October 21, 2011

Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Maple Frosting


This month marks the third year baking with The Cake Slice; we will be baking from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle. The book have separate chapters from chiffon cakes to pound cakes, butter-based cakes and fruit-based ones, flourless cakes, mousse and ice cream cakes, even chapters on cheesecakes and meringue cakes. I'm very excited to be baking from this book and have many recipes already bookmarked!

I really like that the recipes are written including weight (grams and ounces) along with the volume measurements. American cookbooks are still slow in adapting this type of measuring. When I started measuring ingredients with a kitchen scale a few years back, I noticed a vast improvement on my baking -- and importantly, my baked goods came out with consistent results. (If you don't have one, I highly recommend making an investment and purchasing one; they are not at all expensive). I am just happy to not be wasting time converting measurements and get on to baking when I use this cookbook.

On to our first cake: Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Maple Frosting. A perfect cake to celebrate Autumn. Chunks of apples, tender and still slightly crisp at the same time, along with walnuts make up this cake, warmly perfumed by cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Topped with cream cheese with maple flavoring and dusted with freshly-grated nutmeg for a really decadent slice. It's a simple, unpretentious cake that can be enjoyed anytime.

 

You can read Tish Boyle's blog here: http://www.tishboyle.blogspot.com/
Please follow her on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/tishboyle


Apple Cake with Cream Cheese Maple Frosting
adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle
makes one 9-inch square cake, serving 12

181g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, softened
217g (1 cup firmly packed) light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 large eggs
160ml (2/3 cup) buttermilk*
120g (2 cups) peeled and chopped 1/3-inch pieces Granny Smith* apples
57g (1/2 cup) walnuts, coarsely chopped
  1. Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Grease pan and line bottom and two sides with a strip of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the two sides. Butter paper and set aside.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
  3. Place butter in the bowl of mixer and beat with paddle attachment at medium speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar and beat at medium-high speed until blended and lightened in color, about 2 minutes. Add the vanilla extract. Then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well and scraping sides as needed. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating it with the buttermilk in two additions and mix just until blended. Fold in the apples and walnuts.
  4. Transfer batter into pan, smooth the top and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden and toothpick test is clean. Cool cake in pan on a wire rack.
  5. Frost top of cooled cake with Maple Frosting.
Cream Cheese Maple Frosting
makes 1 1/3 cups

170g (6oz) cream cheese, softened
42g (3 TBSP) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/8 tsp maple flavoring*
1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground ginger
pinch of salt
pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
115g (1 cup) confectioneres' sugar, sifted

Using paddle attachment, beat cream cheese and butter together at medium speed until smooth. Add extracts, spices and salt. Reduce speed to low, add the confectioners' sugar and beat until well blended. Raise speed to high until light and creamy, about 2 minutes.

*I used homemade whole milk yogurt, Honeycrisp apples and maple syrup.

12 comments:

Please Do Not Feed The Animals. said...

Love your styling. I enjoyed the cake too and am likely to make it again.

Baker Street said...

The cream cheese maple frosting looks absolutely divine! and the apple cake is just perfect treat in this season!

Unknown said...

I love this recipe. It looks great.

Anonymous said...

Your cake looks fabulous! I love how you set your photos too - soo beautiful!

Katie said...

Your photos are fabulous! I adore your square cake stand too - so stylish. The cake looks divine, with those chunks of apple. Everyone seems to have liked this one - hurrah!

The Food Librarian said...

Lovely! Love apple desserts and can't agree more with the scale. It's the only scale I like (the scale that weighs me? Yuck :)

Hope you are having a great fall! - mary

Betty Ann @Mango_Queen said...

Wow! What a terrific cake & I lovvveeee the icing! This looks like a good recipe...must try! Glad you joined the #AppleLove, Caroline!

Paloma said...

Those are great pictures! Loved it all! And I loved it that you used homemade yogurt! :) Thanks for stopping by my blog too!

Emily said...

Oh Wow! Your cake is TaLL! and just look at that frosting! YUMMS!

Gloria Baker said...

I really love your cake think look awesome, and love the pictures! gloria

SKIP TO MALOU said...

i love the unpretentious-ness of you r cake. I should buy that huh a good investment since I always find it hard to convert.. sometimes google don't help at all haha.
happy weekend carol! miss yah!
malou

Brownieville Girl said...

Just love the composition of your photo.

Totally agree on appreciating the measurements in this book.

Thanks for the link to her blog - I'm off to have a look.

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