it’s easy to see that pumpkin is the celebrity food of the month.
but i’ll go ahead and make my confession: i prefer the understudy… the modest apple.
i love apples. i love them as a snack, just raw and smeared in peanut butter. i love them cooked into a lemony applesauce. in a pie. covered and coated in caramel and chocolate. baked into fruit leather. i guess if you follow this little blog, it may not be much of a confession after all.
when we lived in charlottesville, we were just down the road from thomas jefferson’s monticello. those fertile soils that jefferson cared for and toiled over, growing hundreds of plants, herbs, fruits, and vegetables, are still bursting with life. he really was a gardening genius… a renaissance man at heart.
just down the road from his beautiful homestead is an orchard we visited often. carter mountain orchard was the best little u-pick spot, up on a mountain, overlooking the city and the blue ridge mountains. we’d go and fill our baskets full of freshly picked apples. a slice of heaven…
i know there are some incredible orchards surrounding us now. we need to venture out some more and discover them. (though i’ll admit charlottesville’s scenes spoiled me a bit.) maybe that needs to be on the docket for this weekend …
nonetheless, i firmly believe that on a fall table, apples deserve a pedestal. this lovely, cream-cheese glazed cake is the perfect way.
apple pecan cake
Ingredients
For Cake:
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1 cup peeled finely chopped apples
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup butter softened
- 2 cups sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 245 grams 1 3/4 cups kumquat's gluten-free all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 8-ounce container sour cream
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
For Glaze:
- 3 ounces cream cheese softened
- 2 1/2 teaspoons milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
Instructions
To make cake:
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Combine first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl; set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add eggs; beat to combine.
- Combine flour, baking power, xanthan gum, and salt in a medium bowl. Add flour mixture gradually to butter mixture, alternating with sour cream. Begin and end with flour mixture. Mix until well blended. Stir in vanilla.
- Pour half of batter into well-greased 12-cup Bundt pan. Spoon apple-pecan mixture evenly over batter. Top evenly with remaining batter, using a spatula if necessary to spread out the batter.
- Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes; remove to a wire rack and let cool completely.
To make Glaze:
- Combine all ingredients; beat until smooth. Spoon glaze evenly over cooked cake.
* recipe adapted from the southern living homestyle cookbook i worked on years ago.
