Apple Spice Cake with Cinnamon Honey Buttercream

I was a prep cook for a retirement home, and was in charge of creating a monthly birthday cake for the residents, along with my best friend/coworker/fellow baker. We had tons of fun coming up new ideas and trying to top ourselves each month, and we succeeded. Fall came around, and I wanted to do an apple cake. My cookbooks failed to inspire, and I turned to the magic of Google, which brought me to this wonderful recipe: Applesauce Spice Cake. I was hooked by the wonderful photos, and the simplicity of the cake. I did make the following tweaks - ditched the golden raisins and added diced fresh apples, used a homemade apple pie filling between the layers, and added cinnamon and honey to the buttercream. The residents loved it, and I was to become addicted myself. The wonderful sweetness of apples with a medley of spices, all in a moist and delicate cake? I'm not sure if I like this or apple pie more. It was definitely a big hit at our Thanksgiving dinner!

Apple Spice Cake
Adapted from The English Kitchen

Cake - 
10 oz All-Purpose Flour
8 oz Sugar
16 oz Applesauce
3.5 oz Shortening
1/2 cup Water
2 Eggs
1 1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Salt
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Ground Allspice
1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg
4 oz Chopped Walnuts
2 Apples (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, or Golden Delicious)

Filling - 
2 Apples (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, or Golden Delicious)
1.5 oz Flour
2 oz Sugar
4 oz Brown Sugar
3/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
Pinch Allspice
Pinch Clove
1 1/4 cup Apple Cider
2 tbsp Butter

Frosting - 
3/4 cup Butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 lb Powdered Sugar (approx.)
1/4 cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Honey

Directions - 


Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In the bowl of your mixer, combine the flour, soda, baking powder, salt and spices, and sugar. Before you add the next ingredients, take out a spoonful or two of the dry mix and set aside.

Spicy.

Drop in the shortening, and allow to blend with the dry goods for a couple minutes. Next I add the eggs, lightly beaten, followed by the applesauce and then the water. I have to say this is a slightly unusual mixing method, but it works. Allow it all to mix together for just a minute or two. 

Peel, core, and dice your apples into small pieces. I soak them briefly in a bowl of water laced with a touch of apple cider vinegar to prevent browning, then drain. Toss them in the reserved dry mix, this helps keep the apples from sinking to the bottom of the batter. 

Add the apples and walnuts to the batter, stir just to combine. Now prepare two 9 in round cake pans. I buy parchment rounds because I hate cutting parchment paper, but you can cut a piece to fit. If you don't have any parchment, well, just spray the pans really well. It won't be quite as good, and you run a risk of it sticking, but it's doable. I spray the pan with no-stick spray, lay in the parchment and smooth out, then spray the whole thing again. Yes, parchment is supposed to be non stick, but spray it anyway.

Divide the batter evenly between the two pans. I like to weigh the total batter than divide that in half to make sure the cakes bake evenly. Bake the cakes for 35-40 minutes, I rotate the pans at 20 min. Test for doneness with a toothpick. Allow to rest in the pans for about 5 min, then turn out onto a cooling rack (or plate lined with wax paper). Allow to cool completely before assembling the cake.

In the meantime, you can make up the filling. Peel, core, dice, and soak the apples like for the cake. You can go a slightly coarser dice for the filling, if you like. Put the drained apples in a saucepan with the rest of the ingredients, and cook while stirring frequently. The apples should be tender and the sauce nice and thick when it's done. I have to say my measurements for the filling aren't perfect, I'm still working on it. So taste it and adjust seasonings if you see fit. If there's not enough liquid, add in a bit more cider. If it doesn't thicken up enough, you can add a cornstarch slurry (cornstarch mixed with cold water) until it tightens up. A little goes a long way though, and whatever you do don't dump in dry flour! It will lump together and be nasty. When your filling is good, move to a bowl and chill.

Not done yet. Sorry, never said my cakes were uncomplicated! Time to make up some frosting. This is a simple and straightforward buttercream recipe. Put your softened butter in your mixer with the beater and let it whip around for a bit to get pliant. Add in your vanilla, then slowly add in the powdered sugar, go too fast and it'll fly back out at you. Drizzle in a lit bit of the milk from time to time to keep it from getting too stiff. Keep going until it's the consistency that you like - more sugar makes a stiffer frosting, more milk keeps it creamy. You want about a medium consistency, it should be spreadable but also hold it's shape if you're going to pipe. When I'm close, I like to turn the speed up higher and let it whip and get nice and fluffy. Add the cinnamon and honey to taste, it won't take very much cinnamon at all and a bit more honey, but you don't want it too sweet it's there for flavor.


