Apple Walnut Cake with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
This cake has the textural qualities of dense moist carrot cake but possesses the sweetness of fresh juicy apples, is subtly sweet and loaded with apples and walnuts. It comes together quickly and reminds us just how marvelous autumn baking is!
- Yields
10 - 12 portions
Ingredients
- CAKE -
- Sugar, granulated - 2 cups
- Vegetable or Canola oil - 1 1/2 cups
- Eggs - 3
- All-purpose flour, sifted - 3 cups
- Cinnamon - 1 1/2 tsp
- Baking soda - 1 tsp
- Salt - 3/4 tsp
- Walnuts, shelled, divided (1½ cup coarsely chopped; the remaining left whole for decorating the top of the cake) - 2 - 2 1/2 cups
- SnapDragon apples, peeled, coarsely chopped - 2 heaping cups
- FROSTING -
- Cream cheese, room temperature - 8 oz
- Butter, room temperature - 6 Tbsp
- Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
- Confectioners' sugar, sifted - 3 cups
- Cinnamon, ground - 1 1/2 tsp
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 F and grease two 9-inch round cake pans. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat sugar and oil until fully combined. It will be thick
- Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Sift together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Add to the egg mixture and mix until well blended.
- Add coarsely chopped walnuts and apples and stir into batter until pieces are evenly distributed.
- Pour batter into the cake pans. Bake for 1 - 1¼ hours, or until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Let cakes rest for at least 10 minutes, then remove from pans and cool on a rack for at least 2 hours, until completely cooled.
- In the meantime, prepare frosting.
- In a medium mixing bowl, cream together cream cheese and butter.
- Add vanilla then slowly sift in confectioners' sugar and cinnamon and continue beating until fully incorporated. Mixture should be smooth.
- When cake is cooled, frost center, top, and sides with frosting.
- Decorate the top with whole walnuts.
- Serve.