Triple Apple Cake with Orange (low fat)
When the world gives you apples, what can you do but bake a triple apple cake? This one is made with apples, cider and apple butter and it has the bonus of being low fat. If you can’t get hold of apple butter, apple purée will work too. Flavour it with orange and you have a cake fit for anyone, especially on a cold winter’s day.
I wanted to enter something for Julia’s Snow Day Bake Off, but as we still haven’t had any snow here, I didn’t have a picture to send in. I made a cake anyway and then the frost came – no snow, but lots of frost. I’ve been waking up to a white roofed town every morning for the last few days. So I now feel I can submit this triple apple cake recipe, even if it wasn’t taken on a particularly white day.
The weekend before last, I spent three and a half hours stirring apple puree to make apple butter. It’s a labour of love I’m not sure I’ll repeat. Although, I must say, the result was rather a good one.
Now I have a few more jars sitting in my kitchen with nowhere to go. This is because my store cupboard is already over full. I’ve given one away and we’ve been eating apple butter on toast. But how about using some in a cake I thought?
Triple Apple Cake with Orange
It was Wendy from the Omnivorous Bear who got me in to the whole apple butter thing in the first place and I had a vague recollection that she had made a cake with hers. When I looked into it, I found she absolutley had and a very nice cake it sounded.
One of the points of using apple butter in a cake is that you can substitute it for fat. That’s the theory anyway. Wendy had reduced the oil in her recipe rather than eliminating it all together, which sounded very sensible to me.
So without looking further I adapted her recipe in a number of ways, but mostly to include chocolate and flavour it with orange rather than vanilla. And I used spelt flour, my favourite flour for baking cakes.
The cake rose beautifully. It was light, moist, not too sweet and had a lovely crunchy top. It tasted really good with the apples predominating as you might expect with this much apple. But the orange flavour kicked in soon after. The chocolate chunks were oases of sweetness in the surrounding fruitiness. One week on it tasted just as good. It went very nicely with clotted cream – but what doesn’t?
It’s particularly delicious served warm for pudding. With the afore mentioned cream, of course.
Other Apple Cake Recipes You Might Like
- Almond apple cider cake
- Apple crumble and custard cakes
- Dorset apple cake with chocolate caramel
- Honey apple cardamom mini bundt cakes
- Irish apple cake
- Kale apple cake
- Spiced toffee apple bonfire cakes
- Sticky ginger apple cakes
- Toffee apple hazelnut cake
- Upside-down apple cake
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make this triple apple cake, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or advice for using apple butter?
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Choclette x
Triple Apple Cake – The Recipe
Triple Apple Cake with Orange
Ingredients
- 2 large cooking apples (I used an unnamed Cornish variety from my mother’s garden)
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 200 g golden caster sugar
- 60 ml rapeseed oil
- 2 large eggs (I used duck eggs)
- 3 tbsp apple butter
- 200 ml Greek yoghurt
- 150 g wholemeal spelt flour
- 150 g white spelt flour (I used 120g white spelt, and 30g quinoa flour)
- 1 ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- pinch fine sea or rock salt
- 1 orange zested (I used 2 tsp dried powdered orange zest)
- 50 ml cider
- 100 g orange milk chocolate finely chopped (I used Divine)
- 1 tbsp demerara sugar
Instructions
- Peel, core and chop the apples. Place in a bowl and stir in the lemon juice to stop them going brown.2 large cooking apples, 1 tbsp lemon juice
- Beat the sugar, oil and eggs together until thick and creamy.200 g golden caster sugar, 60 ml rapeseed oil, 2 large eggs
- Beat in the apple butter followed by the Greek yogurt and orange zest.3 tbsp apple butter, 200 ml Greek yoghurt, 1 orange
- Sieve in the dry ingredients, discarding any particularly large bits of bran left in the sieve.150 g wholemeal spelt flour, 150 g white spelt flour, 1 ½ tsp baking powder, ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda), pinch fine sea or rock salt
- Stir until everything is just about incorporated, then mix in the cider.50 ml cider
- Finally stir in the chocolate and apples.100 g orange milk chocolate
- Spoon into a 23cm round silicone cake mould or lined tin.
