Cinnamon Apple Spice Cake

This apple spice cake is truly one of my favorite fall bakes- and that’s high praise because I LOVE fall baking. This cake has a soft, delicately moist crumb, an intensely spiced fragrance and flavor, soft, sweet chunks of apple, and a light vanilla glaze. Honestly, what more can a girl ask for? I like making this in the cute little apple-shaped baking dish pictured above but any 8x8 glass or ceramic baking dish will do. This cake takes about 1 1/2 hours to make and serves eight.

Ingredients

• 1 large apple (I like something sweeter like Honeycrisp or Cosmic Crisp)

• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1/4 cup almond flour (in a pinch you can omit this and just use a full 2 cups of AP)

• 2 1/4 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 1 tsp cardamom

• 1/4 tsp kosher salt

• 1/2 cup room temperature unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup granulated sugar

• 1/2 cup apple cider

• 2 large eggs

• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla

For the cinnamon swirl:

• 3 tablespoons melted unsalted butter, cooled

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

For the vanilla glaze:

• 3/4 cup powdered sugar

• 2-3 tablespoons milk

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375F, thoroughly grease an 8x8 baking dish, and set aside.

2. Peel the apple and chop it into 1/2 inch pieces, set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and eggs and whisk until combined.

4. Stream in the apple cider and continue to whisk. It might look a little curdled, that’s okay.

5. In a separate, smaller bowl, mix together the dry ingredients: both flours, salt, the spices, and baking powder.

6. Dump the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients and whisk until no spots of flour remain.

7. Add in the apple pieces and stir them in gently with a spatula until evenly distributed.

8. In a small bowl, make the cinnamon swirl mixture by stirring together the butter, cinnamon, and sugar.

9. Spoon all the cake batter into the prepared baking dish and smooth it as best you can. Drizzle the cinnamon-butter over the top, then swirl it into the top of the batter with the tip of a spoon or butterknife.

10. Bake the cake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out mostly clean.

11. While the cake cools, make the vanilla glaze by whisking the milk and vanilla into the powdered sugar until it has a drizzling consistency.

12. Spoon the glaze over the top of the mostly-cooled cake and smooth it out to the edges. Slice and serve. You can keep this plastic wrapped in the fridge for up to a week, just warm it up a little before eating.

13. Enjoy!