Fresh Apple Cake with Honey Glaze

My sister made this cake for us while they were visiting, and we LOVED it! It kind of feels like a tease to post this recipe during the Days of Unleavened Bread, since I can’t make it or eat it. But since we made it a couple weeks ago, we’re in the clear!

I love desserts, but I really tend toward ones that aren’t quite as sweet, and often ones that involve fruit. We actually made a few tweaks to the original recipe to make it healthier, namely substituting white whole wheat flour for regular and cutting 1/2 cup of sugar out. It was still plenty sweet for us, and personally I think the whole wheat added an even better flavor to the whole thing.

Plus, apples and cinnamon! What’s not to love??  I’ve even tried a pear version, and even a version with pears, hazelnuts, and rosemary honey glaze!

Prepare the honey glaze first. You can even do it a even a couple hours ahead if you feel like it. Add the ingredients to a small bowl and stir until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and set the bowl aside, it will thicken up as it sets. Don’t refrigerate, you can just leave it on the counter.

Dice up them apples!

When you’re ready to make the cake, preheat the oven to 325 F and lightly grease or spray a bundt or regular cake pan.

In a bowl, mix together the diced apples, toasted chopped walnuts, vanilla, and cinnamon.

Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. If you want to take an extra step, you can sift the dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Add in the dry ingredients and beat until completely combined. The batter will be super thick, but that’s totally normal.

Heh…it looks like a giant bowl of peanut butter.

Finally, fold in the apple mixture, just enough to combine them.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly. Smells so good!

Bake for around 60 minutes if you’re using a regular cake pan, or until a toothpick comes out clean. The recipe says an hour and a half for a bundt cake, which seems a little long, so just make sure to start checking around an hour just to be safe.

While the recipe says to wait an hour til it cools before glazing, we couldn’t wait! We poked some holes with a toothpick so the glaze would soak in, then drizzled it all over the cake.

This cake was so amazing! We devoured it in like 24 hours flat. Not only was it awesome for dessert, we had some the next morning with our coffee.

Fresh Apple Cake with Honey Glaze

for the apple cake:

• 3 cups of diced apples (recipe calls for granny smith, we used pink lady); we didn’t peel ours
• 1 cup of lightly toasted, chopped walnuts
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 3 cups of all-purpose flour (we used white whole wheat flour instead)
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 2 cups of sugar (we only used 1-1/2 and it was plenty sweet)
• 1-1/4 cups of vegetable or canola oil
• 3 eggs

for the honey glaze:

• 1 cup of powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 2 tablespoons of milk

Prepare the honey glaze first (even a couple hours ahead, if you feel like it). Add the ingredients to a small bowl and stir until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and set the bowl aside, it will thicken up as it sets.

To prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 325 F. Lightly grease or spray a bundt or regular cake pan. In a bowl, mix together the diced apples, toasted chopped walnuts, vanilla, and cinnamon. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt (or if you feel like it, you can skip this step).

Using an electric mixer beat the sugar, oil, and eggs in a large bowl. Add in the dry ingredients and beat until completely combined.  Finally, fold in the apple mixture. The batter will be very thick, that’s normal.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and spread it out evenly. Bake for around 60 minutes if using a regular cake pan (around an hour and a half for a bundt cake) —either way, you want a toothpick to come out clean. The hour and a half seems a little long (we used a regular cake pan), so start checking around an hour just to be safe.

The recipe says to allow the cake to fully cool in the pan for an hour before glazing (and to turn the bundt cake onto a plate). We were so hungry that we couldn’t wait! I poked holes in the cake with a toothpick, then drizzled the glaze over it.

Drizzle the apple cake with the honey glaze!  The cake can be wrapped tightly and stored in refrigerator for 3 to 5 days.

Original recipe here