Spiced Apple Cake with Browned Butter Frosting

(8 inch square cake)

A lot of folks here have fruit trees in their backyards. Since September I've had a steady stream of various types of apples in my kitchen. It seems every time I visit my mum, she sends me home with another bag of them. The last batch of apples I got from her were fairly tart and worked really well in this delicious spiced cake.

The amount of frosting I made was just enough for a thin layer over the top of the cake. I thought that was plenty, however you could easily double the recipe if you prefer more.


dry ingredients
1 1/4 cup whole wheat  pastry flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground anise
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cloves
1/8 tsp mace or nutmeg
1/8 tsp salt

wet ingredients
2/3 cup sour cream
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tbsp unsulphered molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 small eggs or 1 jumbo egg
1 large tart cooking apple, cut into small dice


Preheat oven to 350°F.

Lightly grease an 8 inch square baking pan. Line the greased pan with parchment. Set aside.

Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, anise, allspice, cloves, mace or nutmeg and salt in a large bowl until everything is well combined.  Set aside.

Whisk together the sour cream, oil, molasses, vanilla and eggs until the mixture is smooth in a second bowl. Stir in the chopped apples.

Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients and stir until you have a smooth batter. Spread the batter evenly into the prepared cake pan.

Bake the cake for 35- 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean. Remove the cake from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the pan and allow to cool further.

frosting

3 tbsp butter

about 1 -1 1/3 cups icing sugar

about 2 tsp of  heavy cream

Melt the butter over medium heat and cook until it begins to brown and becomes very fragrant. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

Whisk about 2/3 cup icing sugar into the cooled butter. Add the cream, then another 1/3 cup or so of icing sugar. Add more sugar if needed, to create a spreadable but not too stiff frosting. Add more cream if it seems too stiff.

Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled cake.