All right, that's all the pieces. Assembly time! Put one layer of cake on a cardboard round (or plate). I think I did this one upside down to give me a more even top. If your cakes come out with a serious hump though, level it off with a bread knife.

Since I did a filling, and a fairly liquid one, I spread a VERY thin layer of icing over the top of this. Then I pipe a ring around the outside, this keeps the filling contained and from mixing into the outer frosting.

Don't be too generous with the filling, I actually did put too much on and had a problem with it wanting to leak out. It shouldn't be higher than your containment field, that frosting provides some support for the top layer. 

Again, the bottom of the cake gave me a more even surface, so this one's upside down too. 

Plop a BIG chunk of frosting on top. It's better to remove excess than try and add on when it spreads too thin - you get a lot of crumbs that way. I'm still not perfect, so don't be too hard on yourself. This takes practice.

Work from the center out, pushing the frosting down to the sides. I add more dollops to the side as I go around, making sure it stays a thick layer. Keep working around, smoothing out the sides and then the top. I spend way too much time going over it again and again, and I still don't get mine super smooth. I mentioned practice, right? 

Now, are you brave enough for piping? Actually it's not too hard. Fit your piping bag with a star tip (#32 Wilton is my standard). Fill about half full with icing, then twist the top and squeeze evenly. I just do some swirly loops, it's pretty simple and if you don't try to go too fast they should be pretty regular. 

  Shells are harder, and mine aren't super pretty. Start with your tip stationary, piping out and letting it build up and slowly move the tip away while lessening pressure. For the next shell let it double back a little bit. Google cake decorating instructions for better guidance, this is not my forte. I bake well, only passable at the decorating.

Oh, and colored sugar makes everything pretty. Wheeee!

Blondies

AKA - A little piece of heaven on earth. I remember when I first made these, it was in bulk for my job as a prep cook. We had blondies show up on the menu, no recipe included, and my boss asked me if I could come up with something or if he needed to find a mix. A mix! Insulting. So scouring my sources, I came across the same basic formula with only a few variations. And they were all easy and fast, huge pluses. If I spent one more second baking then my boss thought I should take - boy would I hear about it. Never mind the raves that would pour in once they sampled my goodies. I remember my first bite of these wonderful bars, I practically melted into a puddle. Moist, chewy, like a cookie but so different. Definitely faster - melted butter skips the softening, and there's no scooping and freezing and multiple batches to go through the oven. I went with a combo of chocolate chips, walnuts, and pecans and the flavors just melded together beautifully. These probably rival brownies for my favorite bar, but then again I've yet to find a brownie recipe that I truly love. Enjoy.


Blondies
Adapted from Whipped


4 oz all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz (1 stick) unsalted butter
8 oz brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 oz chopped walnuts
1 oz chopped pecans


(I usually double the recipe and bake in a 9x13 pan, but here's the original batch for an 8x8 pan)


Heat oven to 350. Melt butter and add to mixer bowl. Add brown sugar and mix until well combined. 

Butter and sugar. Sin in a bowl.

In a small bowl, lightly beat egg and vanilla together. With mixer on low, add egg to sugar mixture, let run until completely incorporated.

Whee, drizzle drizzle drizzle. I'm getting better at these action shots.

Scrape sides of bowl. Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate dish. Add to mixer and stir just to combine. 

Like most batters, go in stages with the flour. Tap in a little.

Then oops, a little more. 

All right, looks good. Just BARELY mixed, got it? You still have chunks to go. 

Throw in the nuts and then the chocolate chips, let it mix for a minute or two to let the chunks get all the way through the batter. It will be very very dense. Scrape out into a pan lubed with some non-stick spray, and spread evenly. 

It is possible! It's sticky and loaded with stuff, but it will spread! Mmmmm look at all those chunks. 

Bake for 25-30 min, or until a toothpick comes out clean or almost clean. Overbake and your blondies will be very dry. Let cool, then cut and enjoy! 

Golden brown and delicious. Still moist and chewy in the middle.