This is a most delicious devil’s food cake. Combined with raspberries this layer 
cake is off the chain, as Ben says!
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 ¼ cup boiling water
¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
¾ cup whole wheat pastry flour (more…)
If I have three super ripe bananas, I just can’t do anything except make Banana Bread (especially if my mom is in town).
1 stick softened butter
½ cup turbinado sugar (or light brown sugar) (more…)
When I asked my son what he wanted me to make for a little tea party we were having, he said “really, really, really
good apple cake.” I said ok, and here it is.
I found this recipe to be very quick – I just threw everything into the mixer bowl, one by one. It is also quite forgiving. I forgot to add the apples to the batter and instead put them on top of the batter once it was in the pan. I only had ¼ cup of nuts for the topping instead of ¾ and I also forgot to put the cinnamon in the topping, and sprinkled it on top instead. No one had a clue how scatterbrained I was that morning – they just wanted the recipe.
Take the butter, yoghurt and egg out in advance to soften. Adjust oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter the bottom and sides of a 10 –inch spring form pan.
First prep the apples and let cool.
Sauté in
1 T butter,
2 large apples, peeled and chopped into ¼ inch dice. (I did this the night before).
Sprinkle the bottom of the pan with:
breadcrumbs, flour or cornmeal, shaking light to coat, tap out excess.
Whisk in a large mixing bowl until blended:
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup plus 2 T granulated sugar
1t salt
Add to flour mix:
10 T unsalted butter, softened but still cool, cut into pieces and then cut in a little with a pastry cutter or two knives. Then blend with your mixer until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Remove 1 cup of this mixture and save for topping.
Whisk into the flour mixture in the mixing bowl:
1 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
Then add:
¾ cup plain yoghurt (not low fat) or buttermilk at room temperature
1 egg, room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
Whisk vigorously until the batter is thick, smooth, fluffy, and frosting-like, about 2 minutes.
Fold sautéed apples into batter. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Add to reserved crumbs of flour, sugar, and butter:
¾ cup walnuts or pecans, chopped fine
½ cup dark brown sugar, packed
2 t cinnamon
Toss with fork or your fingers until blended. Sprinkle the crumbs over the batter, pressing lightly so that they adhere.
Bake the cake until the center is firm and a cake tester comes out clean, 50-55 minutes. Transfer cake to wire rack; remove the sides of the pan. Let the cake cool completely, about 2 hours, before serving. When completely cool, the cake can be slid off the pan bottom onto a serving plate.
Enjoy. We sure did!
This is the Apple-Cinnamon variation of the Old-Fashioned Crumb Coffeecake from Cook’s Illustrated.
Here’s to 2011. This cake is so good that I’ve made it three times since New Year’s Eve! The diet starts next week…
Grating the lemon takes some time and if you are not careful, some of your knuckles. Mine is still sore but the sacrifice was worth it.
Finely grated zest from 3 lemons plus 3 T lemon juice
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 t baking powder
½ t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t vanilla extract
¾ cup buttermilk
3 large eggs plus 1 yolk, at room temperature
2 ¼ sticks (18 T) unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 cups sugar
2-3 T lemon juice
1 T buttermilk
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
NOTE: You will need 5-6 T of lemon juice in total if you are making the glaze. Three lemons should be enough, but buy 4 just in case since the amount of juice in each lemon can vary.
Finely grate lemon zest (just the yellow part, not the bitter white pith) from three lemons. Combine with 3 T of lemon juice in small bowl and set aside to soften.
Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Heat over to 350 degrees.
Coat bundt pan with butter and a little flour.
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.
Combine vanilla and buttermilk with lemon mixture.
In standing mixer fitted with flat beater, cream butter and sugar at medium high speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down sides, reduce speed to medium and add one egg at a time. Scrape down sides again, reduce to low and add about one-third of flour mixture, followed by half of lemon mixture, mixing until just incorporated. Repeat using half of remaining flour mixture and all of remaining lemon mixture. Scrape bowl and add remaining flour mixture. Mix and medium-low until batter is thoroughly combined, about 15 seconds. Fold batter into prepared bundt pan.
Bake until top is golden brown and knife or toothpick inserted into center comes out with no crumbs attached, 50-60 minutes.
While cake is baking, whisk 2 tablespoons lemon juice, buttermilk and confectioners’ sugar until smooth, adding more lemon juice gradually as needed until glaze is thick but still pourable (mixture should leave faint trial across bottom of mixing bowl when drizzled from whisk).
Cool cake in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes, then invert warm cake directly onto the rack. Pour half of glaze over warm cake and let cool 1 hour. Pour remaining glaze evenly over top of cake and continue to cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours. Enjoy!
Cook’s Illustrated, January & February 2006