Happiness Project#89: Apple Cinnamon Cake!

It’s amazing to me how quickly this year flew by! Just 4 months ago I celebrated my 1 year cancer-free anniversary, and now it’s the end of November! Which means not only my favorite time of the year, because of massive baking sprees, but also new beginnings for my little family of three. A new beginning, taking us from the Bay Area, where we’ve lived for over 15 years together, to just a short hop, skip, and a jump away to Santa Cruz!

My husband is a surfer, and since we are a total beach family, we finally decided this year to follow one of our dreams, and travel over the hill to a beautiful, very family oriented neighborhood community, located less than 10 minutes from my husband’s favorite beach.  Although leaving the SJ area where I’ve grown up, leaves me a bit sad, I’m beyond excited about beginning my new adventure as a wife, mom, and pastry chef within a lovely new beach community! And becoming home owners for the 1st time is super exciting, too! Once we’re more settled in, I’ll post a couple photos of our new house!

However, because of the chaos of packing and moving, I haven’t had much time to bake or blog new recipes. Until Thanksgiving last week, when I FINALLY created THIS Apple Cinnamon Loaf Cake! I’ve had this recipe sitting on stand-by for months, and I’m not going to lie, it was well worth the wait! Super easy to create, particularly if you’re a family with little kiddos who like to help out too.  And it’s heavenly aroma of sweet apples and warm cinnamon? A-MAZING.

Here you go!

For the Cake:

2 cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup whole milk

For the Apple Filling:

2 Gala Apples, peeled and chopped

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Firstly, prep your apples by peeling, and then chopping them up into small squares. In a small bowl, combine the apple filling together: the apples, brown sugar, and cinnamon, until throughly coated. Set aside.

Preheat your over to 350 degrees. Butter, and then lightly flour a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

Now cream together the butter, and the sugar in a bowl on a stand mixer, or by hand held, until nice and fluffy.

Add in the eggs, and then the vanilla extract, until fully combined.

Now slowly add in half of the flour mixture, followed with half of the milk, until both are gently combined. Add in the rest of the flour, followed again with the milk. Beat together until just incorporated.

In your prepared loaf pan, scoop in half of the cake mixture. Drop in half of the coated apples on top of the cake mixture. Scoop out the rest of the cake flour on top of the apples, and then add on the remaining apples. With a knife or small spoon, swirl the entire cake mix together.

Pop that pan into the oven, and bake for 40-45 minutes. Once the cake is slightly domed with a nice light brown crust,  remove from the oven, and let cool on a wire rack. Once you’re ready to serve, invert the loaf cake from the pan, and drizzle with powdered sugar or a simple sugar glaze.

This little cake is so darn yummy that it’s highly possible that the entire loaf will be GONE in one sitting! Which is truly the BEST feeling to have as a baker, right?

I hope that you and yours have been having a wonderful year thus far! xoxo