Apples aren’t special enough for showstopper desserts…said no one ever.
This Vanilla Pound Cake With Apples is a case in point. Your guests won’t be able to stop talking about how wonderfully the apples complement the vanilla cake.
This recipe is adapted from a recipe in Joanne Chang’s Pastry Love cookbook (available here ). Per her recipe, I used Granny Smith apples on my cake.
The Granny Smith apple is an oldie in the apple world. It has been around since 1868 when it was developed by…d’oh!…Granny Smith. Smith apparently discovered the seedlings in her compost pile in Sydney, Australia, where she tossed apple scraps and seeds. If that’s not serendipity…
The rest is history, of course. The Granny Smith has been a consistent top performer in the apple world ever since. With high acid levels in the fruit, it has proven to be excellent for baking as well as for eating raw…the perfect apple.
Let’s not rest on our laurels, though. There is a new apple in town and I’m thinking it also would be great in this recipe.
It’s a Cosmic Crisp apple, so named because it’s red skin is flecked with yellow dots reminiscent of stars glittering dimly in some distant galaxy.
The Cosmic Crisp, a cross between the disease resistant Enterprise apple and the mega-hit Honey Crisp apple, is just coming on to the market. It was developed at Washington State University in cooperation with Washington state apple growers. So far, twelve million trees have been planted and growers expect Cosmic Crisp apples to be widely available in 2020 and 2021. Some have been available this year but I haven’t been able to score any. Stay tuned.
I’m sure Granny would approve of a little experimentation.
Here’s the recipe.
Save RecipeIngredients
- 1/2 C. (1 stick) unsalted butter
- 3 T. heavy cream
- 1/2 t. vanilla extract (I used vanilla paste)
- 3 large eggs (at room temperature)
- 3/4 C. superfine sugar (I blitzed granulated sugar in my blender)
- 1 1/4 C. cake flour (sifted after measuring)
- 1/2 t. baking powder
- 1/4 t. kosher salt
- 1 medium Granny Smith apple (peeled, cored and thinly sliced)
- 1 T. powdered sugar (for garnish)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and prepare a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan by lining it with parchment. Us a long enough piece of parchment so that you have parchment "handles" hanging over the long sides of the pan. Those "handles" will help you remove the cake from the pan after the cake has cooled.
- Melt butter in a saucepan. Whisk in cream and vanilla extract (or paste). Take pan off heat and let butter mixture cool to room temperature.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer and using the whisk attachment, whisk eggs and sugar for 4 to 5 minutes on medium high speed until the mixture has thickened and is a light lemony yellow color.
- Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together. Once the egg/sugar mixture is ready, gradually fold the flour mixture into the egg mixture by hand using a spatula. Then, take several large dollops of this batter mixture and stir it into the room temperature butter mixture. Next, fold all of the lightened butter mixture into the batter. Continue gently folding the butter mixture into the batter until everything is completely combined but, at the same time, being careful to fold gently. Keeping as much air in your batter as you can by gently folding the ingredients together will yield a lighter crumb in your cake.
- Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Arrange thin apple slices across the top of the batter in two rows and bake for 50 to 60 minutes in your preheated 350 degree F. oven. Your cake will be done when the top is a pretty golden brown, is firm when you press on the top and when a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake comes out clean.
- Remove cake from oven and let it cool (in the loaf pan) on a rack. Garnish with powdered sugar. This is a light and very tender (and delicious) cake. Slice it only after it is thoroughly cooled and use a serrated knife. Slice the cake slowly and carefully because this is a very tender cake. I thought the flavor of this cake was best on the second day.
