Spiced Apple Cake

Fall has arrived! Living in Savannah, that means I put on long sleeves and boots and just sweat my way through the heat, hoping the weather starts to cool down sometime before Christmas. That, and I start putting nutmeg in everything. So, I thought I would pass the fall flavors along to my daughter in a spiced apple cake. Plus, I had the idea that she would be helpful in cutting up the apples with her crinkle cutter while standing on her new toddler tower. Spoiler alert…she cut three apple slices, ate over half of the apple I was planning on using in the recipe, and then cried from boredom after two and a half minutes. Maybe that’s why you never see toddler sous chefs in restaurants. They really just aren’t that helpful.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup oat flour (you can make your own by blitzing oats in the food processor until smooth-ish)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/4 tsp cloves
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup milk (I used oat milk)
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1/2 Gala apple, cut into small cubes

The Process

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Put the half stick of butter into a 5 inch cake pan and put in oven to melt while preheating (lazy baker tip). In a mixing bowl, combine flours, spices, baking powder, and baking soda. Whisk in vanilla extract, applesauce, egg, and milk until just combined. Remove cake pan from oven once butter is melted. Swirl the butter around edges of pan to grease it and pour butter out into cake mixture. Whisk until just combined. Pour half of the batter mixture into the cake pan. Sprinkle about half of cubed apple onto batter then add rest of batter mixture on top. Top batter with the remaining cubed apple. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.