Apple Cake w/Brown Sugar Frosting

Old-Fashioned Apple Cake w/Brown Sugar Frosting

This morning I'm putting this recipe on the blog so that we don't lose it. It's straight from King Arthur, who says it's their most requested apple cake recipe. It tastes like fall. It was good enough that Jessica made it twice. In one weekend. She made one so that we would have a treat. And two days later, the cake was gone but Todd was here, and he asked, "Can you make another one?" One of those times she measured the dry ingredients ahead of time. That made it so easy. Peeling the apples is the labor intense part. 

We did decide that the frosting is really sweet. Almost too sweet for us Southerners who love sweet. (And we live in the land of Krispie Kreme.) It's almost like brown sugar fudge. But did she change it on cake #2? No. Made it exactly like the first one. And the second cake disappeared as fast at the first one. 

Find the original recipe here. There are more mixing tips, including how to make a gluten-free version, and how to make a less sweet frosting. I am posting it here just like Jessica made it.

OLD-FASHIONED APPLE CAKE w/BROWN SUGAR FROSTING

Cake:

2-2/3 cups all-purpose flour

1-2/3 cups sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1-1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice*

2 large eggs, room temp

1 stick (8 tbsp) butter

4 cups peeled, finely chopped apples

1 cup chopped toasted pecans, optional

Frosting:

7 tablespoons butter

2/3 cups brown sugar, packed

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup milk

2-1/4 cup powdered sugar

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 375º. Spray a 9x13-inch pan with cooking spray. Mix all cake ingredients, except apples and nuts, in large mixer bowl. Mix just until mixture comes together and becomes uniformly crumbly. Stop mixing at this point. You don't want the mixture to turn into a cohesive mass.

Add apples and nuts if using. Mix until apples release some juice and stiff mixture becomes thick batter. (Dough will be between cookie dough and brownie batter.) It may take about 3 minutes using a stand mixer. (Jessica says you need a stand mixer for this. Don't try to mix by hand.)

Spread batter into greased pan, using wet fingers to spread it if necessary. Bake cake for 45 minutes, or until toothpick put in center comes out clean. (Or with just a few crumbs clinging to it.)

Remove cake from oven and place on rack to cool while you make frosting.

To make frosting:  Melt butter in medium saucepan over medium heat. Stir in brown sugar and salt and cook, stirring until sugar starts to melt and mixture becomes fairly smooth. Add milk and bring to a boil.

Remove syrup from heat and pour into a medium mixing bowl (but large enough to hold all the powdered sugar.) Let syrup cool for 10 minutes. 

Pour powdered sugar into warm syrup, then add vanilla. Whisk everything together until thoroughly combined. Work fast because frosting stiffens up quickly as it cools.

Pour warm frosting onto cake, spreading it quickly over entire surface. (Have an offset spatula ready to spread. Don't lose time digging through the drawer to find it.)

Serve cake warm or at room temp. Store, covered, at room temp for several days. (Ours didn't last that long.)

* No apple pie spice in your pantry? Mix 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. ginger and 1/4 tsp. nutmeg to make your own.

It is awfully quiet here this week. Like grandparents everywhere we would love to see the little ones more than we do. But we are thankful for photos and good memories. This is Little Lady playing with the decades old Fisher-Price farm that belonged to her mommy and aunt when they were the little girls here. I didn't save all the toys, of course, but I'm happy I did hang on to a few. It's fun to see them in use again.