A couple of months ago, just before all non-essential businesses got shut down in NYC, I discovered the truly fabulous apple-honey cake at Epicerie Boulud. My (bad) timing was actually pretty remarkable: had I tried the cake even a couple of days prior, I would have made it back in time to get a second slice. Unfortunately, though, I was too late. So that left me with a serious craving for apple cake and no bakery.
I browsed around online and came across a simple recipe for a French apple cake, which looked easy enough to cut in half (the recipe, that is, not the cake). Amazingly, I even had a 6′ springform pan that I bought a couple of years ago because, in a rare of moment of foresight, I thought that it might come in handy at some unspecified moment in the future.
The cake called for rum, which I didn’t have (I’m not a big fan of alcohol in my desserts, and so I didn’t bother to make a run to one of the oh-so-essential liquor stores that remained open), so I made it without. And it was… good. Solid, but it was missing something. Also, it was just a little too dry.
So I started experimenting. (This is the benefit of making small amounts; you can continually test and tweak, without worrying about ending up with a lot of something that you don’t want to eat.)
First, I tried replacing half the flour with almond meal (blanched almonds thrown in the food processor). That solved the moisture problem, but the taste still needed a bit more oomph.
Then it occurred to me that most of the best apple cakes I’d tasted used walnuts, not almonds, so I swapped the almond meal for walnut meal, and added a dash of maple syrup for good measure. That improved things considerably.
Finally, I spotted a packet of cardamom lying on my counter from my cardamom-coffee phase, and it occurred to me that cardamom might be just the kick the cake needed. So I threw in a little bit, and bingo! That was exactly what it needed.
I’m giving the recipe in the half-size version, since that’s what I’ve been making, but to make a full-size cake, just double the amounts. It’s super easy and incredibly good.
Cardamom Apple-Walnut Cake
1 apple, coarsely chopped. Any hard, sweet-tart baking apple can be used; I find that Braeburn and Pink Lady work well.
1/4 cup, plus a few extra tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup walnut meal (blend walnut meats in food processor until finely ground)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 stick butter, softened (I use salted butter, but you can use unsalted if you prefer a blander cake)
1 egg
1/4 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line 6′ cake pan (preferably springform) with wax paper and grease sides if not covered by paper.
Combine 1/4 cup flour, walnut meal, baking powder, salt, and cardamom in a bowl.
In a separate mixing bowl, cream sugar and butter with a mixer. Blend in the egg and the vanilla. Add the dry ingredients; when well combined, stir in the apples and add the mixture to the cake pan. If the batter seems runny, add in some of the extra flour.
Bake for approx. 30 minutes. Cake should be slightly brown around the edges when done.