Everyone needs an apple cake in their baking repertoire, and this recipe is excellent! The cake is super moist, velvety, slightly tangy from the cream cheese, and loaded with apples…YUMM!
The recipe calls for a 12-cup Bundt pan. My Bundt pan doesn’t say how many cups it holds but rather gives the size (9 3/4″ x 3 3/8″). It can hold 12 cups of water but it’s filled to the rim of the pan. This recipe has a bit too much batter for my pan so I spooned as much into the pan as I could without filling it to the very top (leaving some room for it to expand while baking). Any extra batter can be baked in greased and floured ramekins or muffin tins (they’ll bake in less time, of course).
If you don’t have a Bundt pan, you can use a different baking pan but your baking time will vary. Check out this link for different baking pan size equivalents. Because my oven is old and tempermental, I use the baking time in a recipe as a guideline. Sometimes the item in the oven needs less time, sometimes more time. If you use a different pan size, you’ll need to adjust the baking time.
The apple cake keeps covered at room temperature for several days. Enjoy!
Cream Cheese Apple Cake
-recipe from The Grand Central Baking Book by Piper Davis and Ellen Jackson
Grand Central has baked this cake in every shape and size imaginable: as cupcakes with maple cream cheese frosting, in rounds baked in springform pans, as classic Bundt cakes and currently in long Pullman loaf pans. Because it stays moist for several days, this large cake is tailor-made for a long weekend with friends, providing dessert the first night and leftovers to nibble on for several days to come. Serves 14 to 16.
3 cups (15 ounces) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup (8 ounces, or 2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
12 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups (1 pound, 1.5 ounces) granulated sugar
4 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 pounds tart apples (3 or 4 apples), peeled and diced into 1/2-inch chunks
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and lightly flour a 12-cup Bundt pan.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon into a bowl.
Using a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, cream cheese, and sugar on medium-high speed until the mixture is very light in color –almost white–and the texture is fluffy, about 8 minutes. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once during the process to ensure that the butter is evenly incorporated.
Crack the eggs into a liquid measuring cup and add the vanilla. With the mixer on low speed, slowly pour in the eggs, letting them fall in one at a time and incorporating each egg completely before adding the next. Scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl once or twice during the process.
With the mixer on low speed, add the dry ingredients; stop mixing as soon as the flour is incorporated. Fold the apples in by hand using a stiff spatula, then scrape the batter into the prepared pan.
Bake for 60 to 75 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time. The cake is ready when a wooden skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan. Cool completely, then cover with a thick dusting of confectioners’ sugar.
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Tags: apples, Baking, Breakfast, bundt cake, butter, coffee cake, Cream Cheese Apple Cake, Dessert, Grand Central Bakery
this looks so yummy! my boyfriend loves my mom’s jewish apple cake, but i think this would give her a run for her money!
Nummers. The cake looks terrific. Definitely adding it to my recipe file. 🙂 Thanks for sharing.
Hey Andrea,
This sounds amazing! I have only had apple crisp type desserts, I am excited for a creamier option!
Christine
greatoakcircle.com
Oh WOW…that looks fantastic! What a great dish for guests too! I wish I could taste a slice right now.