Vegan Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze (Apple Pickin' in Fresh-off-the-Knitting-Needles Eyelet Raglan Cardi!)

This is a straightforward cake. A one bowl cake. A chunky apple cake--so the apples don't disappear in the cake. You taste apples. You're practically eating an apple with each slice. This cake is for a true apple lover (I am very much of this ilk).

 I had this crazy dream that I'd missed apple season entirely. No apple butter, pies, cupcakes or cake! That's how we ended up at the apple orchard last weekend--I was in a panic over the prospect of this calamity. Thirty pounds of apples later, we are all fine here. Now the apple baking palooza has begun and first up, this ridiculously easy, albeit quite ugly, but incredibly delicious cake. I was completely surprised by how tasty this cake turned out. I've scoffed at baking "cakes" with apples. I felt the cake too fine a vessel for carrying the work of the apple. Oh how I was wrong. I have apple cake recipes from my grandmother, from my mother's Amish cookbooks, plus instructions for beautiful bundt cakes made with shredded apples and fancy glazes throughout my cookbook collection. But then I stumbled upon this recipe for a plain "old fashioned" apple cake, and my vintage spirit could not resist. 

  

I adapted this recipe from King Arthur Flour. I love KAF for moments like this. The changes I made included cutting the cake down in size from a 9 x 13 to a 9" square cake. I'm no math major, so it was a chancy move doing so. Lucky for me, the nine inch pan worked beautifully. I rid the cake of the eggs subbing with olive oil instead, used vegan butter vs. regular, have a bit more apple-to-cake ratio, included spelt flour (to cut back on the gluten), upped the spices, added hazelnuts (vs. pecans or walnuts)--mostly because I was out of pecans, and finally, I created a glaze using less sugar by incorporating more corn starch and less powdered sugar (you could use arrowroot instead) to be rewarded with the best darn apple cake I've had in a very long time. Jump to the recipe here.  

Mmmm. Delicious.

It was Fuji Apple season at the orchard. Fujis are my favorite apple. Last year we went to the orchard and it was too early for this. I am so happy we waited. 

So first off, core and chop about three small-to-medium apples.

Add ALL the dry ingredients to the bowl, including the spices and sugar. Sift well. Add your softened butter and olive oil to this and mix.

You'll have something that looks like cookie batter.

Next, add your apples and nuts of choice. It gets messy here. I carefully turned my beaters on low and attempted to mix the entire contents of the bowl in one swift move. This proved inadequate. So I resorted to a large spoon and major hand mixing to finish the process. (*The juice released from the apples while doing this gives a bit more creamy consistency to the batter.)

See what I mean? Spread your mixture the best you can into your pan.

The cake looks almost normal after baking. Remove and allow to cool in pan.

Meantime, make your glaze. I tend to want to cut the sugar back in nearly all of my baking. Powdered sugar frostings can be the death knell to calorie control. However, the powdered sugar is necessary in glazes for both flavor, heft and spreadability. I incorporated several tablespoons of corn starch into my frosting glaze and reduced the glucose spike. It may not be a fluffy and sugary and all, but to me, it was still a delicious caramel finish for my cake.

So we had a gorgeous day for picking apples. I could not believe how many apples the trees had produced. The whole time I was there wondering when and if my own apple trees would ever begin producing apples. Soon I hope. 

The goal for me was to pick from this tree and that tree--to walk about the orchard and to take in the beauty of it all. I strolled here and there.

Meantime. . . the goal for DH was to head to a tree, bag in hand and empty said tree of apples and. . . call it a day! (Not exactly what I had in mind.) The hunter/gatherer instinct is hard to break. 

Meantime, I wandered about amazed at the apples covering the trees, and the amount of energy it took producing such beautiful apples.

Can't you tell. . . I love my new cardi!

And that was our trip to the apple orchard. I'm sporting my new Eyelet Raglan Cardi designed by Candace Eisner Strick from Vogue Knitting Early Fall 2013. Mine Raveled here. 

Vegan Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze 

*Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Makes one 9" square cake

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons spelt flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg

1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil mixed with 3 tablespoons water (in place of 1 egg)

4 tablespoons vegan butter at room temperature (I used Earth Balance

2 cups chopped apples (I left the skins on mine)

1/4 cup chopped hazelnuts

Caramel Glaze

3 tablespoons vegan butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/8 cup coconut milk

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup powdered sugar mixed with 4 tablespoons corn starch or arrowroot

Preheat oven to 325. Lightly spray 9" baking pan with non-stick baking spray. Add all dry ingredients to medium mixing bowl except the apples and hazelnuts. Sift together well. Next, add the butter and mix well with hand blender until a crumbly mixture appears. Add the olive oil/water mixture and apples and nuts, mix well with large spoon. Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes--the ends of the cake will begin to turn brown. Remove from oven and leave in pan to cool. Prepare the glaze. In a medium sauce pan over low to medium heat, add the butter and brown sugar and warm until sugar is dissolved--don't let this boil! Take off of heat. Add the milk slowly, then vanilla extract. Next add the powdered sugar/cornstarch mixture and mix well with a blender to get rid of the lumps. *You could sift the powdered sugar beforehand, but I am took the shortcut and just added it without sifting and everything turned out fine. Spread glaze over warm cake. Store cake covered in fridge for three days. Enjoy!