Lyons Family Cookbook

Caramel Apple Cake

BUTTERMILK CAKE LAYERS :

2

cups

sugar

3/4

cup

unsalted butter, room temperature, 1 1/2 sticks

5

egg whites, lightly blended

2 3/4

cups

flour

1/2

tsp

baking soda

1/2

tsp

table salt

1

cup

buttermilk

2

tsp

vanilla extract

SPICED APPLE FILLING:

3

Granny Smith apples, peeled, thinly sliced

1/4

cup

sugar

1

tsp

ground cinnamon

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Pinch of Salt

3

Tbs

apple juice or water

CARAMEL ICING:

2

cups

sugar

1

cup

unsalted butter, cubed (2 sticks)

1/2

cup

buttermilk

1

tsp

baking soda

1

tsp

fresh lemon juice

Pinch of salt

GARNISH:

Chopped dry roasted peanuts

1

--- CAKE LAYERS --- Preheat oven to 350° with rack in the center. Grease two 9" round cake pans with non-stick spray. Line with rounds of parchment paper, spray again, and dust with flour.

2

Cream sugar and butter in a large mixing bowl until light.

3

Gradually add egg whites, beating until well blended.

4

Sift flour baking soda and salt.

5

Combine buttermilk and vanilla. Add 1/3 of the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix just until blended. Add 1/2 the buttermilk mixture and blend just to incorporate. Scrape the bowl, add half the remaining flour, and blend. Scrape the bowl again, then add the remaining buttermilk. Fold in the last of the flour by hand, making sure no flour is at the bottom.

6

Divide batter amont prepared pans, about 2 1/2 cups per pan. Bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool cakes on a rack for 5 minutes, turn out onto a cooling rack, and peel off the parchment. Cool before filling and frosting.

7

--- SPICED APPLE FILLING --- Sauté apples in butter over medium-high heat with sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice, and salt. Cook until fruit begins to caramelize around the edges, about 15 minutes. Stir periodically, but not so much that the apples don't caramelize.

8

Deglaze with juice, stir, and cook another 2-3 minutes, or until liquid is nearly (but not totally) evaporated. Cool apples before filling cake.

9

--- CARAMEL ICING --- Boil all ingredients (except for the peanuts) in a tall, heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring until butter melts and mixture starts to boil. Cook, stirring occasionally, until icing caramelizes, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and cool 5 minutes. It will continue to caramelize off heat.

10

Beat icing with a hand mixer until lighter in color and thick, about 5 minutes. It should be liquid enough to drip down the sides of the cake.

11

--- ASSEMBLE THE CAKE --- Once the icing is beaten, you have to put the cake together quickly. If you wait, the icing will stiffen and make for problematic spreading. However if it does thicken a bit, just thin it out with a teaspoon or two of buttermilk or milk. Achieving the ideal consistency is tricky, but the perfect icing will flow from a spoon in a thick stream when poured.

12

To assemble, start by spreading about one cup of icing over one of the cake layers. Push the icing to the edges but don't force it to drip over. It will happen naturally when the apple filling and the second cake layer are positioned on top.

13

Now carefully arrange the apple filling on the icing. Get the apples as close to the edge as possible without spilling over. If there's any juice left in the sauté pan, drizzle it over the apples --- it'll soak into the top cake layer.

14

Place the second cake layer on the first, then pour the remaining icing on top. Working quickly, spread it to the edge and gently push it over so it drips down. Finally, press the nuts into the icing on top, don't just sprinkle them on. A thin, sugary crust keeps the nuts from sticking unless they're firmly pressed in.

15

For super-clean slices, use an electric knife to cut the cake. If you don't have one, use a sharp knife and clean the blade after each cut. That way, the icing won't stick so much.

Homemade cake just may become a thing of the past. It's a shame, but with all sorts of cookbooks touting the magic of mixes, it's no surprise. But before you forever swear off baking a cake from scratch, give this one a try. Even though it has three components (cake, filling, icing), none are difficult to execute. A single taste just may convince you to ban cake mixes from your kitchen! Caramel cake is a Southern tradition consisting simply of white cake frosted with a super-sweet caramel icing. This is one cake that's invited to (and shows up at) nearly every party. Where there is food, there is caramel cake -- potlucks, picnics, church suppers, everywhere. The big difference between that traditional cake and this one is a layer of tart, spicy sauteed apples in the middle. It is a departure from tradition, but given how perfectly suited caramel and apples are to each other, it's not a big leap at all.

Tips

--- Baking the Cake --- This cake is easy, but it does need more attention that a boxed mix. Here is what to look out for.

CREAMING: Properly creaming the butter and sugar aerates the batter and gives the cake a finer texture. To do it right, the butter must be room temperature, not hard or squishy, and the creaming time long, 4-5 minutes.

ADDING INGREDIENTS: Add the egg whites a little at a time so they thoroughly blend into the butter. And by alternately adding dry and wet ingredients, the batter resists curdling (which is bad for the cake's flavor and texture).

OVERMIXING: Take care not to ovemix the batter. It develops gluten (a protein), making the cake tough, and causes tunnel-like holes to form. To prevent it, add the last of the flour by hand.

BAKING AND COOLING: Bake the cakes until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool them in the pans a bit before turning out to cool completely --- do not assemble the cake with warm layers (they're not sturdy enough to support each other). Cooled, the layers may be frozen for up to a month.

Source

Author: www.CusineAtHome.com