Make This Apple Pie When You’re Done.
All this talk about Thanksgiving cake made me crave cake. Pie is ubiquitous at Thanksgiving, but sometimes it’s enough. Its many ingredients, time and heat sensitive nature, and finicky crust can make a pie a nightmare for the host. As a guest, a pie is fine when it’s good , but I’m already fed up with raw crusts, at which point I can spot one from the couch. Why not add other seasonal desserts? If you don’t feel like bringing another pie for your family’s Thanksgiving this year, bring this awesome, mouth-watering apple cider pie instead. (Hosts, you can do this too.)
I created this cake to be first and foremost delicious, but also suitable for Thanksgiving. It’s strong enough to be transported to the owner’s house (and back home), and it’s easy to split between boxes at the end of the night. Once the party is over and you’re working with leftovers, this cake keeps exceptionally well for up to a week at room temperature or in the refrigerator, which is more than a cake can say for itself.
Of all the cake flavors, pumpkin, apple, and spicy are probably the best for fall. The pumpkin gets all the glory, so I decided to highlight the apples. And this cake is everything that is beautiful about them. It includes all the sweet and tart flavors of apple cider mulled wine, but turns into a concentrated syrup. (Here’s how to make apple cider syrup .) You’re squeezing about half a gallon of apple cider strength into this cake because most of the water has evaporated. The finished cake is a huge beauty. It is springy and full of apple and brown sugar flavors and aromas; this is the kind of cake that needs a crowd to pull off, but the recipe is designed to be easily cut in half to make a smaller cake if desired.
Although the butter in this cake is melted, you will be using a modified creaming method. Usually for this, butter and sugar are whipped until fluffy, but in this case the fats are liquid. Fats are mixed with sugar, then eggs and extracts are added, and then dry ingredients are alternated with liquid. In this case, the liquid is apple syrup. The finished dough will be quite liquid. Pour it into a large oiled and floured tin and bake for 50-55 minutes in the oven at 350°F. Invert the cake tin onto a wire rack to cool, but leave the hot tin over it. Refrigerate the cake for 10 minutes, then remove the pan and cool completely for an hour.
Finish this cake with an apple cider frosting or a simple dusting of powdered sugar. Enjoy warm with a scoop of ice cream, cold from the fridge, or, in typical Thanksgiving fashion, Frankenstein with three other sweet treats on one plate.
Apple cider cake
Ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons butter, melted
- 1 glass of vegetable oil
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- 6 eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 cups flour
- 2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 cup reduced apple syrup
- 1 ½ tablespoons apple cider (optional for frosting)
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar (optional for frosting)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare a standard 12-cup frying pan, grease it thoroughly with oil, and dust it with flour all the way to the rim. Set aside on a baking sheet.
In a medium bowl, mix all dry ingredients together. Postpone.
In a large bowl, mix butter and butter together with sugar until well combined. Whisk the eggs, two at a time, making sure the mixture is well mixed between additions. Stir in vanilla.
Whisk in one third of the dry ingredients. Whisk in half the applesauce. Alternate the two again and finish with the last third of the flour mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350°F for 50-60 minutes. The cake should start to pull away from the sides of the pan, and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean.
Invert the cake onto a wire rack to cool, leaving the pan to rest for 10 minutes. Remove the mold and let the cake cool completely. Serve as is or with apple cider frosting.
To make the frosting, beat together the icing sugar and apple cider until smooth. It should be thick. Spread over the top of the cake and let it flow naturally down the sides.