Recently our family went for our traditional fall afternoon of apple-picking. Luckily the weather was amazing (fall in Canada doesn’t last long and you can have warm sunny days and cold wet days in the same week). On this day, the sun was shining and the air was fresh but not frigid. Just about perfect! Yes, we had to wear fall jackets, but it wasn’t bad at all.
We could have bought a bag of the ready-picked apples, but what fun is that? Instead, we took a stroll through the orchard and hand-picked each delicious fruit. Our little guy had a blast–this was probably the year he had the most fun. After our bag was full we took a wagon-ride around the farm and then walked through the pumpkin patch where our little guy chose the perfect pumpkin (his words). A little time for some fun in the playground while Nelson and I sipped on warm apple cider, and then we headed home.
I love apples–probably one of my favourite fruits (and I don’t mean just when they’re in desserts–though that doesn’t hurt). On that note, what were we going to do with all these apples now? Apple pie…yup for sure…but what else? Mmm, how about apple cake? It has some of our favourite things–apples and cinnamon, a little nutmeg (a perfect fall spice) and it’s a cake…need I say more. Ya, this was a great idea.
This apple cake is moist and has just the right amount of spice. The Cortlands are a perfect choice for pie and they certainly worked well for the cake too.
Got apples? We say, “make cake”. Enjoy the season, and eat well, friends!
- ¾ cups unsalted butter at room temperature
- ¾ cups vegetable oil
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 3 large eggs at room temperature
- 3 medium sized Cortland (or granny smith) apples, cored, peeled and cut into appox. ½ inch pieces
- Preheat oven to 350 °F.
- Grease and flour a tube baking pan.
- Using the paddle attachment, cream together the oil, butter and both sugars on medium high speed.in a large mixer bowl.
- While creaming the butter and sugars, sift together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
- Lower the mixer to medium speed and add one egg at-a-time and mix until fully incorporated.
- Add the vanilla and mix 30 more seconds.
- Change the mixer to medium low and slowly add the sifted dry ingredients to the blender until all ingredients are incorporated.
- Stop the mixer and remove the bowl.
- Using a spatula, mix in the apple pieces.
- Pour the batter into the greased tube pan. The mixture will seem thick. This is okay.
- Bake for 80 minutes. Using a cake tester or toothpick, test the cake. If the toothpick or the tester come out wet, bake for another 10 minutes and test again.
- Once the cake is ready, place the pan on a cooling rack and let cool for 10 minutes.
- Invert the cake onto a flat plate and then back onto the cooling rack. Let it cool completely.
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