ve looked up a bunch of French Apple Cake recipes for comparison and none of them have raisins so I’ve decided that was a grandma addition.
As far as my grandma’s recipes go, this is an actual recipe that can be followed which is exciting. The only instruction missing is that I assume the butter needs to be softened/room temp to cream with the sugar. Also as per usual there is no salt in this recipe but I will give the benefit of the doubt and think that maybe it’s because there’s so much baking powder and baking soda that those lend enough saltiness and bitterness. I’m skeptical though.
Original Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup white flour (can use whole wheat pastry)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ cup raisins
- 2 cups chopped apples (cut up small)
- 4 tablespoons butter (or oleo)
- 1 cup sugar (can use less)
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
- Stir dry ingredients together, add raisins and apples.
- Cream butter and sugar, add egg, stir in dried ingredients. Put in butter 8x8in pan.
- Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top if desired. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40-45 minutes.
Reflections
Well it turns out grandma was on the snacking cake trend 50 years before it was cool so I’m changing the name from French Apple Cake to Apple Snacking Cake. This whipped up very easily, just had a bit of a long baking time. It has so much fruit that it’s basically health food, it’s not too sweet so can be breakfast, dessert or an anytime snack. I was correct in my original concern, the recipe did need salt. Vanilla was an add to give it more complexity of flavor instead of just cinnamon apple and the almond is a nod to the french origins of this cake. Which of course might not be french at all.
The cake is very soft and crumbly, so if you eat it warm it will fall apart on you but it’s delicious. The sugar and butter on the edges bubbles and caramelizes and is a bit crunchy when it cools so it’s a nice texture contrast with the soft apples and crumbly cake. Some people said it was their favorite fruit dessert ever. If you want to add a topping I would go with something like the miso caramel (which I have leftover from Thanksgiving, caramel doesn’t go bad right?) so bring some more salt because I think a sugary topping would be too much sweetness.
Apple Snacking Cake Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 tart apples (granny smith)
- 1 cup (120 g) all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter (plus some for greasing the pan)
- 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350F. Butter 8×8″ baking pan, peel and dice apples.
- In a medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Toss apples in flour mixture until fully coated.
- In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment cream butter and sugar together. Add egg, vanilla and almond extract and beat until fully combined. Add dry ingredients at mix on low speed until there are no dry specks left, you may need to scrape down with a rubber spatula.
- Spread batter in your prepared pan, smoothing with the rubber spatula. It will be very thick.
- Bake for 40-45 minutes until dark caramel in color. The apples will make it difficult to test the doneness with a cake tester or by sound. Let it cool completely to set up before serving from the pan.
vtx kitchen 