“Award Winning” Apple Almond Cake
Last week at Apple Fest's bakeoff, my son and I entered one of my favorite apple recipes - Apple Almond Cake. We didn't win first place (can't really compete with an apple pie, can you) but we did receive an honorable mention, so I'm interpreting that to mean this cake is still award winning. Bonus! This recipe is modified from a Cooking Light recipe, so it's basically zero calories and super healthy for you...
Ingredients
1 ¾ cups sugar, divided
½ cup stick butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tsp almond extract
6 ounces cream cheese, softened (reduced fat, fat free or full fat all work)
2 eggs (large eggs are best for baking)
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
3 cups chopped + peeled apple (about 2 large - I don't worry if the apple chunks are diff sizes, it all works out in the cake)
Cooking spray
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°. Beat 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter, vanilla, almond extract and cream cheese at medium speed of a mixer until well-blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture to creamed mixture, beating at low speed until blended.
Combine 1/4 cup sugar and cinnamon. Combine 2 tablespoons cinnamon mixture and apple in a bowl, and stir apple mixture into batter. Pour batter into an 8-inch springform pan (I highly, highly recommend this springform pan. It's foolproof and does a great job preventing spills in your oven.) coated with cooking spray, and sprinkle with remaining cinnamon mixture.
Bake at 350° for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cake pulls away from the sides of the pan (this cake is done in one hour in my oven, so I recommend checking for doneness at the hour mark). Cool the cake completely on a wire rack, and cut using a serrated knife.
