Apple Butter Cake with Apple Butter Frosting

I’ve  been in an experimental mood this week.  On two occasions I’ve baked things using without using a recipe.  On Sunday night I was craving something sweet.  I had a lot of peaches that were about to go bad so I figured I’d whip up a peach crisp.  I wanted a crunchy topping with a slightly spiced filling.  Well the topping was dry and the peach filling had so much cinnamon and ginger that it was only edible with a lot of vanilla ice cream mixed in.  I ate one serving, but threw out the rest.

Then I decided I wanted to make a sunflower seed butter cookie based on a confection I had in Portland.  Unfortunately no stores in my neighborhood had sunflower seed butter.  So I bought a container of apple butter instead.  I based this cake off from the lots-of-ways banana cake in Baking: From My Home to Yours.  And it came out really good – if you like apples.  The apple butter gives the cakes a very concentrated apple flavor.

I'm a huge fan of Baker's Joy. These cakes came out of the pan with no issues.

When I was preparing the cake I had the irrational fear that it was going to be too moist.  This is a reoccurring theme when I make cakes.  I’ve been told by all of my friends, “There’s no such thing as a too moist cake”, but I continue to worry.  After the cakes had been cooling on the rack for about 15 minutes I tested one.  It was perfect, but it was also right out of the oven.  I started to worry that when I served them at our picnic the next day they would be too dry.  Neurotic, right?  So I got out my boiled cider and started to brush the cakes with it.

Here are the boiled cider brushed cakes.  I brushed each cake three times and it added a great intensity of flavor to the cake.  If you don’t have any boiled cider you can brush the cakes with simple syrup.  I do recommend purchasing boiled cider if you’re an apple fan.  It works well in cakes, pies, and also vinaigrettes and marinades.

Apple Butter Cake

1 1/3 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
6 tbsp. butter – at room temp.
3/4 cup white sugar
1 large egg
1/4 tsp. almond extract
3/4 cup natural apple butter
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat Oven to 350º.  Line a muffin tin with paper liners or if you happen to have a bar pan spray it with Baker’s Joy.

1. Whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.

2. Cream butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl.  Add egg and almond extract and mix until combined.

3. Stir together sour cream and apple butter.  Add to wet mixture alternately with flour.  Begin and end with the flour.

4. Stir in pecans.

5. Scoop batter into muffin tins filling two thirds of the way full.

6. Bake for 18-22 minutes or until a toothpick insert comes out clean and the tops bounce back when pressed with your finger.

7. Allow the cakes to cool for 5 minutes and then remove from pan. Brush the cakes with boiled cider.

Note: If you don’t have boiled cider you can skip this step or brush the cakes with a simple syrup (1/2 cup of sugar and 1/2 cup water boiled until the sugar dissolved.)

Apple Butter Frosting

4 tbsp. butter – softened
1/4 cup apple butter
1 3/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tbsp. sour cream
1/4 tsp. almond extract

Cream butter until light and fluffy.  Slowly add the confectioners sugar with the mixture on low speed until incorporated.  Add apple butter, sour cream, and almond extract.  Increase speed to medium and beat until light and fluffy.

Note: This frosting is not as thick as a typical butter cream.  It’s thicker than a glaze and definitely spreadable, but is not stiff.

Sprinkle frosted cakes with pecans.