While I visited my mother recently, she was busy making apple butter from the trees in her yard and spicy fragrance of the simmering butter inspired me to investigate apple dessert dishes. I found a recipe for an applesauce cake that looked simple enough to adapt to apple butter. It called for brown sugar as the sweetener, and I found that cake just a little bland, but still promising. While looking in my pantry for other ideas, I spied the maple syrup I bought earlier this year from a local maple festival. The maple syrup provided just the depth of flavor this simple cake needed. My husband has declared this his new favorite cake and it goes together in a snap!
Ingredients
SERVINGS: 9 Serving(s)
- ¾ cup apple butter
- ¾ cup pure maple syrup, plus more for garnish, if desired
- ¼ cup vegetable oil (substitute walnut oil if you have it)
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups cake flour (or substitute all-purpose)
- ¼ cup (packed) golden brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- Optional: 1 cup raisins and/ or 1 cup toasted nuts such as walnuts or pecans
Instructions
- Plain yogurt, crème fraiche or whipped cream, and apple slices for garnish
- Preheat oven to 400°. Spray an 8- by 8- by 2-inch baking pan with vegetable oil spray or oil lightly with cooking oil. Whisk apple butter, syrup, oil, egg and vanilla in large bowl until blended. Add flour, brown sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda and salt to applesauce mixture and stir to blend. Add raisins and nuts, if using, and stir to combine. Transfer batter to prepared pan.
- Bake cake until edges pull away from sides of pan and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 30 minutes. Transfer pan to rack and cool cake completely. If desired, stir a few tablespoons of maple syrup (or the apple butter) into a little plain yogurt, crème fraiche or whipped cream for a topping. Serves 9.
