Sustainable Saturday - New Year's Apple Cake

Tomorrow, the Jewish New Year begins at sunset.  That means it is time to make my version of an amazing apple honey cake.  The original recipe can be found here, and I assure you you don't have to be Jewish to love this cake. 

There are several reasons why I modified the cake the way I did.  First, believe it or not, I do not like confectioner's sugar/liquid type icing.  Even as a child, I would pass up cinnamon rolls and yeast cakes because I never liked the icing drizzled on them.  I can't explain why.  I still don't.  So my version does not have icing.  If you want icing, click the link above.

Second, I've started to use coconut oil more and more as a substitute for oil in my baking   I've never made this cake with anything but coconut oil, and I love it.

Third, instead of the original Granny Smith apples, I prefer tart, local apples.  I'm fortunate to live in New York apple country and there is an abundance of cooking apples grown here.  For Thanksgiving, I make this with  local Northern Spy apples.  Tomorrow I will make it with Gravenstein apples I purchased earlier in the week near North East, Pennsylvania (a town, not a direction).  These are apples dating back to 1797 or even earlier, and have a fascinating history.

Sorry, metric readers, you are on your own with this.

AM's Version of Tori Avey's Apple Honey Cake

3 large eggs (this past week, I was fortunate enough to use free range brown eggs from a local farm)
3/4 cup honey (local buckwheat honey, which is quite dark, and is a good fall honey)
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 1/4 cup unrefined coconut oil melted gently in microwave (this is solid at room temperature)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
3 cups King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon, freshly ground
3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
4 tart baking apples, peeled, cored and shredded (you will also want to use the resulting liquid)

You will bake this in a 9 inch Bundt cake pan.

Method

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

While oven heats, mix the wet ingredients:
In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs until frothy.
Whisk in honey, white and brown sugar, melted coconut oil, and vanilla

Then mix the dry ingredients:
In a smaller bowl, sift together flour, baking power, baking soda, spices.

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stir to blend.  You don't want any dry ingredients, but you also don't want to over beat.

Fold in your shredded apples and liquid from the apples.

Spray your bundt pan with cooking spray, coating the inside evenly.

Now, pour your batter into the pan.  You don't want to overfill (Tory warns you not to fill more than 3/4 full.)  Smooth the batter on the top so that it is flat and even.  You do not want any air pockets.  I press down on the filling gently with a spoonula.

From last year's baking

Bake for approximately 75-90 minutes.  When the edges darken and pull fully away from the sides of the pan, and the cake is browned, test with a toothpick.  This is a moist cake, so you don't want to under cook.  But, you don't want to overcook it, either.

For me, this cake is a wonderful alternative to apple pie.  And, with the apples and honey, it's perfect for a cool almost-fall day.