Spiced Apple Cake

Sometimes a photo is worth a thousand words, and that’s definitely the case with this Spiced Apple Cake recipe ~ you can clearly see the moist tender crumb, and I bet you can almost smell the warm aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The glossy cider frosting with with a hint of crackling on the surface tells you the rest of the story ~ yum!

How do you judge a cake? I always look for a good crumb. I can’t know anything important about a cake until it’s cut open. I like a nice blowsy, moist crumb, no straight edges or sharp corners. If you cut into a cake and little bits fly off here and there, that’s a good sign. A cake with a good voluptuous crumb can stop me in my tracks, and that’s exactly what happened when I saw this one on White Lights on Wednesday. I had to make it mine.

There are so many things I love about this cake besides that great crumb. It’s got a nice deep spiced apple flavor, and it’s super moist thanks to the cup of apple butter in the batter. I used Greek yogurt, too. I’ve been having a lot of success substituting it into baking recipes, I think it helps give a light texture. I topped the cake with a sweet but still more spicy cider/nutmeg glaze. If that doesn’t scream fall…

I loved this cake. I’m going to keep it around for that day when there’s a first hint of a chill in the air. Or when I just want to pretend there is!

I love a great quick cake like this that can be dessert, coffee cake, snack, or even breakfast, my BLUEBERRY LEMON POUND CAKE is one of my favorites, I just love the combo of lemon and blueberries. And one of the most popular  cake recipes on the blog is my TRIPLE COCONUT POUND CAKE, so after you’ve finished this spiced apple cake, that’s a must-try 🙂

Spiced Apple Cake

4.03 from 42 votes

Sometimes a photo is worth a thousand words, and that's definitely the case with this Spiced Apple Cake recipe ~ you can clearly see the moist tender crumb, and I bet you can almost smell the warm aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  The glossy frosting with with a hint of crackling on the surface tells you the rest of the story ~ yum!

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Prep Time:15 minutes minutes

Cook Time:55 minutes minutes

Servings: 10 servings

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Equipment

• standard 9x5 loaf pan

Ingredients

 

dry ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves

wet ingredients

• ¾ cup sugar
• ½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup Apple Butter
• ½ cup Greek yogurt

nutmeg glaze

• 1 1/2 cups confectioner's sugar
• apple cider (or milk) for thinning
• 1 tsp fresh grated nutmeg

Instructions

• Set the oven to 350F
• Whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
• Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Stir in the apple butter.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients alternately with the yogurt, beginning and ending with the dry. Mix just until combined, don't over beat.
• Spread the dough into a 9x5 loaf pan (spray lightly with cooking spray and/or line with parchment paper for easy removal) and bake for about 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out without wet batter clinging to it.
• Cool on a rack while you make the glaze.
• To make the glaze, mix the confectioner's sugar with enough cider (or milk) to form a spreadable glaze. Stir in the nutmeg to taste.
• Spread the glaze on the warm cake.

Notes

• If nutmeg isn't your thing, you can use cinnamon, or just a bit of vanilla extract in the frosting.
• Here are a few other recipes that use delicious apple butter ~ pork and apples go together so well in this One Pan Apple Butter Pork Chop Skillet.  And who knew it would work with shrimp in these Apple Butter Bacon Wrapped Shrimp?  For dessert, I love these Apple Butter Pie Bars.

 

*recipe adapted from White Lights on Wednesday

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Author: Sue Moran

Keyword: apples, baking, cake, fall, loaf cake, quick bread

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. This information comes from online calculators.  Although The View from Great Island attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures are only estimates.

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