apple cake

My favorite time of year is upon us! Fall arrived in Chicago over night last week. It's been amazing. Crisp, cool air with a kiss of sunshine. I love breaking out my sweaters, boots + scarves! I can't believe how fast the Summer flew by. 

September came and went too. Seriously, where did the month go?! I've been crazy busy at work and haven't had a chance to post, sorry!  I feel like I've been saying that to you a lot lately and I'm sorry for that, too!

Will you forgive me if I share a super simple, awesome apple cake? Imagine sticky toffee pudding but with apples and pecans. Top that with a butter sauce (yes, only my mother would come up with something as awesome as a butter sauce) and you've got yourself an amazing fall dessert. And it has apples in it. Fruit makes it a health food, right?! I kid, I kid. 

This cake comes together really quickly once you've peeled and cut your apples. It's a super funky batter in the sense that it's mostly apples with very little cake. Don't panic, it will all be fine! It turns a deep molasses color when it bakes and it smells like fall. It doesn't get better than this for a crisp night. Well, unless it's pumpkin something. Seriously pumpkin may be the best part of fall. Not to worry, there will be lots of pumpkin posts soon. But this apple cake is pretty fantastic. Have I made that clear? 

mamma's apple cake + butter sauce

for the cake:
2 C. flour
2 C. sugar (more or less depending on taste and your apples)
2 t. baking soda
½ t. salt
½ t. nutmeg
½ t. cinnamon
4 C. cubed granny smith apples (5 medium sized apples for me)
½ c. melted butter
2 eggs, beaten
½ C chopped pecans (optional)

for the butter sauce:
¼ C. butter
½ T flour
2/3 C. sugar
½ C. cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

to make the cake:
Preheat oven to 375º.  Peel and chop your apples into bite sized chunks. Really this just depends on your preference but I like between a ¼ inch and ½ inch cube. In a medium sized bowl, combine apple cubes, melted butter, eggs, & pecans. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, nutmeg + cinnamon. Stir with a whisk until combined. Add in your wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Pour into an un-greased 9x12 baking dish and spread evenly (I used parchment paper so I could pull the cake out and make perfect squares - it's really not necessary unless perfect presentation is important to you). Bake at 375º for about 45 minutes until a deep molasses color. 

this is what the batter will look like:

and this is what it will look like when it's done:

to make the butter sauce:
Melt butter, add flour then other ingredients and heat until thick. Add in 1 tsp vanilla and pour over the top of each piece just before serving. This sauce re-heats well. 

improv style:
you can use your favorite baking apple in this recipe - honeycrisp would be fantastic! just avoid the super mealy apples like red & golden delicious.

add in some chopped dates in addition to the nuts. don't like nuts? leave them out! not a fan of pecans? use your favorite! walnuts or almond slivers would be delicious here. 

butter sauce make you cringe? weird. but that's cool. a bourbon caramel sauce would be fantastical! or a brown sugar glaze would work too. really the butter sauce is like a caramel that hasn't been caramelized fully yet. it's pretty amazing. 


  1. This looks tasty, but how much is a cube of butter? 1/2 c?

    1. yes, 1 cube = 1/2 c.

      sometimes i move so fast i forget to do the recipes in the correct format. sorry for the confusion! i'll update the recipe ASAP. thanks for catching that!


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