Autumn Comfort Apple Cake (GF)
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
A moist and delicious apple cake infused with cinnamon and maple and baked to a golden hue. Perfect for autumn and made with naturally gluten free flours.
Author: Kelly
Serves: 8 pieces
Ingredients
- ¾ cup brown rice flour
- ¼ cup almond flour
- 2 Tbsp tapioca flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 500-600 g (just over 1 pound or about 4 apples), peeled and chopped into approximately ¾" cubes
- ½ cup salted butter, melted and cooled to room temp
- 2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1-2 Tbsp brown sugar (or coarse sugar of choice)
- 2 tsp cinnamon (or to taste)
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350 F.
- Remove eggs from fridge.
- Melt butter and allow it to come to room temperature.
- Place apple chunks in a generous sized bowl and sprinkle with lemon juice, brown sugar and cinnamon - toss to coat.
- In a separate medium sized bowl, sift together: brown rice flour, almond flour, tapioca and baking powder until all the lumps are worked out - you can also use a wire whisk for this.
- In a large mixing bowl whisk eggs until they are light and fluffy'ish (you can also use hand mixer for this, you just don't want to over-power it).
- Add maple syrup and vanilla to the eggs and whisk again until combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients to the mixture and whisk a few times until combined and then half the butter mixing again to combine. Repeat with remaining dry ingredients and butter.
- Using a spatula, fold apple chunks into the batter (being sure to scoop out all the yummy wet ingredients).
- Pour the apple cake mixture into a well greased 8" spring-form pan (being sure to grease the bottom as well as the sides). The mixture will be lumpy and bumpy owing to all the delicious apples - some may poke up without being fully submerged in the batter and that's perfectly fine.
- Use your spatula to make the batter uniform'ish (it will not be flat). Tap the cake pan against the counter a couple times to allow the batter to settle and air pockets to dissolve.
- Bake for approx 50-60 minutes or until cake tester inserted into the middle comes out clean.
- Allow the cake to cool on a rack for at least 10 minutes before running a flat knife along edges of the cake and very delicately unlatching the spring-form pan to avoid sticking.
- Allow the cake to cool again until it is just warm or room temperature (the flavors really gather as it cools).
- Slice and enjoy the cake on its own or with your favorite accompaniment - we enjoy cream.
Notes
The Apples: you can use any variety of apple you wish for this recipe but ripe, sweet varieties work especially well in this cake
Type & Size of Pan: if you don't have a spring-form pan you can use a simple cake pan (I strongly recommend lining it with parchment for ease of unmolding/release) for size, I encourage you to stay with 8" -- if you use a larger pan (even 9") you can expect a flatter cake.
The Flour: I experimented with many different flours and combinations of flour for this cake. The original recipe from Dorie Greenspan calls for all purpose flour and you can certainly use that (if you do just skip the tapioca - no need when working with a gluten grain). Whole grain spelt also produced good results (again no need for tapioca) and I would favor it over WG wheat (which tends to be heavier/denser). Something to keep in mind with the WGs generally however is that the cake may brown sooner in the oven so you may wish to tent with a loose foil around the halfway mark to avoid over-browning.
Gluten-Free: I ultimately decided to go with a combination of brown rice and almond flour here - both naturally gluten-free - the crumb holds together nicely with the help of tapioca but still retains some textural resilience which I love and which sets it apart from traditional cake.
Tapioca: If you choose to go with the proposed recipe, I encourage you to use tapioca as suggested (tapioca is a starch extracted from the root of the cassava plant). It plays an important role in the thickening/binding element that supports texture and prevents the cake from turning into a full blown crumble. A bag of tapioca is not expensive and I use it quite a bit in my kitchen not only for GF baking but also as a sauce thickener (either in place of corn starch or whenever something is a little soupier than I would like - for example a crockpot meal - 1 or 2 Tbsp of tapioca whisked in can save the day!).
Sweetness Level of Cake: this is a subtly sweet cake, choosing ripe/sweet apples will help - you can also add a bit more brown sugar to the diced apples if you prefer a little sweeter.
Type & Size of Pan: if you don't have a spring-form pan you can use a simple cake pan (I strongly recommend lining it with parchment for ease of unmolding/release) for size, I encourage you to stay with 8" -- if you use a larger pan (even 9") you can expect a flatter cake.
The Flour: I experimented with many different flours and combinations of flour for this cake. The original recipe from Dorie Greenspan calls for all purpose flour and you can certainly use that (if you do just skip the tapioca - no need when working with a gluten grain). Whole grain spelt also produced good results (again no need for tapioca) and I would favor it over WG wheat (which tends to be heavier/denser). Something to keep in mind with the WGs generally however is that the cake may brown sooner in the oven so you may wish to tent with a loose foil around the halfway mark to avoid over-browning.
Gluten-Free: I ultimately decided to go with a combination of brown rice and almond flour here - both naturally gluten-free - the crumb holds together nicely with the help of tapioca but still retains some textural resilience which I love and which sets it apart from traditional cake.
Tapioca: If you choose to go with the proposed recipe, I encourage you to use tapioca as suggested (tapioca is a starch extracted from the root of the cassava plant). It plays an important role in the thickening/binding element that supports texture and prevents the cake from turning into a full blown crumble. A bag of tapioca is not expensive and I use it quite a bit in my kitchen not only for GF baking but also as a sauce thickener (either in place of corn starch or whenever something is a little soupier than I would like - for example a crockpot meal - 1 or 2 Tbsp of tapioca whisked in can save the day!).
Sweetness Level of Cake: this is a subtly sweet cake, choosing ripe/sweet apples will help - you can also add a bit more brown sugar to the diced apples if you prefer a little sweeter.
Recipe by Inspired Edibles at https://www.inspirededibles.ca/2016/09/autumn-comfort-apple-cake.html