Apple Nut Cake
A tender apple cake layered with spiced nuts, raisins and a caramelized cinnamon-sugar topping for a sweet, fruit-filled slice.
Prep 30 min · Cook 1 hr 15 min · Total 4 hr 45 min · Makes 1 8-inch square cake (9 servings)
Ingredients
- For the topping: 1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon or a combination of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, and ginger
- For the cake:
- 3 eggs
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup matzo cake meal
- 5 medium apples, peeled, cored, halved, and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices, preferable Golden Delicious, Crispin, or other apples that keep their shape when cooked
- 1/3 cup raisins, optional
Directions
- Set a rack in the middle of the oven, then heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Coat an 8-inch square glass baking dish lightly with oil. For the topping, combine the walnuts, sugar, and cinnamon in a small bowl, then put it aside.
- For the batter, place the eggs in a bowl and beat them with a hand-held electric mixer on medium speed until they are evenly blended. Add the sugar gradually, about 2 tablespoons at a time, and keep beating until the mixture turns thick and foamy. Pour in the oil in a steady stream while beating, then use a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl.
- Use the spatula to fold in the matzo cake meal, mixing until it is fully incorporated.
- Spread half of the batter in the prepared dish.
- Scatter about half of the topping over the batter in an even layer. Add half of the apples, then all of the raisins. Spoon the rest of the batter over the apples and gently spread it so the apples are covered. Place the remaining apples over the batter, then finish with the rest of the topping, sprinkled evenly across the top.
- Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the cake has just started to shrink a little from the edges of the dish and the topping is beginning to caramelize. A cake tester will not tell you much here; because the cake is so moist, it will not come out clean. Leave the cake in the baking dish for several hours, until it is fully cool, before slicing it into portions. This is another Yiddish food that imp0rovves as it sits. Store it in the dish, tightly covered with plastic, and by the next day the topping will be soft, moist, and candy-like.