From the 'Burg to Your Kitchen

It’s apple season! Apples always take me back to the first week of school and the old saying, “A is for apple.” Although that can be somewhat frowned upon in the new education system, for me, it’s a tried and true way to teach my preschoolers all about letter A.

This year, several of our classrooms at Bright Beginnings have been busy making all kinds of apple desserts, and that got me thinking: I need a new cake recipe, and this recipe luckily fell on my lap. So delicious!

Apple Spice Cake

Ingredients:

4 medium Honeycrisp apples, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 cups sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

2 large eggs

2 tsp. vanilla

2 cups flour

1 Tbsp. pumpkin pie spice

2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees; line the bottoms of 2 greased round baking pans with parchment – grease parchment. Place apples in food processor and pulse until finely chopped. In a large bowl, beat sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla until blended. In another bowl, whisk flour, pie spice, baking powder and salt; gradually beat into sugar mixture alternately with buttermilk. Fold in apples and walnuts.

Transfer to prepared pans; bake 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick or knife comes out clean. After removing from cakes from oven, set a timer for 10 minutes before removing cakes from baking pans. Cool completely.

Brown Sugar Frosting

Ingredients:

1 package cream cheese softened

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Directions:

In a large bowl, beat cream cheese, butter, sugars, vanilla and pie spice until smooth. Spread frosting between layers and over top of cooled cake.