the best most amazing gluten-free dairy-free appley apple cake

 

This is not a quick cake to make, but a worthwhile one. It comes by way of Gluten Free on a Shoestring, but here is my take...

You'll need: 

• 3 large apples (I used Japanese yellow apples), peeled and diced small
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg, plus powdered ginger and cardamom
• 1 tablespoon fresh or bottled lemon juice
• 1 1/8 cups gluten-free flour (158 g) - I did a mix of rice and almond flours
• 1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 10 tablespoons dairy-free butter/margarine, at room temperature
• 1/2 cup sugar 
• 2 eggs at room temp and beaten
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• powdered sugar for topping

Do this: 

Oven 170 C / 350 F. Grease and paper an 8- or 9-inch cake pan. 

You'll need a lot of bowls, so get ready.

In one large bowl, mix the apples, spices, and lemon juice.

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and xanthan gum.

In a third, large, bowl, use a hand mixer to mix the butter and sugar for about 4 minutes. 

Add the eggs and vanilla and beat till smooth.

Throw in the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. It will be a bit thick.

Using a spatula, scrape 2/3 of the cake batter into the bowl with the apples and stir till combined.

Dump the apple-less 1/3 of the batter into the bottom of the cake tin and smooth over. 

Scrape the apple-d 2/3 of the batter onto the top of that and then smooth the whole thing as much as possible. 

Smooth move, dude.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes. 

Remove the foil and bake another 40 minutes or so, until a toothpick comes out clean and happy.

Take the cake out of the oven and let it cool in the pan about 15 minutes or so. Then cool on a wire rack out of the pan about another 15 minutes. 

I sprinkled/sparkled mine with powdered sugar, and I bet a little bit of cinnamon-ed vanilla ice cream would be great too.

P.S. I halved the sugar of the original recipe and it was great for us. Too great. Just too more-ish. I guess if you use really tart apples, you could go with the original 1 cup that was suggested. I dunno. You do you. It was plenty sweet for us. And we just generally and naturally add our own innate sweetness into everything we touch.