Ok so I went apple-picking a while back with my roommates, which has been all I’ve been eating this fall so far (which is also, maybe why I haven’t gotten sick yet? The whole “apple-a-day” maxim must be true…) AND, not to mention, all I’ve been baking with too. yum! I have yet to do the classic stuff like apple pie, crisp, or cobbler, but I did make two cakes recently that I was pretty pleased with– an upside-down cake and a pumpkin-apple-pie hybrid of some sorts. I’m posting the latter because I liked it better, and also because I don’t remember the exact recipe for the upside-down cake, hehe. I’ll post a pretty picture of it at least, though!
Apple + Pumpkin Pie Hybrid Cake
Ingredients:
Sautéed Apples:
• 2 tbsp butter
• 3-4 large granny smith apples (or fuji, honeycrisp, whatever ya like), peeled and thinly sliced
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
Streusal Topping and Cake (made together, then divided)
• 3/4 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 3 tbsp granulated sugar
• 3 tsp pumpkin pie spice (if you don’t have it, here’s how you can make it)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 cup pumpkin purée
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 large eggs
Directions:
(1) To make the apples, melt butter in skillet, and sauté the slices on medium heat, just until they start to soften. Stir in the sugar and cinnamon, then remove from heat and set aside to cool a bit.
(2) Butter an 8-inch springform pan and preheat yo’ oven to 350 F. While that’s firing up, get a big bowl and combine the flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add the 1/2 cup butter and blend with a hand or stand mixer until incorporated.
(3) To make the streusal, measure out 2/3 cup of this mixture and put it into a separate, smaller bowl. Add the 3 tbsp sugar and 2 tsp. of the pumpkin pie spices, blend with your fingers, and set aside.
(4) Now, back to the cake batter… Add the baking soda, rest of the spices, sour cream, pumpkin purée, and eggs (one at a time) to the remaining flour mixture and blend until smooth, about two minutes.
(5) In the pan, layer the cake batter first, then the sautéed apples over it, and finally sprinkle the streusal over the top. Bake, uncovered, for about 1 hour, or until you stick a toothpick in the middle and it comes out clean. Allow the cake to cool a bit in the pan, then remove the springform and serve with some apple chips. There’s a good recipe for those here.
Oh snap, I almost forgot include a picture of my yummy upside-down cake! Here ya go, internet…
