Description
A recipe from my Mom’s godmother, you will scarcely see an apple cake with more apples. Cut them thin, and you will be rewarded with tender sweet apples laced through this delicious buttery spice cake.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 pounds sweet or sweet tart apples (Golden Delicious, Gala, Pink Lady, Fuji)
- 2 sticks butter, at room temperature (227 g), plus more for greasing the pan
- 1 and 1/2 cups granulated sugar (300 g)
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or vanilla paste
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 g), plus a little more for flouring the pan
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 whole nutmeg, grated (see note)
- 1 teaspoon salt (optional–my Mom has never used it, but sometimes I do)
- 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice, ground (see note)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C).
- Grease a tube pan with butter, being sure to cover the center well. Sprinkle the buttered surface of the pan with flour, tapping the pan while you rotate it on the counter to leave a light layer of flour that covers the butter. Tap out any excess flour.
- Peel the apples, and then cut them into thin small pieces. The best way to do this is to cut just to the right of the core on all 4 sides of the apple to get large wedges. Cut each side of the apple into planks about 1/2″ wide. Rotate the planks and cut into 1/16″ thin pieces. They will look more or less like big confetti pieces.
- Beat the butter with the sugar in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer until it is light and fluffy.
- Add in the eggs and vanilla to the butter and beat until the batter looks like fluffy buttercream frosting.
- Whisk the spices and baking soda with the flour in another bowl.
- Mix the flour into the butter just until the flour disappears.
Use a baking spatula to fold the apples into the batter with about 10 turns, making sure that they’re well distributed.
The batter will seem quite stiff, but the moisture from the apples will soften the batter as it bakes. - Smooth the batter into the pan.
Bake for 55-60 minutes until the cake is well browned and a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 
- Cool the cake for 15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Cool the cake completely before cutting.
- Serve with powdered sugar (or gild the lily—see notes).
- Keep the cake at room temperature for up to 4 days. It really tastes best after the first day.
Equipment
Buy Now → Notes
Use a coffee grinder or not: My preference is to grate the nutmeg with a Microplane and smash the allspice in a mortar & pestle. I like the coarser texture of the allspice in the mortar and pestle and the super fine texture of the nutmeg from the Microplane. If you are not like me (that is obsessive about grinding spices with far too many spice grinding tools), just toss everything in a coffee grinder. You’ll still get a good grind, and it’s much simpler than my silly process.
Gild the lily: This cake only needs a sprinkle of powdered sugar to serve. If you want something fancier, consider adding: Caramel sauce, Cinnamon ice cream, Vanilla pastry cream mixed with whipped cream or a dollop of Apple butter.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 60 minutes
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: German
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 slice
- Calories: 267
- Sugar: 23
- Sodium: 238
- Fat: 12
- Saturated Fat: 8
- Unsaturated Fat: 0
- Trans Fat: 0
- Carbohydrates: 37
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 54