Spiced Apple Walnut Cake with Apple Caramel Sauce
This tasty apple cake will be a fall favorite. No stand mixer is needed, and it stays nice and moist up to 5 days at room temperature or 8 days refrigerated. I use a crisp, tart apple that can hold up to baking, like Granny Smith or Braeburn.
Serves 12
3 eggs
1 c olive oil, or grapeseed, avocado, canola, or safflower
1 c granulated sugar
3⁄4 c brown sugar
2 t vanilla bean paste, or extract
1 t apple cider vinegar
2 1⁄2 c all-purpose flour
1 t baking soda
3⁄4 t kosher salt
2 t ground cinnamon
4 large, firm apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1⁄3 c apple butter, homemade or purchased
1 c toasted walnuts, chopped
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Carefully butter a 12 cup bundt pan, dust with flour and tap out excess.
Combine flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium bowl and stir to mix. In a large bowl, whisk eggs, oil, sugars, vanilla, and apple cider vinegar. Whisk vigorously until the batter lightens, about 2 minutes. Gradually fold in the flour mixture and stir just until combined. Fold in the apples, apple butter, and walnuts. Transfer mixture to the prepared pan and smooth the top.
Bake 50-60 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly. Let cool for 30 minutes in the pan, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Drizzle with caramel sauce (recipe below).
Apple Caramel Sauce
1 c granulated sugar
1⁄2 t cream of tartar
1⁄4 c water
1⁄4 c apple cider, or juice
1⁄4 c heavy cream
1⁄4 t kosher salt
1 T apple cider vinegar
2 T butter
2 t vanilla bean paste, or extract
Place sugar, cream of tartar, and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring, until sugar dissolves. Raise heat to medium high and cook without stirring until the caramel becomes amber in color, 8-10 minutes. Remove from heat and slowly add cider, heavy cream, salt, and apple cider vinegar (be careful because it will bubble up furiously) and stir. Once caramel is smooth, add the butter, stirring to melt and combine. Pour sauce into a heat-proof 2-cup measure to cool, then stir in vanilla. Let it cool to room temperature, then drizzle over cooled cake, and transfer the remainder to a jar. It will keep refrigerated for a month.