When I read Flour: Spectacular Recipes from Boston’s Flour Bakery + Cafe, the recipe for Apple Snacking Spice Cake jumped out at me as a must-make. I made an apple cake once before that was delicious, but didn’t include the ginger and cloves.
I cut the recipe in half in order to use my smaller 6-inch cake pan, which I bought so we wouldn’t have so much cake sitting around the house. It came together really well at this size. It’s not too rich or sweet, and is a really pleasant little cake, somewhat similar to an unfrosted carrot cake. It would also be good with some vanilla ice cream, or perhaps a caramel sauce.
This recipe calls for some cake flour, but in the future I may try it with all soft white wheat flour and avoid the processed white flour.
6-inch Ginger Spice Apple Cake
Makes one 6-inch round cake. Adapted from Flour by Joanne Chang.
Ingredients
- 70 grams soft white wheat flour
- 45 grams cake flour
- 3/4 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/16 teaspoon ground cloves
- 150 grams granulated sugar
- 85 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 2 medium peeled, cored and chopped Granny Smith apples
- 40 grams raisins
- 50 grams pecan halves, toasted and chopped
- Confectioners’ sugar for dusting
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350° and put a rack in the middle. Prepare 6×3-inch cake pan by buttering and flouring the inside.
- Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves the bowl of a stand mixer. Using the paddle attachment (or beater blade), beat the granulated sugar and butter into the flour for about a minute or until it’s well mixed. Scrape down the sides as necessary.
- Add the egg, and mix on low for 10-15 seconds or until well mixed. Then beat on medium-high until the batter is light and fluffy (about a minute).
- Fold in the apples, raisins, and pecans. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look like enough batter for the apples — once it bakes things balance out.
- Spread into cake pan and bake for 45 minutes or until it’s firm in the middle and a toothpick comes out clean. The top should be a medium to dark brown, and the center shouldn’t jiggle.
- Cool on a rack, in the pan, for about 15 minutes. As it cools, the cake will come away from the pan edges a bit and make it easy to overturn onto the rack. After removing it from the pan, turn it back over so it’s right-side up and dust with some confectioners’ sugar.
- Cover the cake well and store at room temp, eating within a few days, or wrap it well and freeze it for up to 2 weeks.