- Scatter the demerara sugar over the top.1 tbsp demerara sugar
- Bake for 40 mins in a preheated oven at 180℃ (350℉, Gas 4) or until the cake is well risen and golden and an inserted skewer comes out more or less clean.
- Leave to cool for ten minutes or so, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
I do love a nice apple cake, the fruit makes it really moist and not overly sweet.
Yes indeed. I almost have more apple cakes on the blog than I do chocolate ones!
MaryMoh – thank you. A cup of hot tea sounds quite a nice idea right now.
Thanks Jac – it is quite an appley cake – not sure is you were referring to the chunks of apple or the chunks of chocolate, but both good.
Celia – that is ringing bells with me now. How long do you keep it in the oven?
Choc, I forgot to mention – we make apple butter in a large roasting pan in the oven. Much easier than stirring the vat of bubbling lava for hours! 🙂
I saw the title and thought that sounds good, I like apple cake, then I got to the photo of the slice and thought wow! Look at those lovely chunks. Mmmmmm 😛
Mmmm…moist and delicious. Love that apple and orange combination. Would be so good with a cup of hot tea.
MD – ice-cream would be lovely, especially if it was served warm.
CityHippy – I’m a complete convert to yogurt in cakes now, it does add a lightness to the texture as well as moistness. You are brilliantly adventurous, I’m so scared of my sourdough going wrong I’ve just stuck to exactly the same method since I started making it.
Good to see yoghurt in your cake again. It gives such a lovely moistness to anything it goes in. (I’m hooked on it in my sourdough at the moment.)
This cake looks perfect for a little frosty weather.
This sounds and looks delicious. Love the crusty top. I would love it with my dollop of vanilla ice cream 🙂
Chele – apple butter is excellent on toast, especially for breakfast as it’s not too sweet. But it also does make an exceedingly good cake 😉
Matthew – thanks for you nice comments – I do like a crunchy top.
Celia – we are indeed very lucky to get fantastic apples here and I really couldn’t go through the season without making at least one apple cake.
Kath – thanks. Was just wondering about making apple butter in the aga. Thinking about a load of apple puree in the bottom oven and leaving it for ages with an occasional stir – wonder if that would work – hmmmm. Might have a word with my mother next year – it would save all that stirring and it does make for a good cake.
Tori – thanks for you kind comments. No how you feel about the jeans. I seem to have acquired a whole wardrobe of stuff that I’d kind of like to get back in to …….. one day!
Suzler – you’re so right, I don’t think I mentioned the wonderful smell as it was baking.
Suelle – one to remember for a next autumn we should cocoa event – maybe!
Sushma – thank you, you’re always so generous with what you say.
BVG – oh, how much snow have you got?
Ananda – apple butter is certainly good if you find yourself with too many apples on your hands.
Janice – I think it would be really nice warm, although I sadly didn’t try that.
Dom – thanks. Apple butter lovely and a great cake ingredient, but not sure I shall have the fortitude to make it again.
apple butter!?! apple butter?!?! OMG… that sounds amazing… and then you bake with it… thats heavenly! Nice cake!…
looks like just the thing for a cold day.
i have eyeing apple butter from wendy now see many of you all doing it i have to give it try man soon….ur add ups orange i am in love!
Wonderful photo of the frosty leaves – no shortage of snow here, I could send you some!!
Your cake looks moist and delicious.
lovely combo,sounds really nice and yum
This sounds a wonderful combination of flavours – just right for this time of year. I’ve yet to try apples and chocolate together – something I must remedy soon!
Oh, that does sound delicious and it looks so moist. I bet it smelt amazing. Perfect snow/frost day bakery.
I’d better get going with mine…
Just discovered your blog and am loving it- also love the apple butter. Can’t quite bring myself to give up cake- but there’s a pair of jeans that it would be quite handy to fit into…
I admired wendy’s cake too and love your variation. Sounds and looks delicious.
So beautiful, Choc! One of the upsides of cold weather is amazing apples, and that cake obviously makes great use of them!
Wow this looks great!, so nice to see you have a nice crunchy topping so many good cakes lack that lately.Love the sectional picture really shows it off!
Mmmmmmmmm – apple butter sounds wonderful even if it is a labour of love. I can imagine it would be lovely in a cake too, looks so tasty ;0)