Fresh Apple Cake With Caramel Glaze

May I present to you a long overdue but much looked forward to recipe for Fresh Apple Cake. You will enjoy chunks of apples and nuts, butter, mouth watering spices, butter, a homemade caramel glaze, and more butter.

Remember to always read the entire recipe before starting, and always check back on it during the process of making your cake. 

I hope you enjoy this delicious cake and come to love it like I do.
Don't forget to enjoy my Lemon Pound Cake and Triple Chocolate Brownie Cake as well.

Step 1: Ingredients

First things first: Go Wash Your Hands! Cleanliness is always appreciated when cooking.

Ingredients for the Cake
1 1/2 Cups Butter (3 sticks) - room temperature
1 Cup White Sugar
1 Cup Brown Sugar
3 Large Eggs - room temperature
2 1/2 Cups Self Rising Flour
4 Medium (or 3 large) Apples
1 Cup Nuts (chopped) - walnuts or pecans are my favorite
2 teaspoons Vanilla Extract
2 teaspoons Cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves
3/4 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg

Ingredients for the Caramel Glaze:
1/2 Cup Butter (1 stick)
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar

Step 2: Tools for the Job

You are going to need:

A mixer, or a mixing bowl and a strong arm
Measuring Spoons
Measuring Cups
Knife (not shown)
Peeler (I love mine since it cores, peels, and slices all at once)
Cake Pan of some sort
Some spray oil
Ziploc bag (or something like it)

Optional
A friend to do the dishes

Step 3: Lets Start on the Cake

Go ahead and preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit .

Peel, core, and cut your apples into small pieces. Place those in the Ziploc bag and set them aside for now.
If your nuts aren't chopped, chop them up. Place those in the Ziploc bag too.

In your mixer, cream 1 1/2 Cups of room temperature Butter (3 sticks), 1 Cup of white granulated Sugar, and 1 Cup of Brown Sugar.
First the butter and sugar will lump up into a ball. Keep mixing until the butter and sugar are completely incorporated and usually they'll stick to the bowl. The finished product should be like grainy peanut butter.

Step 4: Keep Adding Ingredients

Next you will need to add your spices and eggs to the mixer.

Add 3 large eggs, 2 tsp of vanilla, 2 tsp of cinnamon, 3/4 tsp ground cloves, 3/4 tsp nutmeg.

Mix Mix Mix
Start mixing slowly so that the powdered spices don't just fly out. Speed it up to get everything incorporated.

Step 5: Apples and Nuts

Get your bag of apples and nuts out.
Put a little flour in the bag, about 1/8 of a cup or just enough to lightly coat everything.
The flour will help keep the apples and nuts from sinking into the batter while it cooks.

Zip the bag up and

SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE
SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE
Shake your baggy

Put the floured apples and nuts into the mixer and give that a good mix to get everything incorporated.

Step 6: Last Cake Ingredient

Get your measuring cups and your self rising flour out.
Add 1/2 to 1 Cup of flour at a time and mix it into the batter.
Keep adding until you have a total of 2 1/2 Cups of Self Rising Flour added to the batter.
Turn your mixer up and mix well.

Your batter will change from dark lumpy goop to light, slightly fluffy goop. Your batter will also be rather thick, so don't get flustered by it.  It will be easy to spoon out, not runny like a typical yellow cake mix.

Step 7: Cake Pan Time

If you haven't already, get your cake pan out.

Spray some oil into the pan and dust it with flour. You could alternatively use shortening or even more butter.
Shake out the excess flour since you don't want flour lumps on the outside of your cake.

Spoon your cake batter into the pan and spread it evenly.
Make sure you also bang your cake pan down a few times to release any trapped air bubbles.

Step 8: Bake Bake Bake

Put your cake pan on the middle rack of the oven and close the oven door.
You'll need to cook this cake for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, so set your timer.

I like to put this particular cake pan on a cookie sheet so that the bottom doesn't overcook/burn.

Step 9: Wait...

While you wait for your cake to bake find that optional friend.
Ask him or her if he or she would like a big piece of apple cake.
If he or she says yes, tell them they'll have to work for it by washing all those dishes you just made.

If you aren't lucky and/or don't have an optional friend to wash dishes, then you just found something to do for the next hour.

DO NOT skip ahead and make the Caramel Glaze while the cake cooks. It sets quickly and by the time the cake is done all you'll have is a pot of really thick and almost unusable caramel goop. It will taste good but you'll ruin your dinner and you'll have to make it again anyways.

Other things to read about:
This cake recipe can be made with all white granulated sugar. I like the added taste of the brown sugar.
This cake recipe can be made with cooking oil instead of butter. I like the taste of butter.
The Caramel Glaze still needs to be made with butter and brown sugar.

Substitutions:
The nuts are optional, they just taste good.
If you do not have brown sugar you can make your own:
To make one cup of packed light brown sugar mix together 1 cup of white granulated sugar and 1 1/2 Tablespoons of molasses. For dark brown sugar use up to 4 Tablespoons of molasses.

Step 10: Time Is Up

Your timer should be beeping/ringing/whatever it does and that means you need to check your cake.

Open up your oven and poke the cake with a broom straw, or really long toothpick, or if you're lucky you have one of those metal cake testers. I personally used an ice pick.
There should be no cake on the pick when you take it out. Don't be alarmed if you poke an apple. The top of the cake should be browned and cracked. The edges of the cake should have pulled away from the sides of the cake pan.

If your cake does not meet these criteria, use your judgement and put the cake back carefully. Watch it closely until you deem it done.

I like to turn off the oven and leave the cake in for another 10 minutes so that a nice crust forms.
Once the time is up take your cake out and put it on a cooling rack.

Step 11: Caramel Glaze

While your cake is resting get your pan, a spoon of some sort, 1 stick of butter, 2 teaspoons of milk, and 1/2 Cup of packed brown sugar.

Put the ingredients in the pan, turn your burner on medium high, and begin to stir.
Keep stirring.
Bring the mixture to a low rolling boil and keep stirring for about 2-3 minutes. You want the sugar crystals to completely dissolve and the Caramel Glaze to slightly thicken.

Take the glaze off of the heat and go back to your cake.

Step 12: First Glazing

For the first glazing, you will want to poke holes in your cake (This is another reason I used the ice pick). This is optional but highly recommended.

Slather some of the hot Caramel Glaze onto the top of the hot cake and let it sink into the holes.
You can also paint the sides of the cake at this time.
Don't use all of the glaze up though. Save some of the glaze and set it aside to cool and thicken.

Step 13: Second Glazing

After a few minutes the rest of the Caramel Glaze should be cooler and thicker.
Apply the glaze to the top of the cake.

Congratulations

You've just finished making a delicious Fresh Apple Cake with Caramel Glaze.
I find that this cake is best after it has cooled and settled in the refrigerator overnight. It also makes it easier to cut.
If you can't wait that long, at least wait an hour so that you don't burn your mouth on the molten lava apples inside. Trust me, not being able to taste anything for a week isn't worth the one bite.