Extremely Moist Jewish Apple Cake

MM has been pitching the idea for an extremely moist apple cake for some time now, and his wish finally came to fruition (get it? Anyone? Bueller?) when we inherited a boatload of freshly picked Stayman-Winesap apples from my parents after their recent apple-picking adventure. Aren't they pretty?

It was the perfect complement to our ultra-fall day, complete with football, chili, and pumpkin beer. The cake is dense, slightly spiced, and delightfully true to the taste of the apples. Adding a glaze over top was a last-minute addition per MM’s expert recommendation (I dragged my feet, but let’s be honest, when does a glaze make something worse?).

Needless to say, the leftovers didn’t stick around long.

I replaced half of the oil from the original recipe with apple sauce – it’s a low-fat, healthy substitute, and it only enhances the cake’s apple flavors. However, I’ve used applesauce in plenty of baking projects that don’t involve apples, and you can’t detect the taste at all. Next time I make this cake, I may swap out even more of the oil for apple sauce, as well as adding just a sprinkle of cinnamon to the batter. 

My other note to the wise - this recipe originally calls for a tube pan or a bundt pan, of which I have neither. I opted to use a springform pan and a loaf pan. Splitting the recipe between the two pans worked out well in terms of baking the cake. However, as you can see, flipping the cake out of the loaf pan presented some, ahem, challenges:

We are off to Detroit tomorrow for the Detroit Free Press Half-Marathon – updates to come! 

Extremely Moist Jewish Apple Cake
Recipe from Smitten Kitchen

6 apples (I prefer to use tart apples for this)
1-2 tablespoon cinnamon
5 tablespoons sugar

2 ¾ cups flour, sifted
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup no-sugar added applesauce
2 cups sugar
¼ cup orange juice
2 ½ teaspoons vanilla
4 eggs
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional) 

Glaze (optional)

1 tablespoon butter

1 cup powdered sugar

1-2 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a tube pan (or two loaf pans...or any two combinations of pans that you have). Peel, core and chop apples into chunks. Toss with cinnamon and sugar and set aside.

Stir together flour, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together oil, apple juice, orange juice, sugar and vanilla. Mix wet ingredients into the dry ones, then add eggs, one at a time. Scrape down the bowl to ensure all ingredients are incorporated.

Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spread half of apples over it. Pour the remaining batter over the apples and arrange the remaining apples on top. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until a tester comes out clean. If you are spreading this between two pans, start checking the cakes after about one hour.

If you opt to include the glaze, melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Whisk in the remaining ingredients and pour over the top of the cake. Allow to cool before serving.